Geography
Lower School Curriculum
A variety of topics is introduced in Lower School, ranging from simple mapping techniques to environmental issues such as pollution and deforestation.
Local studies and fieldwork are undertaken where children look at the land use and how it has changed over the last hundred years. They collect data and are taught how to present it using charts, diagrams, and graphs. Children are taught to use IT to form databases and present results of investigations.
Each year group carries out practical work in the local area. Children work in pairs or small groups and begin to gather evidence to test simple hypotheses.
Autumn Term
- Map work
- plans, symbols, letter/number grid references, direction, route finding, the points of a compass.
Spring Term
- St Lucia and the Caribbean
- climate, tourism, national symbols, homes, land use.
Summer Term
- Global location
- continents, oceans, seas, mountain ranges, rivers, countries of Europe.
Autumn Term
- The British Isles
- countries that make up the British Isles.
- Map work
- signs and symbols, settlements.
Spring Term
- India
- climate, land use, settlement, farming, trade, tourism.
Summer Term
- Mapping Skills
- scale, distances.
Autumn Term
- Water
- wet and dry regions of the world; ways to conserve water; water problems in Africa and solutions to these problems.
Spring Term
- Rivers
- river processes; landforms formed by rivers; rivers of the world; man's use of rivers.
Summer Term
- Volcanoes and Earthquakes
Upper School Curriculum
Autumn Term
Before Half Term
INTRODUCING GEOGRAPHY
Physical, environmental and human geography; continents and oceans; mountains ranges and rivers. Global scale.
After Half Term
MAPPING SKILLS
Direction; distance; OS symbols; latitude and longitude;
height on maps; relief;
routes; four and six grid references and location.
Spring Term
Before Half Term
GLOBAL LANDSCAPE
Local landscape. European/UK scale.
After Half Term
SETTLEMENT
Function, patterns, benefits and problems, land use and reasons for location.
Summer Term
Before Half Term
WEATHER & CLIMATE
Microclimate, Britain's climate, types of rainfall.
After Half Term
GEOMORPHOLOGICAL
PROCESSES
Water cycle, water supply, floods and flood control.
Autumn Term
Before Half Term
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
Primary, secondary activities, raw materials, intensive and extensive farming, distribution, manufacturing, physical and human factors.
After Half Term
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
LEDCs, Case study Kenya and Egypt, migration and housing problems.
Spring Term
Before Half Term
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Conservation concerns, protection, Antarctica, resources, oil and electricity, renewable energy supplies.
After Half Term
LOCATIONAL KNOWLEDGE
O.S. Mapping, interpretating maps, decision making exercises.
Summer Term
Before Half Term
GEOMORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSES
Weathering, erosion, waterfalls, meanders, coasts, pollution,'V'shaped valleys, erosional and depositional landforms.
After Half Term
FIELD TRIP PREPARATION
Location, content, CE projects, hypothesis, aims, methods, equipment, presentation and explanation of results.
Autumn Term
Before Half Term
FIELD TRIP COMPLETION & NATIONAL PARKS
Check field study projects.
National parks; Tourist industry and the problems / benefits it brings.
After Half Term
TECTONIC PROCESSES
Volcanoes, earthquakes, plate tectonics. Natural hazards, prediction, human impact.
Spring Term
Before Half Term
WEATHER AND CLIMATE
Britain, Equatorial rainforest, hot deserts and Mediterranean environments.
After Half Term
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
MEDC’S, development, the E.U.
Case Study Italy.
Summer Term
Before Half Term
REVISION
Practice CE papers, timed exercises,
section and topic revision, examination technique.
After Half Term
ACTIVITIES
Generate workbooks. Topic data collection and intranet development.
Prep
For Year 6 once every three weeks for thirty minutes.
For Years 7 and 8 once every two weeks for forty-five minutes.
Resources
The Geography Department recommends that all children have access to both an up to date world atlas and an encyclopaedia at home for reference when completing preparation.
Pencil case (working pen, spare cartridges, 30 cm ruler, pencil, rubber, sharpener, coloured pencils, safety scissors and glue stick)
Visits
The Geography Department runs a residential fieldwork trip for a week (Monday to Friday) in June for the whole of Year 7. This trip is compulsory as it involves primary research, which forms the basis for a project the children begin to produce over the summer. This field studies project is worth 20% towards their Common Entrance examination mark.
Curriculum Enrichment for Gifted and Talented Pupils
Differentiation should be used wherever possible to engage and stimulate all pupils in their own learning. Pupils are encouraged to expand their knowledge, skills and understanding in studies at more than one scale and in different parts of the world. Pupils work in certain topics from 'Extensions' a textbook that is able to challenge gifted pupils. The students are given more encouragement to write in their own words and include their own opinions is given as well as being set more demanding exercises. Class discussion is a vital part of the development of able pupils and they are encouraged to articulate their opinions orally and shown how to extend their ideas and explore them in greater depth through individual research. Project work with greater depth and breadth of understanding of the related subject matter is encouraged including different graph types and more complex data handling. Demanding work that will include exploration of more open ended questions, social or moral issues and an awareness of cultural and social themes. Pupils are encouraged to share and express their ideas and opinions using formal and technical vocabulary.
- An increase in breadth of studies: the gradual extension of content - places, themes and environments
- An increasing depth of study: the gradual development of general ideas and concepts and deeper understanding of increasing complex and abstract processes, patterns and relationships;
- An increase in the spatial scale of study: the shift in emphasis from local, smaller scale studies to more distant, regional, national, continental and global studies:
- A continuing development of skills: to include the use of specific geographical skills such as map work and more general skills of enquiry matched to children's developing cognitive abilities;
- Increasing opportunities for children to examine social, economic, political and environmental issues: the chance to develop greater appreciation and understanding of the influence of people's beliefs, attitudes and values on alternative courses of action relating to people, places and environments.
