Geography

Geography is our students’ gateway into the rest of the world. Our intention is to ensure that every student, regardless of ability or background, acquires the knowledge, skills and understanding to value and engage meaningfully and responsibly with their world; to deepen their understanding of not only also the extraordinary environmental and cultural diversity across the globe but also their own local environment.

The geography curriculum is ambitious in both its breadth and its depth, introducing students to traditional and contemporary human and physical aspects of the world from a local to global scale. Local fieldwork studies take full advantage of Dartmoor and the South Devon coastline.

Carefully sequenced ‘key constructs’ provide progression through a logical enquiry into the topic. The geography curriculum is based upon mastery principles, where the breadth of content within the subject is distilled to the key constructs – which are considered essential on a topic-by-topic basis so links between areas of study can be created. These key constructs are frontloaded and then interleaved throughout the curriculum, ensuring that students are secure in their learning before being asked to move on to contrasting areas of study. Students who have a particular ability in the subject will be challenged to deepen their understanding in more complex examples rather than rush superficially through more content.

Our KS3 programme of study covers the National Curriculum with applied mathematics, graphicacy and fieldwork enquiry skills embedded. The progressive, spiral curriculum is organised and studied through specific units of work. 

Year 7: Ecosystems, Population, Rivers, Weather and Climate, and Tourism

Year 8: Coasts, Asia case study, hazards, development, and globalisation)

Year 9: Physical Earth, Africa Case study, Resources and Issues, UK Case study and Geographical enquiry skills

For example, Population in Year 7 establishes the foundation building blocks of population distribution and population structure. In Year 8 this knowledge is built upon and developed in the ‘Development’ unit which identifies links with these population ideas to global disparities of poverty and wealth. In year 9 students begin to apply their knowledge and understanding of the key constructs when studying units on ‘Africa’ and ‘Resources and issues’.

In Years 10 & 11, these Key Constructs are further built upon and embedded through the GCSE curriculum. Allowing students to deepen and consolidate their knowledge and understanding; exploring the interconnectedness of the subject and links between the Key Constructs. This critical end-phase enables learners to take a more holistic overview and appreciation of the geography curriculum, and is what allows students to become true ‘Geographers’.