Geography at Kents Hill Park aims to develop each pupil’s sense of place at a variety of scales giving them more appreciation of the world surrounding them. As pupils move through the curriculum they will build an understanding of location and spatial diversity to encourage a more open minded attitude. Throughout the course they will focus on both the human and physical features of the Earth with the intention of it sparking an interest beyond the classroom.

A geographer at Kents Hill Park will understand that the subject is visible all around them, creating an awareness of the world and the issues it faces. They will confidently interpret information through maps, numeracy, photographs and media to become well rounded global citizens.

Staff and Facilities

Mrs Horton is our Head of Humanities, working with Mr Bates, Mrs Simpson and Mr Tyerman to deliver Geography lessons in our state of the art school building. Our Humanities classrooms are based on the 1st floor, with access to all our fully equipped Learning Resource Centre and ICT Suite.

Enrichment

Clubs

Each week the department offers a support club open to all pupils. During this session pupils can get help with homework or go over work they have found difficult during lesson time, or they can look further into their own areas of interest with the help of the staff members.

We encourage pupils to ask questions and hope the lessons taught will develop the desire to look deeper into particular aspects of the subject.

Fieldwork

As part of the curriculum the pupils will get the opportunity to do onsite fieldwork. This will allow them to develop their geographical skills by using a range of equipment to gather results and learning to analyse their findings.

Trips

In year 10 as part of the GCSE course each pupils should complete a physical and a human piece of offsite fieldwork. The physical will be related to either rivers or coasts and the human will look at how and why a chosen urban area has undergone changes. The outcomes of these trips will be examined in paper 3 at the end of year 11.

Curriculum

Year 7 Curriculum

Throughout this year pupils will be introduced to the world at different scales. They will focus on a range of topics beginning with the how they are connected to the world. This will aim to spark an interest in their world and their place within it. The topic of map skills will further this as they understand the world spatially.

Across this year we will be constantly revisiting important geographical skills such as interpretation of sources and map work, aiming to have a solid awareness of the world. In the Summer term the pupils will focus in on the African continent where they will use the knowledge they have picked up from the previous topics to build their own examples or case studies.

Year 8 Curriculum

This year will lead closely on form year 7. The first topic of development links to what has been covered in population, using indicators to establish and dispelling stereotypes. Again the map skills will be prominent in this topic to reinforce that learnt previously. Pupils will be expected to investigate levels of development and show an understanding on what helps or hinders a country’s progression. As we move into the settlement section we will create links between the two topics regularly, using key terminology and similar case studies to show knowledge. When we focus on Asia we will be able to look at a range of climates, cultures and levels of development using the knowledge we have built up since September. At the end of the year pupils will take part in on site fieldwork looking at microclimates around the school. They will be expected to write up their methodology, results and conclusions to build up their own investigation. During this time we will work closely with the maths department to help the pupils choose and create the appropriate graphs. The reason for this is to build the geographical skills they will need later on in their geography career.

Year 9 Curriculum

Unlike the previous two years, the topics covered in year 9 all look at physical and human aspects of the topic and how they interact with each other. Throughout each topic pupils will be using previous geographical skills but will also be learning new terminology and graphical skills to develop them as geographers. Across the year there will be a real emphasis on location knowledge as they will be expected to build upon their knowledge of the world they live in . As part of this year the pupils will use the climate change and cold environment topics to focus in on the Polar regions in more detail.

We follow the AQA syllabus for GCSE, covering both physical and human geography as well as the fieldwork element. The course is assessed through 3 papers, paper 1 is the physical geography covering familiar topics such as ecosystems and hazards (both tectonic and weather) as well as a further look into rivers and coasts.

Paper 2 is a human geography paper covering examples of economic change in contrasting cities, how we use our global resources and the opportunities and challenges urbanisation has created for today’s society.

The final paper is in two parts, the first is a pre release decision making booklet. Pupils will get resource booklets before the exam to familiarise before being asked questions on it in the exam. the second part is questions based on the fieldwork completed in year 10. They will be expected to discuss the intent and outcomes of the techniques they carried out.

Across all papers pupils will be expected to recall specific content linked to examples they have studied throughout the topics.