- Ash Hill Academy

Year 9 Options Course Information Video

Course Description

The Geography curriculum is designed to give all students the confidence and experience to help inform and shape ideas; investigating human and physical strands of the multi-faceted subject. This will enable students to become global citizens and have the cultural literacy to be role models for the future and set a trail for others to emulate. Considering themes such as sustainability, development, globalisation and climate change in their everyday lives.

Geography offers the opportunity to study a range of topics that investigate the physical processes of our planet, human societies and the economic and environmental challenges within the local, national and global context. This gives students the confidence to interact with the wider world, leading to fulfilled and positive life experiences. The curriculum encourages students to ask questions, develop critical thinking skills, and layer a deeper understanding of complex concepts as the course navigates through the curriculum.

Geographical skills are embedded within units of work throughout all key stages. Students develop their cartographic, graphical, ICT and GIS skills. Fieldwork enquiries enable students to apply their skills, knowledge and understanding within both human and physical Geography.

Geography bridges the curriculum from the physical process in Science, creativity in English to the quantitate skills of Mathematics. Students are able to use these connections to excel in the wider world.

Intent

We believe that students deserve a broad, progressive and ambitious Geography curriculum, rich in skills and knowledge. Which stimulates curiosity and a wonder of their world and prepares them well for future learning or employment. Our Geography curriculum will give students the opportunity to:

Skills and knowledge

develop an understanding of physical and human environments and processes;
develop an understanding of the diverse character of places and landscapes;
develop an understanding of interactions and interrelationships on the Earth’s surface;
demonstrate knowledge of locations, places, processes, environments and different scales;
given access to a range Geographical concepts within context that can be understood at various levels of sophistication. Understanding concepts and how they are used in relation to places, environments and processes; the interrelationships between places, environments and processes;
apply knowledge and understanding to interpret, analyse and evaluate geographical information and issues to make judgements, this allows students to show breath of understanding and evaluate appreciation of the interrelationships between different aspects of geographical study;
develop and demonstrate a range of geographical skills, including cartographic, graphical, numerical and statistical;
use Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to view analyse and interpret places and data;
complete programmes of fieldwork; enquiries which include the use of primary data taking place outside the classroom and school grounds.
develop a rich and deep subject knowledge, SoW’s cover a sequence of topics over the course which stimulates interest as well as extends their knowledge, understanding and skills.

Pedagogy	Enrichment	Other general principles
Our pedagogy is underpinned by:the regular use of live modelling and exemplar texts to demonstrate processes, standards and expectationsa range of strategies to deepen knowledge so that it is committed to long term memoryMarking and targeted feedback that informs planning and addresses misconceptions.Trust wide assessments and timely bespoke curriculum support sessions.Using errors as a learning opportunity and building resilience.	We will enrich our curriculum by:providing fieldwork opportunities both on and off-site.encouraging students to contribute to the life of the school and the community, and use these ‘real’ contexts to develop their skills and knowledge in Geographydeveloping partnerships with external providers that extend children’s opportunities for learning. e.g. MAAT activities to stretch the more able.establishing cross-curricular links.	Our curriculum will enable students to:learn within a coherent and progressive framework – progression through the course shows a reasonable match between the demand of the curriculum and the capabilities of students.develop new skills through a variety of interesting contexts to foster enjoyment.build on their understanding of the importance of British values, including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and tolerance and respectimprove their spiritual, social, moral and cultural understanding of the world.

Year 7

What is geography, Extreme Environments, Beautiful Brazil, Mega Cities, Thirsty Planet, Business Boom, Who wants to be a billionaire?

Year 8

Hurricane Havoc, Restless Earth, Coasts, Impossible Places, Megacities, Paradise lost

Year 9

(Skills unit) What’s the use. Tectonics. Hazards. Ecosystems. Urban issues.

GCSE – AQA Geography

Students study a broad range of topics, covering both physical and human aspects, ranging from how the UK landscape is shaped to rainforests, and resource management.