Geography

 

What we will do:

The Twickenham School Geography Department will follow the whole school policy for curriculum provision. In addition to this, the geography department will also:

• build on prior learning in key stages 1 and 2 in order to develop a life-long enthusiasm for Geography
• encourage all students to consider further study of geography and entry to related careers post-16 and beyond
• develop students’ interest of the impact of geography in the wider world through activities such as school site enquiry, fieldtrips to both urban and rural environments supported by the ECO club and house based whole school competitions.

Specialist teaching

Years 7 to 11 will be taught by both experienced and dynamic specialist Geographers who have experience grading for the AQA examination board.

All students have exercise books for Geography, with Years 10 and 11 having separate books relating to each paper at GCSE.

Setting in Geography

All Year 7-9 and GCSE classes are taught as mixed ability groups.

Key stage 3

Twickenham School Geography Department delivers key stage 3 across 2.6 years in years 7 -9. The curriculum fully complies with the national curriculum and is sequenced to ensure that topics are delivered in a logical way in order to develop and link students’ knowledge and skills. The curriculum is also being developed to ensure early introduction on knowledge and skills relevant to GCSE Geography, for example, by introducing some of the required enquiry based investigation in Year7 and use of Key Higher level command task extended writing challenges. E.g. To assess and evaluate a topical scenario.

In term 3 all Year 9 students study the Living World Topic component of the AQA GCSE syllabus. This both serves to complete the National Curriculum breath of coverage for Geography as well as the opportunity to begin the GCSE.

 

Key Stage 4

Year 9

Students begin GCSE Geography in the Summer Term. Classes are still the same cohort in mixed ability. The ‘Living World’ Unit chosen builds on prior knowledge from Key Stage 3 and topics have been chosen to engage and enthuse students. For example tackling deforestation and its importance for future sustainability of the planet. Some more challenging topics in the Unit will not be covered until years 10 and 11 such as desertification.

Year 9 students choosing Geography as an option will receive a new A4 exercise book in the summer term to write GCSE notes and question answers. In the final Monitoring assessment, all questions will be at GCSE level from practice and past papers to give an accurate assessment of their introduction to GCSE. Exercise for all Year students are then stored over the summer on site in case any students want to later change an option to choose Geography at GCSE level.

All students follow the same curriculum in Year 9 which will allow them to choose separate or combined sciences for study in years 10 and 11.

Years 10 and 11

Students currently study the AQA Geography course consisting of 3 examination papers.

2019-20 Fieldwork is scheduled:

Year 11 December 2019 - Urban field enquiry

Year 10 & 11 Spring term 2020 - River fieldwork enquiry