Geography
Welcome to the Geography Department
"Geography explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future. What could be more important than that?" - Michael Palin
Head of Department:
TBC - Acting Head of Department Mrs Day-Haynes
e-mail: info@parkhighstanmore.org.uk
Introduction
At Park High, our Geography Department envisions a dynamic and engaging learning environment that aligns seamlessly with the overarching school vision – to inspire young people to be confident and successful learners who contribute positively to society as responsible citizens. Grounded in a commitment to excellence, exploration, and global awareness, our Geography Department seeks to instil a passion for understanding the world and fostering a sense of responsibility toward the planet and its diverse communities.
Key Stage 3
Our Key Stage 3 Curriculum follows the National Curriculum and aims to expand students’ thinking about the world around them by emphasising the exploration of captivating topics such as natural hazards, globalisation, conflict, map skills, and extend their locational knowledge and deepen their spatial awareness of the world’s countries using maps of the world to focus on Africa, Russia, Asia, focusing on their environmental regions, including polar and hot deserts, key physical and human characteristics. By delving into these subjects, students are encouraged to develop a genuine curiosity about their world. There is a balance between human and physical geography topics. Students will understand how geographical processes interact to create distinctive human and physical landscapes that change over time. In doing so, they will become aware of increasingly complex geographical systems in the world around them. We aim to develop greater competence in using geographical knowledge, approaches and concepts and geographical skills in analysing and interpreting different data sources. In this way they will continue to enrich their locational knowledge and spatial and environmental understanding.
Year 7
At the beginning of the year, learners will complete a baseline assessment. This will be used to gauge their current level of geographical understanding and will be what we measure progress against in the end of year assessment in May/June.
| Autumn | Spring | Summer |
|---|---|---|
|
What makes a good geographer? What is the UK like? |
What shapes our Earth? What is Africa like? |
Water issues Coasts |
*Please note this is a working document, and we may change order or change topics completely if we feel that our learners would benefit from something else.
Home learning is allocated on a weekly basis by each department. It may be an isolated piece of work, a project, research or an alternative task which challenges the students to solidify their knowledge and / or extend it.
At the end of each half term and topic, each student will complete some form of assessment in class, which might be in the form of a written piece, presentation, or an end of topic test. These assessments provide a valuable insight into the progress made by each student over the topic. The assessments have been designed to take into account all learning styles and to ensure all students can make progress, no matter what their strengths / talents are.
Each half term students will be asked to complete a personal reflection of their learning. The aim of this is for students to be able to identify areas of strength and pride within their bookwork, as well as focusing on areas that will help them become better learners.
In the Summer Term, each student will sit a formal, internal exam which will consist of all elements taught throughout the course. Appropriate preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential.
Knowledge Organisers:
Year 8
| Autumn | Spring | Summer |
|---|---|---|
|
What makes the world go around? The Mighty Dollar |
What are the challenges of extreme environments? Tropical Rainforests |
What is happening to the world’s climate? Russia |
*Please note this is a working document, and we may change order or change topics completely if we feel that our learners would benefit from something else.
Home learning is allocated on a weekly basis by each department. It may be an isolated piece of work, a project, research or an alternative task which challenges the students to solidify their knowledge and / or extend it.
At the end of each half term and topic, each student will complete some form of assessment in class, which might be in the form of a written piece, presentation, or an end of topic test. These assessments provide a valuable insight into the progress made by each student over the topic. The assessments have been designed to take into account all learning styles and to ensure all students can make progress, no matter what their strengths / talents are.
Each half term students will be asked to complete a personal reflection of their learning. The aim of this is for students to be able to identify areas of strength and pride within their bookwork, as well as focusing on areas that will help them become better learners.
In the Summer Term, each student will sit a formal, internal exam which will consist of all elements taught throughout the course. Appropriate preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential.
Knowledge Organisers:
Year 9
| Autumn | Spring | Summer |
|---|---|---|
|
What is life like for people in different places of the world? How are natural environments used by humans? |
Conflicts What is the problem with our food? Exploration of Fair Trade |
Asia How do rivers affect their landscape? Field work – infiltration project |
*Please note this is a working document, and we may change order or change topics completely if we feel that our learners would benefit from something else.
Home learning is allocated on a weekly basis by each department. It may be an isolated piece of work, a project, research or an alternative task which challenges the students to solidify their knowledge and / or extend it.
At the end of each half term and topic, each student will complete some form of assessment in class, which might be in the form of a written piece, presentation, or an end of topic test. These assessments provide a valuable insight into the progress made by each student over the topic. The assessments have been designed to take into account all learning styles and to ensure all students can make progress, no matter what their strengths / talents are.
Each half term students will be asked to complete a personal reflection of their learning. The aim of this is for students to be able to identify areas of strength and pride within their bookwork, as well as focusing on areas that will help them become better learners.
In the Summer Term, each student will sit a formal, internal exam which will consist of all elements taught throughout the course. Appropriate preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential.
