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- Geography Curriculum Overview
At Whitefield School the intention of our Geography curriculum is to rouse the excitement, creativity and critical thinking about the world that will allow our young people to make their own way in it. Geography is a way for students to develop a greater understanding of the world and their place within it. Through study of carefully selected topics students are able to study a range of places and topics to satiate their love of place and space. At Whitefield we strive to teach key processes, concepts and develop understanding of key issues as well as to inspire our students to feel they have the ability to change the world around them.
Geography at Whitefield School is ambitious is both topic choice and challenge. We ensure that we teach to the top in all lessons with scaffolding in place to support learners to meet these standards.
Students complete regular assessments both summative and formative throughout the curriculum and onto KS5. Understanding of previous knowledge and concepts is reviewed during retrieval practice every lesson. Regular assessment is provided at the end of each topic, with timely feedback for both teacher and student to see the gaps in learning. Work is marked either ‘deep marked’ by the subject teacher or students are given Whole class feedback based on classwork. Misconceptions can be tackled as part of the marking process, and within lessons through questioning.
Students are encouraged to attend the eco-committee which is a club created with the main aim of stewardship in mind. This year students are aiming to achieve green flag status for Whitefield School. We are looking to reignite a love of fieldwork with KS4 and KS5 students this year with year 11 and year 12 fieldwork at FSC.
Students choose between Geography and History at the end of year 8. They will then have an additional opportunity to take Geography in another column. This allows students to take two or three humanities based subjects onto GCSE level.
Impact
- Geography at Whitefield School and geography education in general is crucial in forming students' understanding of the world. Students learn about the intricate interactions that exist between human society and the environment through investigating a variety of cultures, ecosystems, and geopolitical processes.
- Students are inspired to think critically about global issues such as resource distribution, migration, and climate change as a result of this awareness, which broadens their perspective, in turn fostering empathy.
- Geography education gives students the information and skills they need to become knowledgeable global citizens who can promote intercultural understanding and sustainable solutions for imminent environmental issues at a local, national and even at a global scale.
Implementation
- Geography provides pupils with the opportunity to explore a variety of physical, environmental and human topics across a 3 year KS3 and a 2 year GCSE. Geography has the power to develop a multitude of disciplinary skills. During KS3 we endeavour to develop numeracy, graphical and literacy skills so that students can attain top marks at GCSE.
- Throughout the course students are taught skills which are then developed through the key stages. Graphicacy-line, isoline, ra graphs, climate graphs, literacy promotion of subject specific vocabulary as well as explicitly teaching tier two language every lesson. Students complete extended writing in most lessons in order to develop the understanding of key command words; to what extent, evaluate, describe, explain, discuss as well as understanding how to answer level marked questions e.g. L1, L2 and L3 for a 9 mark question.
