Geography Department - Overarching Curriculum Intent (September 2023) 

RFSS Curriculum Vision Statement: 

Geography is about understanding the world around us.  Where, why and how events in the world happen.  It encourages a curious mind and to ask as many questions as they find answers.   

We are preparing our students to have an interest and knowledge of the world around them.  The human and physical landscapes that shape our  world and their lives.   

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To become global citizens with a view as being a part of the world, not just a bystander looking from the outside.   

Geography Curriculum in Context: 

We provide a carefully sequenced and knowledge rich Geography curriculum that allows for the progressive development of students understanding of geographical concepts and skills. From Year 7 through to eventual A Level, students will hone in on concepts such as cause and effect, management, sustainability and conflict whilst developing skills such as drawing and reading graphs, reading maps and photo analysis. 

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Our curriculum comprises a balance of human and physical Geography. Each student is provided with a visual curriculum map to ensure they are aware of their learning journey. We want our students to be curious about the world around them. To encourage this, each unit begins with an enquiry question. Throughout the unit, students become equipped with the knowledge and skills required to answer this question. This guides the lesson sequence and allows us to measure the impact of our curriculum. 

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Without a strong starting point, it is impossible to measure progress effectively. Therefore, every student completes a baseline assessment at the beginning of Year 7. We have a large number of feeder schools so it is important to gain an understanding of what a student knows and can do, as well as any gaps in their learning. This information is then used to inform the scaffolding and level of challenge required in the first unit, Fantastic places. This unit focuses on the concept of scale and provides students with a grounding in geographical skills. 

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Concepts and skills are continuously revisited, but in a more challenging capacity. For example, in Year 7 students are introduced to the concept of development and the many ways it can be measured. In Year 8, students revisit this concept when assessing the impacts of natural hazards, and why this varies across the world.  By revisiting concepts in different contexts, students can begin to make connections and develop their schema. 

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Every subject is communicated through its own unique language. Our curriculum develops student’s disciplinary literacy by providing opportunities to read and actively engage with challenging geographical texts. Some examples include extracts from Prisoners of Geography and Factfulness, as well as a range of articles, policy documents and fiction texts. We encourage students to strengthen their oracy when discussing and presenting ideas, and provide explicit vocabulary instruction to support students in accessing and using geographical terminology. 

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Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction (2012) and Doug Lemov’s Teach like a Champion (2014) strategies are employed to develop our teaching practice in Geography. We ensure students retain knowledge by interleaving learning. This leads to improved knowledge retention and allows students to make connections between concepts and ideas. Retrieval practice is used in every lesson in the form of Do IT Now Activities (DIN) to ensure students are constantly reviewing their learning and addressing misconceptions. We provide guided practice through the ‘I, We, You’ method and show call students work to maximise accountability and build resilience. 

Curriculum Aims: 

Our curriculum aims to: 

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• To have curious students, who ask questions and to enable them to think critically about Geography and communicate confidently through their writing and oracy.  

• To develop a geographer in every student.  To have the skills, confidence and knowledge to be able to become global citizens.  Having the ability to make their own judgements and ideas based on a strong foundational knowledge.  

• To nurture a passion for Geography.  To be able to appreciate the world around them.  To give students a thirst to know about and see the world.  

• To enable students to question the world around them, not just accept what they are told.  To be able to filter from all the noise of information.  

We do this by: 

• Building a sequenced curriculum that enables students to engage in geography, developing the skills necessary to become a geographer  

•  Providing opportunities and encouraging students to stretch and challenge their knowledge and understanding beyond the classroom.  

• To ask “big” questions that stretch and challenge their understanding of the world.  

• Building opportunities for our students to engage in fieldwork, proving them with the skills and techniques in carrying out investigations.  

• Building a sequenced curriculum which presents opportunities for our students to engage with the disciplinary knowledge that underpins our subject, second order concepts such as cause, consequence, change and continuity. 

• Providing a geographical framework to help our students make sense of the world, beyond their own.  

• Provide the foundations for all our students to become global citizens  

Curriculum Outcome: 

By the time students leave RFSS, they will: 

• Have secure knowledge of where places are and what they are like 

• Have respect and appreciation of diverse places, cultures, people and resources 

• Have an understanding of the complex interrelations of the human and physical world 

• Be able to express well-balanced opinions and support, evaluate and challenge the opinions of others 

• Be able to plan, conduct and evaluate fieldwork collaboratively using geographical skills and techniques 

• Be passionate about Geography and continue to be curious about our ever changing world.