Key Stage 4
We follow the Eduqas Syllabus B for GCSE. There are three Components: Investigating Issues, Problem Solving Geography and Applied Fieldwork Enquiry. Again, this invites students to develop their understanding of both the physical and human geography of their world, enabling learners to think ‘like a geographer’. The aim of the course is to develop the ability to think creatively, for example, by posing questions that relate to geographical process and concepts that include questioning about spatial pattern and geographical change. The course will also develop the ability to think scientifically by collecting and recording appropriate evidence from a range of sources, including fieldwork, before critically assessing the validity of this evidence and synthesising their findings to reach evidenced conclusions that relate to the initial aim of their enquiry. Finally, we aim to develop the ability to think independently by applying geographical knowledge, understanding, skills and approaches appropriately and creatively to real world contexts. In so doing they should appreciate that geography can be ‘messy’ i.e. that real geography does not always match typical or predicted outcomes.
Year 10
All students attend a compulsory field course to the Isle of Purbeck in June. They will complete an Applied Fieldwork Enquiry exam in May/June 2024 based on it (worth 30%). Dates to be confirmed Please See Field Trip Information
| Autumn-Spring | Spring - Summer |
|---|---|
|
Theme 1 Urban and Rural locations in the UK |
Coasts Field Trip |
The other final examination (worth 70%) consists of two different styles of examination papers and will be sat in May / June.
Home-learning will be set on a regular basis such as finding an article related to Geography for the single lessons and learning key terms. Other home-learning tasks will be set as appropriate and may take up to an hour, as at GCSE. If home-learning is not completed or to an unacceptable standard then students must expect an immediate sanction and subsequent monitoring.
Wider reading is always useful either from the websites offered, the text book, magazines such as Wide World or New Scientitst or as directed by their classroom teacher.
Early In the Summer Term, each student will sit a formal, internal exam which will consist of all elements taught throughout the course, the format of tests will replicate the GCSE layout. Appropriate preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential.
Over the summer holiday period at the end of Year 10 learners will be expected to complete some summer bridging work, a report style assessment based on the compulsory field-course attended in June/July. This write-up will support the learners in their revision for Section A of the Paper 3 examination, The Applied Fieldwork Enquiry.
Examination Board:
Useful Reading Material
WJEC Eduqas GCSE (9-1) Geography B (Wjec Eduqas B Gcse) by Alan Brown, Bob Digby, Val Davis, Andy Leeder
Geographical skills and fieldwork for WJEC GCSE Geography
WJEC Eduqas GCSE (9-1) Geography A and B Revision guide
Year 11
Year 11 continues to develop the skills of critical thinking, data interpretation and extended writing that we have been working on in Year 10. This is of course in addition to the new content we need to cover this year. We started Theme 2 after Easter in Year 10 and this year we need to complete this Theme, as well as Theme 3. Your son/daughter has a yellow piece of paper stuck in the front of their Geography book with more specific details on the content to be covered.
| Autumn | Spring | Summer |
|---|---|---|
|
Rivers Weather |
Climate Change Ecosystems |
Revision Exams |
The Applied Fieldwork Enquiry write-ups should have been completed by your son/daughter over the summer period and this will form the basis of revision for their final examination.
This year it is important for learners to start their revision of Theme 1 and the beginning of Theme 2 straight away in September. Revision technique guidance and resources can be found on Sharepoint, Geography, Year 11.
Home-learning will be set on a regular basis such as finding an article related to Geography for the single lessons and learning key terms. Other home-learning tasks will be set as appropriate and may take up to an hour, as at GCSE. If home-learning is not completed students must expect an immediate sanction and subsequent monitoring.
Wider reading is always useful either from the websites offered, the text-book, magazines found in the school library or the online portal, or as directed by their classroom teacher.
At the beginning of the summer team, after the Easter holidays, each student will sit two formal, internal exams. The first will be representative of a Component 1 paper- but will focus on what has been learnt thus far. The second will be a Problem Solving Geography paper. Preparation in the form of revision should be taken seriously with sufficient planning and organisation to ensure each student fulfils their potential.
Geography
Component 1: Investigating Geographical Issues
Three structured data response questions with some extended answers
Question 1 will assess aspects of Theme 1, Changing Places—Changing Economies. Question 2 will assess aspects of Theme 2, Changing Environments.
Question 3 will assess aspects of Theme 3, Environmental Challenges.
Written Examination: 1 hour 45 minutes 40% of qualification
Component 2: Problem Solving Geography
This component will assess content from across the themes using a variety of structured data response questions.
Written Examination: 1 hour 30 minutes 30% of qualification
Component 3: Applied Fieldwork Enquiry
A written examination in three parts using a variety of structured data response questions some of which will require extended responses.
Written Examination: 1 hour 30 minutes 30% of qualification
Examination Board:
Course Specification:
Qualification obtained:
GCSE Geography
Useful Reading Material
WJEC Eduqas GCSE (9-1) Geography B (Wjec Eduqas B Gcse) by Alan Brown, Bob Digby, Val Davis, Andy Leeder
Geographical skills and fieldwork for WJEC GCSE Geography
WJEC Eduqas GCSE (9-1) Geography A and B Revision guide
Additional Information
Useful Websites
Enrichment
The department offers a Year 10 Field Trip to Dorset for students to develop their skills beyond their usual environment and support their ability to gather, collate and synthesise evidence. In addition, the department runs a Geography Club and a Global Citizens’ Club.
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