Geography
The aim of Geography is to inspire awe and wonder about the Earth, its landscapes and the people that live in it. Geography allows young people to understand the processes that have shaped our world and how people interact within it.
Through our sequenced curriculum, students at ICA will develop their geographical skills, including locational skills, analysis and problem solving. We aim for them to ‘think like geographers’ which means they should be able to identify connections between different aspects of the subject to develop a sense of place, economic activities or natural earth processes and to recognise that different people use and perceive their worlds differently.
Students learn a mixture of physical and human geography topics at KS3. These aim to build upon and expand knowledge throughout. The curriculum has been carefully sequenced to introduce pupils to a variety of places, geographical concepts, processes, and issues. The thematic approach ensures that knowledge is acquired then developed over time. For example, in Year 7 students learn about Development and the differences in richer and poorer parts of the world. They continue to revisit key skills from this unit during Year 8 in Population and further in Year 9 in Life in an Emerging Economy. The curriculum offered ensures that the National Curriculum requirements for Geography are fully met.
During the KS3 geography curriculum students use a variety of sources to infer, describe and analyse information from. Such as graphs, maps and diagrams. As students’ knowledge and understanding develop within a unit, there are opportunities to apply this understanding via decision-making activities and geographical enquiries. This approach ensures that pupils are given every opportunity to apply their understanding and think like geographers.
The curriculum has been sequenced to encourage increasing cognitive demand from Year 7 onwards. As students’ progress through the curriculum, expectations around understanding and application increases. Students acquire knowledge and the foundations of the subject in Year 7, but in expectations of written responses, the depth of understanding increases year on year. Therefore, by the end of Key Stage 3, students should be able to apply their knowledge and understanding, think like geographers, take part in geographical debates, and be able to engage with enquiry in the subject.