Curriculum leaders

Ms N Picton and Ms V Gainey 

The purpose of the AGFS Geography curriculum is:

• Ambition: to strive for excellence through academic rigour in order to gain access to Russell Group universities and professional careers.
• Growth: to instil the value of practice and resilience to continuously develop.
• Fellowship: to interpret the world through a geographical lens in order to interpret contemporary issues and appreciate varying contexts.
• Scholarship: to promote a lifelong conversation and curiosity about the changing world.

The geography curriculum is organised by the power standards. These standards reflect the essence of the subject as an academic discipline and reflect the strands of each discipline that must be developed to achieve mastery. These threads are cross-referenced against the KS3 national curriculum, GCSE, A Level specification and degree courses at Russell Group universities to ensure that scholars’ experience of the subject is as broad and as academically rigorous as possible.

The geography power standards are:

1.          Build a breadth and depth of knowledge of places and environments within different contexts and at varying scales.

2.         Gain an appreciation of the complexity of geographical processes within the natural world and urban areas.

3.         Understand the complex interactions of human and physical geography within the environment.

4.         Communicate and interpret geographical information through cartographic, numerical, quantitative and qualitative skills.

5.         Conduct thorough geographical enquiries by collecting primary and secondary data to inform decision making.

6.         Question and develop arguments that promote critical thinking around social, moral, political and cultural issues.

Year 7:

• Module 1: Coasts and rivers
• Module 2: An unequal world: Development
• Module 3: Tectonic hazards

Year 8:

• Module 1: Population and migration
• Module 2: Challenging perceptions - Nigeria
• Module 3: Climate and biomes

Year 9:

• Module 1: Glaciation and climate change
• Module 2: Resources and conflict
• Module 3: Climate and biomes

Year 10:

• Module 1:Physical landscapes in the UK: coasts and rivers
• Module 2: Urban issues and challenges
• Module 3: Summer 1 - living world;  Summer 2- tectonic hazards and physical geography fieldwork

Year 11:

• Module 1: Autumn 1 - economic world, natural hazards;  Autumn 2 - the challenge of resource management and human geography fieldwork
• Module 2: Bespoke teaching and revision
• Module 3: Revision and public examinations

Recommended websites/ online platforms:

• BBC Bitesize GCSE Geography AQA
• BBC Bitesize Geography KS3
• Seneca Learning

Recommended activities to complete with your child:

1. GCSE scholars should use Google classroom to complete retrieval questions, workbooks, knowledge organisers and practice papers.
2. KS3: self-quizzing on core knowledge.

Scholars receive verbal, self and peer feedback every lesson through:

• Whole class feedback on common misconceptions in the read now, recall now activities and during daily review.
• Responses to whole class checking for understanding activities, such as hand signal responses, ‘heads down’ and mini whiteboard tasks.
• Teacher intentional monitoring during deliberate practice activities.

Scholars are expected to respond in the moment to this feedback to show they can correct errors and improve their knowledge and understanding.

Scholars receive written teacher feedback after each checkpoint. Scholars complete checkpoint tasks independently so teachers can review what they know and can do. Checkpoints in geography consist of:

• Section A: Recall of the core knowledge
• Section B: GCSE-style exam questions that range from 1 to 9-mark and geographical skills, including; numerical, cartographic and graphical questions.

Written feedback from checkpoints will consist of:

• A score for section A and section B.
• Celebration of what has gone well.
• Identification of a high leverage target.

Scholars will complete a refinement task to show their understanding of the target and to demonstrate their capacity to improve their work. This could be achieved through redrafting a section of their work or attempting a similar task.

Success in geography can lead to careers in:

• Politics
• Environmental sector
• Law
• Government
• Education
• Media
• Urban planning
• Social researcher
• International aid/ development worker
• Landscape architect
• Logistics and distribution manager
• Risk analyst
• Sustainability consultant

Through the study of geography, scholars will be exposed to a range of culturally enriching knowledge and experiences.

Cultural capital within the curriculum:

Geography critically engages scholars with real world issues, building a breadth and depth of knowledge of global places and environments. This helps us to understand some of the big issues which affect our world, and understand the social, economic and physical forces and processes which shape our world to ensure we are living in a way that doesn’t damage it for future generations. Scholars are confident in their abilities to articulate and debate global issues including global warming, resource conflict, management of fragile ecosystems, and the development gap.

Geography contribution to the enrichment programme:

• Duke of Edinburgh bronze and silver awards

Geography contribution to Drop Down Days and the trips and visits programme: 

• Year 8 - Fieldwork trip to Walton on the Naze to investigate the management strategies on the coastline.  
• Year 9 - Natural History Museum to compliment scholars' understanding of earthquakes and volcanoes.
• Maths and Geography STEAM Day - scholars carry out fieldwork investigations and practice map skills by working cross curricular with the mathematics department.
• Year 10 - Fieldwork trip to the Greenwich Peninsula to investigate the impacts of urban renewal on people and the environment.
• Year 11 - River fieldwork to investigate fluvial processes and landscapes.