CURRICULUM
Geography
Geography Curriculum Intent
The geography curriculum ignites excitement, creativity, and critical thinking, empowering students to explore and understand the world around them. It examines the intricate connections between human and physical processes on Earth, addressing sensitive local and global issues while appreciating the beauty and diversity of our planet. This exploration fosters a profound connection to the world, nurturing a sense of responsibility to protect and preserve it.
Geography Curriculum
Our spiral curriculum is structured around three key strands—knowledge, skills, and communication—enabling progressive learning and mastery of complex concepts. Students develop a geographer’s mindset by critically evaluating evidence and considering diverse perspectives, while acquiring vital skills in data collection through fieldwork, enhancing their interpretation and analysis capabilities. Both written and verbal communication skills are honed over time, allowing students to articulate their insights with clarity and impact.
Click here to see where Geography can take you
Key STRANDS
Geographical Knowledge
From Year 7, students are introduced to essential geographical concepts that lay the foundation for understanding the world, including locational knowledge, key definitions, and fundamental geographical concepts. Over the course of three years, or five years for those opting to pursue GCSE Geography, students engage with an increasingly comprehensive curriculum that broadens their appreciation of both human and physical components of our planet. This progression fosters a deeper understanding of geographical relationships and challenges, equipping students with the knowledge needed to navigate and analyse the complexities of the world around them.
Key Geographic Skill
Students enhance their ability to interpret and apply essential geographical skills, including the use of maps, graphs, and data collection through fieldwork. Opportunities to advance these skills are integrated throughout the curriculum, with increasing complexity as students’ progress through each year, fostering automaticity in their application. By the end of Year 9, and even more so by the conclusion of Year 11, students demonstrate the ability to apply their geographical skills to unfamiliar contexts with confidence and precision.
Over five years, students develop and refine essential mathematical skills through a structured curriculum that revisits key concepts in increasingly complex contexts. By integrating math into geography lessons and applying it to real-world scenarios—particularly in data analysis—students gain a deeper understanding of the world around them.
Throughout Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4, the curriculum is designed to enhance students’ ability to communicate effectively as expert geographers. This begins with the identification and explanation of social, economic, and environmental impacts. As students progress, they are guided to enhance their explanations, evaluate geographical concepts, and construct cohesive arguments. At each stage of their development, students first practice “speaking like a geographer,” which lays the foundation for their written work, allowing them to translate their verbal insights into clear and articulate written expressions.