Geography

Our aim in Geography is to increase pupils’ wellbeing by opening their eyes to both the human and geophysical worlds. We build student’s threshold geographical concepts of place, space, scale, patterns and processes, interactions and interdependence, stakeholder perspectives and sustainability. We will inspire students to understand that they play an active part in today’s ever-changing world and are the decision-makers of the future.

Vision / Intent

We are aiming to create successful geographers who can synthesise knowledge about the human and geophysical worlds in order to make judgements and decisions about how to live, or to solve problems, from a local to a global scale.

This decision-making process always starts with understanding place. Every place is different, and has different characteristics. A successful geographer will build knowledge using the threshold concepts of space, scale, patterns, processes, interactions and interdependence, stakeholder perspectives, and sustainability as a framework for making decisions. Building student’s sense of place is a crucial step to allowing students to be successful in geography.

With this intent in mind, we aim to increase student’s wellbeing by enabling them to make good choices about how to live in an ever-changing world. We aim to build students’ local and global sense of place to help them see the world in the different way. We will teach them powerful geographical knowledge which is distinct from every day life, allows them to access academic debates, and gives students a transformational educational experience by enabling students to experience and participate in the world in a different way.

All students have 2 periods of Geography per week in years 7 and 8, and after the options process in year 8, students who continue Geography have 3 periods per week in year 9.

Year 7

Unit 1: Location, Location, Location

We begin to build student’s sense of local place by exploring Harpenden’s geography through map skills. We also introduce the threshold geographical concepts to students and conduct a small-scale geographical enquiry.

Unit 2: How does the UK manage it’s coasts?

We build student’s knowledge and appreciation of the interaction of human and physical geographies at the coasts. As an island nation, this is crucial to understanding a key challenge which the UK faces now and in the future with possible rising sea levels.

Unit 3: Past, present and future: development in the Middle East

We travel across the world to the Middle East, exploring themes of development, conflict, world trade, population diversity, and the supply and demand of our most important resource: water.

Enrichment/Extracurricular

Non-fiction: Prisoners of Geography

Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/kayla_wolf_why_every_world_map_is_wrong

Non-fiction: Geography: Ideas in profile (by Danny Dorling and Carl Lee)

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/parag_khanna_how_megacities_are_changing_the_map_of_the_world

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/joe_madiath_better_toilets_better_life

Documentary: City of the Future: Singapore (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi6r3hZe5Tg)

Documentary series: “Coast”, available on BBC iPlayer

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/skylar_tibbits_a_new_way_to_grow_islands_and_coastlines

News article: https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-04-05/british-village-crumbles-sea-family-holds-home-cant-be-saved

Year 8

Unit 1: How do humans try to manage the powerful Earth?

We explore naturally occurring geohazards which students will not experience in the UK, by trekking to Nepal, Iceland and Italy. Due to the regional and sometimes global impact of tectonic events, it is vital that students understand how we try to minimise the impact in countries with different levels of development.

Unit 2: How and why are populations changing in Africa, and how are we dealing with population issues?

This regional study zooms across different countries in Africa, looking at a cross-section of Geographical issues such as conflict, climate, population growth and urbanisation. We consider how humans are trying to solve problems on a continental and regional scale, with varying success.

Unit 3: Global challenges: globalisation and Antarctica.

We consider how globalisation is affecting the way we are connected to the world, through issues such as fast fashion. We then move onto considering the global commons of Antarctica; who owns it, who should own it, and how should it be managed?

Enrichment/Extra curricular

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_conneally_how_mobile_phones_power_disaster_relief

Non-fiction: Can we protect people from Natural Disasters? (Earth Debates) (by Catherine Chambers)

Film: Supervolcano (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFaFfdOzPP8)

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/naoko_ishii_an_economic_case_for_protecting_the_planet

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_e_brandt_a_world_without_waste

Non-fiction: Why Geography Matters: A Brief Guide to the Planet (by Nicholas Crane)

Non-fiction: We are Displaced (by Malala Yousafzai)

Documentary: The Reindeer Herders (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sykmh7V0eSQ)

Website to explore: https://www.greatgreenwall.org/about-great-green-wall

Article: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/desertification

Year 9

Unit 1: How do we manage precious energy and water resources?

We zoom in on Russia and the Blue Nile region of Africa to explore resource security. Students will continue to practise their decision-making with a resource-focussed lens, in two challenging stakeholder environments.

Unit 2: How is local and global climate changing?

Students delve into weather processes which affect the UK, before going global to explore the causes, evidence and effects of climate change on the Maldives. We then link back to natural hazards by exploring how climate change is affecting Tropical Storms and use the case study of Hurricane Katrina as an exemplification.

Unit 3: How is Asia diverse and dynamic?

We explore the diversities of some of Asia’s 49 countries, and how they are dealing with population problems. This ranges from responding to intense flooding in South Asia, to managing demographics in Japan and Afghanistan, to exploring rural-urban migration to India’s Silicon Valley in Karnataka

Unit 4: How has glaciation changed our world?

We finish our KS3 course by coming back to the UK and exploring how glaciation has shaped our country over the last 20,000 years. This exciting force of nature is often new to students and inspires a love of physical geography.

