Geography
“The study of geography is about more than just memorizing places on a map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.”
Barack Obama
Why we study Geography at Harris Academy Purley
Our Geography curriculum is designed to provide our students with the knowledge they need to understand the relationships between physical and human phenomena that give rise to spatial patterns on the surface of the earth. Whilst other disciplines may study concepts such as landscape, flora and fauna, the atmosphere, people and culture, the built environment and political territories, geography is the only discipline that concerns itself with the relationships between these resulting in spatial differentiation.
Geography provides students with the means to think about the world in new ways. We call this thinking geographically. The key concepts of space, place and scale are integral to the subject and opportunities for students to develop the depth and breadth of their understanding of these are mapped throughout the curriculum. Geographical enquiry is a key feature of the curriculum. Enquiry deepens conceptual understanding through reasoning, data interpretation, argumentation and fieldwork. Enquiry incorporates a range of approaches to teaching and learning including both those strongly led by teachers and those with greater independence for students.
The geography curriculum serves as an important vehicle to represent the world accurately, fairly and truthfully and in a way that reflects a plurality of voices. Geography is uniquely placed to empower students from all backgrounds through developing a multifaceted view of the world and their place within it; the power of diversity in geography serves to tackle stereotypes, dismantle dominant narratives and improve representation of places and people (Milner, Robinson and Garcia, 2021).
Key Stage 3 Geography
Our Key Stage 3 curriculum is based on contextual (locational), propositional (theoretical) and procedural (skills) geographical knowledge, including geographical fieldwork, to encourage students to ‘think geographically’. Five underpinning concepts or ‘Big Ideas’ are woven through the Key Stage 3 curriculum. These are Human and Physical Interactions, Sustainability, Development, Climate and Geomorphology. These are revisited throughout curriculum and become increasingly complex and interconnected as the it progresses.
Within lessons students build locational knowledge, and once these foundations are established place knowledge can be developed. This, together with geographical theories and processes are taught through a variety of methods to support understanding, including atlases, articles, GIS, videos, graphs, and images. Students are encouraged to analyse and interpret sources, developing their ability to think write and speak geographically. Through using key vocabulary, they will describe, explain, and make decisions about the causes, consequences, and responses to the geographical patterns around them. Plenary enquiries help students to consolidate their learning of each topic by giving them an opportunity to engage with, and make sense of, geographical data and evidence from the real world.
Key Stage 4 Geography
GCSE students will follow the OCR Geography B J384 specification.
There are eight topics covering human and physical geography at a variety of scales. These are assessed in year 11 through three separate papers: Our Natural World; People and Society; and a skills and decision-making paper, Geographical Exploration. The topics within these papers are taught discretely and sequenced specifically to ensure students can make conceptual links between and within units. Further to the geographical content studied, students will have an opportunity to apply their knowledge through two pieces of fieldwork: physical fieldwork is conducted at the River Tillingbourne in Surrey and human fieldwork is conducted at Box Park in Croydon. These units are taught discreetly through a series of lessons to prepare for and consolidate their fieldwork investigations.
Key Stage 5 Geography
A-Level students follow the OCR Geography H481 specification.
This course is designed to further develop students’ understanding of physical and human geography from a local through to a global scale. They develop practical fieldwork skills as they explore and think critically about the interactions between people and the environment and the issues arising. Assessment is through three written papers, namely Physical Systems, Human Interactions and Geographical Debates. Additionally, a key component of the A-Level course is an independent written investigation, based on primary and secondary data collection through independent fieldwork. Students are given opportunities to develop the practical fieldwork skills required for this NEA (non-examined assessment) through a residential field trip to Dorset as well as more local fieldwork studies.
