Geography
Ethos and Aims
Geography education equips students about the world and its people which will remain with students beyond the classroom environment (National Curriculum, 2023). At The Bewdley School we are committed to providing all children with a rich learning opportunity to engage in geography. Through a positive and caring environment, we provide the opportunity for students to reach their full potential in the subject. We offer a broad and balanced geographical curriculum which offered a deep understanding of the key knowledge of the earth’s human and physical processes which is further supported through geographical skills.
At The Bewdley School Geography at Key Stage 3 covers the National Curriculum. As students’ progress onto GCSE and A Level Geography students follow the OCR Specification.
Our curriculum is sequenced to offer a balance between human and physical geography which is then underpinned with the essential geographical skills and opportunities to use these skills beyond the classroom. It is vital that our curriculum cover the locational and place knowledge and covers a broad range of human and physical processes.
The geography curriculum also runs beyond the classroom and into their everyday life to support them in the 21st Century.
Staffing
Mrs G Bodman – Head of Geography
Mr W Nugent – Teacher of Geography
Mrs J Rickards – Teacher of Geography and Head of Sixth form
Mr C Bromley – Teacher of Geography and Classics
The department is made up of a dedicated team of both human and physical geographers. Staff are passionate about their subject to ensure that good geography is being delivered. There is consistency across the department where all staff follow a scheme of work and staff work together to share resources and evaluate learning.
Intention
In Geography we intend for students to gain a wider knowledge and understanding of both the human and physical processes which occur on earth. In addition to this students must gain an insight into the importance of diversity of place, people and resources both in the natural and human environments. Throughout the curriculum at all key stages, we intend for this to be both knowledge and skills rich to ensure that students are well rounded individuals for life beyond the classroom.
We also intend to support students to achieve their personal academic potential in geography and to create an engaging and broad KS3 curriculum which facilitates and prepares students for KS4 Geography and beyond.
Describes the deliberate action to shape the curriculum
We intend for the geography curriculum to build upon the geographical knowledge and skills which students have from primary school. We aim to enrich this with a balance of knowledge of the human and physical features and process of the world, whilst incorporating the vital transferrable skills which geography offers. Our main action points to shape our curriculum are;
- Embedding maps skills throughout the topics rather than having a stand-alone unit of work in year 7
- Attempts to incorporate fieldwork opportunities within the KS3 curriculum. Onsite or use of secondary data sets.
- Standardise the Geographical assessments to link to the new assessment structure (30 Mark Assessments) implemented by SLT.
The curriculum and the aspirations we have for our learners.
Progression throughout the year group with the interleaving of ideas and knowledge acquisition. Promote a love of Geography and an understanding about our planet.
The curriculum must be coherent and well-sequenced, with skills, knowledge and cultural capital.
To allow students to revisit core knowledge and enhance transferrable skills through the development of long and short-term planning which embeds geographical skill throughout all key stages.
Rationale
To promote curiosity about the world and to be able to ask questions. To increase student, understand about the complex interactions across the globe.
Ambition
To have a consistent approach with the department which encompasses high quality education and engaging lessons.
Extent
To focus of Year 7 and create a rigorous curriculum which fully embeds geographical skills and promotes curiosity. Overtime developments to KS3 and 4 will be integrated to create a fully resourced and rigorous assessment to prepare students for Key stage 4 and 5.
Organisation
As a geography department we will follow the national curriculum for Geography and OCR A at GCSE and OCR for A level. We will ensure that Geographical skills are threaded through all aspects of the key stages.
Implementation
Curriculum knowledge
- Locational Knowledge
- Map skills
- Fieldwork opportunities.
- Use of KS4 Case Studies in KS3 so this is less daunting and interleaves the learning.
Memory
In geography we use Knowledge organisers to support memory and knowledge recall. These are embedded within our lessons and can be utilised within the start or plenary of a lesson. Within Lessons we support students with their memory as we recap methods of recall and revision strategies for students.
Pedagogy
As a department we check in with each other to ensure we are at similar places within the content throughout each term. Each teacher has a different style of pedagogy which is suited to them and they adapt this depending on the group and their individual needs who they are teaching at the time.
Equality
Within the Geography curriculum we offer equal opportunities for all students.
Impact
Evaluating the extent to which we achieve all the aims and ambitions of intent and implementation.
Throughout the next academic year, we will together monitor the impact of the departmental changes in the curriculum to identify whether this has had the desired impact of increased uptake at KS5. In addition to this it is ongoing monitoring of the impacts of incorporating the geographical skills over the curriculum and being able to revisit these themes throughout the year.
How do you know how successful the implementation of the curriculum designed has been?
We will be able to identify the success of our implementation of the redesign of the curriculum by outcomes at GCSE and A Level. In addition to class-by-class progression of KS3. Moreover, we will be able to identify if there has been an increase uptake of students taking geography at GCSE and continuing to study geography at A Level at The Bewdley Sixth Form.
Measuring outcomes
We will continue to measure our outcomes against national average and will be in review of what methods and systems work well. We will also be able to identify whether there has been an increase in student uptake at KS4 and 5.
We will be able to use student voice to provide feedback to how the embedding of the geographical skills within units supports their learning.
Use of learning walks within the department, to allow an opportunity to learn from one another and share best practise.
Measuring wider impact
The wider impact of the geography curriculum would include the house competitions to promote geography and more understanding about the world around us. In addition to this to identify the impact of learning beyond the classroom. Where we are not only teaching geography but important life skills, curiosity and promoting a love of learning about the world in which we live.
The way the curriculum is designed
We are streamlining the delivery of geographical skills. Rather than this being a stand-alone unit this will be interleaved throughout the curriculum offer to ensure that all Geographers are equipped with the different skills needed before they progress to the next key stage of learning. Moreover, we will be more consistent in the use of 30-mark assessment to see a marked improvement in students’ ability to answer the exam questions at GCSE and A Level.
Is our curriculum ambitious enough?
Working on working to deliver a high-quality curriculum to prepare students to achieve their best possible outcomes. We will continue to strive to broaden the extra-curricular elements that geography can offer.
Have we planned and sequenced our curriculum effectively?
Subjects are interleaved throughout KS3 to prepare students for KS4 and 5. We have an increase focus on geographical skills and revisiting them throughout the curriculum.
Does our curriculum help to tackle social justice issues?
Throughout the Geography curriculum we tackle a wide range of social justice issues and the sustainable development goals.