Geography
Welcome to the Geography Department
‘Everything has to do with Geography’
Geography Curriculum Intent
Michael Palin said that ‘geography explains the past, illuminates the present, and prepares us for the future’ 2007. At Wixams academy we believe in developing the future global citizens of the world. Our KS3 Geography Curriculum enables student to explore the physical, human and environmental aspects of the world they will be a part of. Exploring these issues and interaction between them ensures students leave KS3 with a breadth of knowledge about the world they will be entering and the people who live in it. At KS4 students take these concepts deeper and begin to assess them and explore their complexity. This develops high level academic answers but also develops the mind-set of a trulyreflective global citizen. Our students question what, why, who and how about all aspects of the world and learn how to answer those questions using geographical skills, data collection and GIS; preparing them for academic research in higher education or for the employment sector.
Key Features
At Key Stage 3
- Geographical Skills – Mapwork/graph work and decision making (including fieldwork skills)
- Continent studies – Asia and Africa
- Natural Hazards – Weather related hazard events – Including school based fieldwork.
- Biomes – Study of the global biomes and key characteristics
- Global issues- Climate change & human impacts on biosphere
- Population and development – Including local fieldwork.
- Restless earth – Tectonic Hazards, including drop down STEM day.
- Fieldtrips include local study – Wixams retirement village and Kew Gardens, London.
At Key Stage 4
Students follow the GCSE syllabus set out by Edexcel Syllabus B 1GB0
Global Geographical Issues (Unit 1)
- Hazardous Earth
- Development Dilemmas
- Challenges of an Urbanising world
UK Geographical Issues (Unit 2)
- The UK’s evolving physical landscape
- The UK’s evolving human landscape including the study of a major UK city
- Geographical Investigations including one physical fieldwork (rivers) and one human fieldwork investigation (urban)
People & Environmental Issues – Making Geographical Decisions (Unit 3)
- People & the Biosphere
- Forests Under Threat
- Consuming Energy Resources
Extra Opportunities
KS3:
Students take part in two local fieldwork studies and have the opportunity to attend a trip to Kew gardens, London.
KS4:
Students attend two compulsory fieldwork collection days. One physical river study in Amersham and one Urban study in Milton Keynes.
Optional foreign fieldtrip to include Azores, Iceland or Italy on a rotation basis.