Enrichment/Extracurricular

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/anupam_mishra_the_ancient_ingenuity_of_water_harvesting

Documentary: Egypt’s Dam problem: the Geopolitics of the Nile (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BCY0SPOFpE)

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/amory_lovins_a_40_year_plan_for_energy

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/luisa_neubauer_why_you_should_be_a_climate_activist

Non-fiction: No one is too small to make a difference (by Greta Thunberg)

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_wilkinson_how_empowering_women_and_girls_can_help_stop_global_warming

Non-fiction: Factfulness (by Hans Rosling)

Non-fiction: The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are failing and what to do about it (by Paul Collier)

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_cairns_smith_finally_tech_solutions_to_economic_development

Non-fiction: The Ice Age: A Very Short Introduction (by Jamie Woodward)

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/kristin_poinar_what_s_hidden_under_the_greenland_ice_sheet

Ted talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/eddy_cartaya_my_glacier_cave_discoveries

Documentary: The Unseen Cost Of Philippines’ Pandemic Baby Boom (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJGLJKtYFIU&t=222s)

Documentary: A Tour of Southeast Asia: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnnFMv9GCH4)

Students can access a range of additional resources through both Google Classroom and the Student Google Site to help develop their own emerging interest in geography.

Additionally, P7 options offer a range of enrichment such as Survival Skills, Documentary club and Eco-Committee. In the past we have completed year 7 trips such as to the River Lea, and a year 8 day off-timetable where they create their own sustainable city model using entirely recycled materials.

Year 10

At GCSE we follow the AQA Geography 9-1 specification.

Unit 1: The Living World

Students study ecosystems, Tropical Rainforests and Hot Deserts. We use the case studies of Malaysia for Tropical Rainforests, and the Thar Desert for Hot Deserts.

Unit 2: Urban Issues and challenges

This is about human processes and systems, and how they change both spatially and temporally. We study a range of places at a variety of scales, including places in various states of development.

Unit 3: Coastal landscapes of the UK

In this unit, students understand physical processes and systems, and how they change. Also we consider how people interact with them at a range of scales, and in a range of places.

Unit 4: Fieldwork investigation: urban areas

This short unit involves a fieldtrip to a major urban area, where we consider how quality of life varies across space, and on different scales. Students will use geographical fieldwork techniques to collect data, then analyse it and draw conclusions to answer their hypotheses.

Unit 5: Changing Economic World

Here, students study the global development gap, rapid economic development in Nigeria, and the changing UK economy. This is on a wider scale compared to Unit 2, so the foundational knowledge gained in Unit 2 provides a strong point of reference.

Fieldtrips:

We conduct a one day fieldtrip in Spring term to an urban area, to consider development and how quality of life changes across different locations.

Year 11

YEAR 11

In year 11 we continue to study the AQA GCSE Geography 9-1 specification.

Unit 1: Fieldwork investigation: coastal areas

This short unit involves a fieldtrip to a coastal area which has experienced coastal management. We explore the different physical processes taking place, and consider how the area human management has influenced physical processes. Linking to previous fieldwork throughout their secondary school life, we use the geographical enquiry process to draw conclusions against hypotheses.

Unit 2: The Challenges of Natural Hazards

Here, students develop an understanding of tectonic and meteorological processes and features in different environments, before moving on to the need for management strategies. These strategies are driven by the concept of sustainability at their heart, and students are asked to consider the direct and indirect effect of humans on the Earth and its atmosphere.

Unit 3: The Challenge of Resource Management

In this unit we consider how resources are distributed around the world, and whether the supply and demand has spatial patterns and reasoning behind this. We then focus our study on energy resources, including questions about how the UK and other parts of the world can create sustainable supplies of energy.

Unit 4: Issue Evaluation

The final part of the GCSE course is to familiarise ourselves with the pre-release; a booklet released by the exam board focussed on a certain global issue. This resource booklet is utilised in one of the written exams. We then move on to revision for the remainder of the time.

Fieldtrips:

We conduct a one day fieldtrip in Autumn term to coastal area, to consider physical processes and how humans have influenced the physical processes at work.

In October 2023, we are running our first international Geography trip to Iceland, for the year 10 and 11 cohort.

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Harpenden Secondary Education Trust

Company Number: 09238779
Registered in England and Wales
Registered Address: Katherine Warington School, Lower Luton Road, Harpenden, Herts, AL5 5FH

Chair Of Trustees: Jenny Howarth, j.howarth@kwschool.co.uk

Contact Us

Katherine Warington School,
Lower Luton Road,
Harpenden,
Hertfordshire,
AL5 5FH

Telephone: 01582 314777
admin@kwschool.co.uk

Geography

Vision / Intent

Year 7

Unit 1: Location, Location, Location

Unit 2: How does the UK manage it’s coasts?

Unit 3: Past, present and future: development in the Middle East

Enrichment/Extracurricular

Year 8

Unit 1: How do humans try to manage the powerful Earth?

Unit 2: How and why are populations changing in Africa, and how are we dealing with population issues?

Unit 3: Global challenges: globalisation and Antarctica.

Enrichment/Extra curricular

Year 9

Unit 1: How do we manage precious energy and water resources?

Unit 2: How is local and global climate changing?

Unit 3: How is Asia diverse and dynamic?

Unit 4: How has glaciation changed our world?

Enrichment/Extracurricular

Year 10

Unit 1: The Living World

Unit 2: Urban Issues and challenges

Unit 3: Coastal landscapes of the UK

Unit 4: Fieldwork investigation: urban areas

Unit 5: Changing Economic World

YEAR 11

Unit 1: Fieldwork investigation: coastal areas

Unit 2: The Challenges of Natural Hazards

Unit 3: The Challenge of Resource Management

Unit 4: Issue Evaluation

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