Welcome to Woodfields Academy Astrea Academy Trust
Curriculum Leader: Mrs A Bowskill
Welcome to the Geography department. We are a small team made up of 3 enthusiastic, and dedicated members of staff who consistently promote high standards and strive towards creating a positive learning environment to help ensure our students reach their full potential. The team work together on making lessons engaging, challenging and relevant to the modern world, drawing on a wide range of contemporary examples at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. We aim to foster geographical curiosity to enable our students to appreciate the variety and interconnectedness of both physical and human landscapes and processes.
We follow a high quality, knowledge rich curriculum to help our students secure the substantive and disciplinary geographical knowledge and life skills required for them to become responsible citizens, able to understand, interpret and engage with their surroundings and contribute to a sustainable future. Our curriculum is also designed to support students in developing a sense of personal and social responsibility and to understand, appreciate and respect difference and diversity. We also encourage our students to develop enquiring minds through asking their own questions, challenging themselves, and becoming independent learners, supported by confidence in their ability and knowledge base.
The knowledge-rich curriculum which our students in Years 7, 8 and 9 follow is delivered over four lessons per fortnight. Those students who opt to take Geography for GCSE receive five hours of lessons per fortnight.
In addition to high-quality lessons, the geography department ensures that students are given an opportunity to learn in the outdoor classroom. At KS3 students undertake geographical enquiry in their local environment and at GCSE our students undertake a trip to the Peak District to conduct a rivers study, and a visit to Sheffield to conduct a Human fieldwork study linked to urban change.
At both KS3 and KS4, as well as the core geographical skills of graphicacy, numeracy and map skills, our students will develop interdisciplinary skills, including critical thinking, communication, and analytical skills. These are embedded across all topics at these key stages.
Geography Staff
- Subject Leader – A Bowskill
- Teacher of Geography – P Roberts
Key Stage 3
Topics explored at KS3 introduce students to a wide range of geographical issues to broaden their understanding of the world in which they live, providing students with a firm foundation of powerful geographical knowledge for their future lives. The KS3 curriculum has both breadth and depth and our topics are sequenced to support students to build on prior knowledge and consolidate and apply their understanding to ensure progression.
Geographical expertise is based on building both substantive and disciplinary geographical knowledge to enable students to appreciate the full geography domain.
Human and Physical topics covered at KS3: Population, development, urbanisation, Locational knowledge, Coasts, Rivers, Techtronic Hazards, Glaciation and Global Challenge.
Key Stage 4
At Key Stage 4 students’ study for the AQA GCSE Geography. This is delivered over a 2-year period. Students will take 3 exams assessing a range of topics, at the end of Year 11.
- Paper 1: Living with the physical environment (1hr 30min 35% of the final mark)
- Paper 2: Challenges in the human environment (1hr 30min 35% of the final mark)
- Paper 3: Geographical applications (1hr 30min 30% of the final mark)
Students will begin their studies with Unit 1, Living with the physical environment. Within this unit students will explore various aspects of the physical environment, including; Natural Hazards (Weather and Tectonic Hazards), The Living World and the Physical Environment: Coasts and Rivers.
In Unit 2, Challenges in the Human Environment, students will study urban issues and challenges, and the changing economic world. Including studies of examples at various stages of the development continuum. They will also explore issues surrounding the distribution of management of key resources, including food, water, and energy.
Unit 3 supports students in developing a disciplinary knowledge and understanding of the process of geographical enquiry. They will complete fieldwork enquiries in two contrasting environments, considering the human and physical interactions between them. Students will prepare for the pre-release element of the course in Year 11 which will be released by the exam board at the end of the Spring Term.