Geography
Curriculum vision
The study of Geography at Lacon Childe School should equip students with the knowledge and skills needed to be informed global citizens. To achieve this, the Geography curriculum will enable all students to:
- develop a secure locational knowledge across all scales from local to global
- develop a rounded understanding of the characteristics of a broad range of places
- develop a clear knowledge of human and physical processes, and how they interact within places
- develop an ability to apply knowledge of processes to understand geographical patterns, events, places and systems
- acquire the skills needed to collect, analyse and interpret data in order to answer geographical questions and come to informed decisions
Curriculum principles
- The geography curriculum will cover the KS3 National Curriculum content during years 7 through to 9. In years 7 and 8 there will be a particular focus upon the development of substantive knowledge (including locations) to create a secure knowledge base for further study.
- The sequencing of topics across KS3 will provide a balanced offer of human and physical geography, and enable interleaving of core concepts to secure long-term learning and deepen understanding.
- Disciplinary knowledge will emerge as students grow to understand the significance of location in defining the character of place, analyse geographical phenomenon at different scales, apply synoptic concepts such as sustainability in different contexts and become aware of the interconnectedness of aspects of study across the three-year course. At the end of the year 7 and 8 long term plans, and for a significant section of the year 9 curriculum, specific opportunities will be planned to apply learning across that year to new contexts in order to develop disciplinary knowledge more explicitly.
- The KS4 curricula will be sequenced to cover both human and physical topics across each school year (see Curriculum Map). This will allow students to see the synoptic links that can be made across topics within the study of geography and therefore develop disciplinary understanding. The prior knowledge pertinent to each topic will be used to determine the sequencing across the scheme.
- Decisions over which topics to include (or not include) are firstly made to ensure students attain an appropriate level of substantive knowledge at each key stage in order to progress in their disciplinary understanding. These decisions are also informed by what will be relevant to students given their local context and topical issues.
- Across all key stages, examples from our schools’ local context will be used so students can see how geographical concepts can be applied to help understand their day-to-day context.
- A wide range of case studies, from a national to global scale, will be used to identify geographical patterns, develop a rounded understanding of a broad range of places and provide opportunities to apply disciplinary knowledge in order to understand different places. Care will be taken to ensure both sufficient breadth through the variety of places discussed, but also depth of exploration by returning to places across the study of a range of topics and/or key stages.
- The curriculum will allow students develop the skills required to collect, analyse and interpret data, building up to a high degree of independence by the end of KS4. This will include the use of a wide range of qualitative and quantitative sources, including field data and GIS with a view to using this data to come to informed decisions.