- Home
- About Our Curriculum
- Our educational philosophy
- Subject Information
- Geography
Head of Faculty
Subject Leader
Vision
To create and sustain powerful Geographical learning. We aim to inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world, whilst engaging a knowledge and critical approach to how global processes influence people and places.
Disciplinary Concepts
- Place and Identity
- Scale and Interconnection
- Physical Systems
- Representation
- Risk
- Sustainability
Big Questions
- What is Geography?
- How do physical and human interconnections construct place?
- Why do people, resources, and ideas move?
- How has the earth been transformed by human action?
- Why is global wealth unevenly distributed?
- How will climate change affect the world?
- How have plate tectonics shaped the world we live in today?
Curriculum Content
Key Stage 3
Year 7
How does Geography shape the UK? Exploring how the UK's Physical Geography has come to shape our people and places. Why do we migrate? Examining causes behind migration and evaluating representations of migrants in the UK. What is weather? Explaining the atmospheric systems which cause our weather patterns. Do we live on a hazardous Earth? Assessing tectonic plate movements and their impacts through Earthquakes. How do we use natural resources? Evaluating local to global use of resources and how we can approach sustainable systems. Do we live in an uneven world? Overcoming representations of rich versus poor to examine inequality.
Year 8
What shapes our coast? A study of the physical systems that shape our coast and the human intervention which seek to combat them. Globalisation: Where does our money go when we spend it? Evaluating the causes and impacts of globalisation and economic interconnection through following the global movement of ‘The Almighty Dollar’. How is our climate changing? An analysis of the causes, consequences, and futures of Climate Change. Who are the emerging 'Superpowers'? An evaluation of the BRIC nations and their key human processes driving a new global role. Is water an unlimited resource? Examining the emergence of water insecurity in multiple contexts to evaluate human versus physical causes. How does a river change as it travels towards the sea? Understanding the key physical systems which drive fluvial processes and their consequences.
Year 9
Is disaster a choice? An analysis of how humans construct disaster beyond the consequences of natural hazard, through study of volcanoes. Is our understanding of the world wrong? Evaluating global perceptions of development and causes of misconceptions through Hans Rosling’s Factfulness. Middle of what, East of where? Examining representations of the Middle East, alongside the human and physical processes which drive the region today. Why are forests under threat? Exploring human influence on the rainforest and the impact of our actions at a distance. Are changing places a blessing or a curse? An examination of how ‘Changing Place’ alters sense of place and identity for communities. What drives energy transition? Assessing the multiple approaches which must be taken to energy transition across environmental, socio-economic and political contexts, comparing Bristol in the UK to Cape Town in South Africa.
Key Stage 4: Edexcel GCSE Geography (Paper Codes 1GB0/01, 1GB0/02, 1GB0/03)
Paper 1: Global Geographical Issues
Topic 1: Hazardous Earth
Topic 2: Development dynamics
Topic 3: Challenges of an urbanising world
Paper 2: UK Geographical Issues
Topic 4: The UK’s evolving physical landscape – including sub-topics:
4A: Coastal change and conflict
4B: River processes and pressures
Topic 5: The UK’s evolving human landscape – including a Case Study – Dynamic UK cities
Topic 6: Geographical Investigations – including one physical fieldwork investigation and one human fieldwork investigation linked to Topics 4 and 5.
Paper 3: People and Environmental Issues – Making Geographical Decisions
Topic 7: People and the Biosphere
Topic 8: Forests under threat
Topic 9: Consuming energy resources
Key Stage 5: Edexcel A level Geography (Paper Codes 9GE0/01, 9GE0/02, 9GE0/03)
Paper 1
Topic 1: Tectonic Processes and Hazards
Topic 2: Landscape Systems, Processes and Change including 2B Coastal Landscapes and Change
Topic 5: The Water Cycle and Water Insecurity
Topic 6: The Carbon Cycle and Energy Security
Paper 2
Topic 3: Globalisation
Topic 4: Shaping Places including 4A Regenerating Places
Topic 7: Superpowers
Topic 8: Global Development and Connections including 8A Human Rights and Intervention
Paper 3
A thematic paper containing synoptic interpretation of:
Players
Attitudes and actions
Futures and uncertainties
Non-examination assessment: Independent Investigation
Students will produce an investigation report based upon independent fieldwork related to any aspect of geography contained within the specification.
Key Stage Three Assessment Grade Descriptors:
The grade descriptors for Geography at Key Stage Three at The John Warner School reflect a student’s ability to:
| Grade | Descriptor |
|---|---|
| Below | Pupils may have a basic understanding of the core concept of a topic. For example, an understanding of the idea that water is an unlimited resource. Pupil also recognises the basic located examples of where these concepts are having an impact, such as drought in California. Pupil is able to express their views on features of evaluation, such as who water scarcity impacts the most. Pupils use resources that are given to them, and their own observations, to ask and respond to questions about people and places. |
| Working Towards | Pupils show their developing knowledge and understanding of concepts, for example accurate basic knowledge of how the Greenhouse Effect works. Pupils recognise that different located examples may have both similar and different characteristics that influence the lives and activities of people living there. For example, the impacts of Climate Change are the same globally in terms of warming, but with different impacts by place. Pupil is able to write structured explanations and use skills in map and graph analysis to respond to a range of geographical questions. |
| Meeting | Pupil has a clear and accurate overall understanding of the foundational concepts of a topic. For example, the key ways in which a river changes as it moves towards the sea. Pupil demonstrates increasing depth of knowledge, linking key processes to located examples, such as why flood events are more likely to take place in a mountainous area. Evaluations are becoming more sophisticated and are backed up with examples and explanations. Additionally, pupils can begin to explain geographical patterns, and where the same processes impact different people and places. Overarching Geographical ideas, such as sustainability become more prevalent in pupil responses, and map and graphs are well interpreted. |
| Working Above | Pupil understanding of this topic is coherent and pupil is able to link and apply different topic areas with sophistication. For example, examining how emerging powers are more or less likely to reach the status of ‘Superpower’ in the future. Responses are coherent and explanations are almost always backed up with information specific to located examples, such as India’s growth of Information Technology to become a global power. Graphical and map analysis is sound, whilst attempts to predict and assess future change are more frequent within writing. Pupil is able to evaluate with confidence and make an independent decision in justifying their arguments and drawing conclusions. |
| Exceeding | Pupil has a full understanding of the topic and is able to apply their learning with confidence to all questions. In responding to questions, pupils utilise the full range of their geographical understanding, such as why globalisation has differing consequences upon places by level of development. Pupils are able to explain and predict change in the physical and human characteristics of places over time with application to a wide range of locations, contexts and scales. This may be the economic futures of Cambodia and Bangladesh as manufacturing moves away from China. Pupils draw selectively on geographical ideas and theories, and use accurately a wide range of appropriate skills and sources of evidence to produce critical and coherent conclusions. |
