Geography

Geography is a subject that offers students the opportunity to broaden their understanding of the world as every student is a global citizen.

The department acknowledges the importance that each individual student engages and develops a sense of belonging to their global community. The department harbours curiosity and develops creativity to encourage students to become independent and critical thinkers.

The work of the department is underpinned by three main aims. Firstly, to provide a firm basis in geographical skills, secondly to develop geographical knowledge,and thirdly to ground students' understanding in real world places and relevant topics. This will enable pupils who opt for the subject at GCSE to approach the course with confidence and achieve the highest grades.

The department offers a range of co-curricular activities, including the Key Stage 3 club. See the weekly school newsletter for what is happening in Geography.

key stage 3

In Year 7 the pupils undertake a range of topics. Including Locational Knowledge, South America, Map skills, Tourism and London Docklands. All students take part in the trip to the Docklands which links to both the topic on London and questions ideas on regeneration as well as supporting the completion of their Geography diploma task.

Year 8 students study a diverse range of topics including Oceans on The Edge, Africa, Rivers, Globalisation and Important Places.

Year 9 is a demanding year as we begin to teach Geography GCSE. This gives students GCSE content and supports the development of skills and confidence over a long period of time whilst still delivering a range of engaging topics and lessons. Over the year, students will study: World Biomes (including a trip to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew), Lagos, Natural Hazards, Extreme Weather, Climate Change and Resources.

Throughout year 7-9, students are assessed using a variety of tests, from formal end of unit tests, end of year examinations as well as by extended written work and verbal presentations. From year 7 onwards all assessments use the new GCSE grading system 1-9, with students developing understanding of what each of these grades represent.

Geography uses a range of transferable skills such as graphs and data manipulation, and these are embedded throughout the year for all year groups.

key stage 4

The KS4 course is based on the AQA GCSE 1-9. This involves a balance between physical and human geography and is a natural extension to the work undertaken at KS3. For students that continue with this popular option; skills and knowledge are built upon and extended to help students achieve the top grades of 7-9 at GCSE. There are 2 main modules to teach units from, these are: Living with the physical environment and Challenges in the human environment. These have already been started in year 9 and continue through years 10 and 11. The final examined unit is the Geographical application paper where students are examined on fieldwork. All students will complete 2 days of compulsory fieldwork (1 in Stratford Olympic Park and 1 in Epping Forest). The fieldwork undertaken on these two days will be examined in Paper 3.

ib geography

This course is exciting and holistic as students study a range of human and physical topics. All students study 3 “core” units that include Changing population, Changing Climate and Resource Management. Those students that opt to take Geography at a higher level also study Freshwater environments, Geophysical Hazards and Urban environments. In addition, Higher Level students study 3 further topics of Power, places and networks, Human development and diversity and Global risks and resilience. There is a compulsory residential fieldwork trip in Summer of Y12 where students collect and start their Internal Assessment (IA) which is worth at least 20% of their final mark.

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