Geography

Our mantra is ‘We Don’t Just Teach Geography We Create Geographers’. We achieve this with our vision.

The Gryphon geography departments vision is to inspire pupils with a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. An enjoyment of space and place understanding is key. We aim to equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources, and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes. The Department encourages our students to develop the scales of interconnection and change over time from place to space.

Department Members

Head of Department:  Nathan Woodville nsw@gryphon.dorset.sch.uk

Mr Woodville, Mrs Olward, Miss Parkes, Mrs Edie, Mrs Dutton, Mis Read, Mr Wake, Mr O’Donnell will cover the following topics in the order below over the year.

KS3 Overview

Assessment

Each topic will have and assessment that will test students, skills, knowledge and application.

Year 7

Autumn 1, Intro into Geography: Looks at local geography. Our aim is for pupils to show their prior Geography knowledge, develop their skills on SPEAK and WRITE like a geographer.

Autumn 2, Population Change: Factors impacting Birth and Death Rate, One China policy in China and the resulting factor of migration and the how sustainable the future becomes with ageing populations.

Spring 1, Focus of Africa: We study the populations, environments and challenges that are faced. Across a range of African countries.

Spring 2, Prisoners of Geography Part I: Political decision of the world, the limitations we have by physical geography. We address technology overcoming obstacles and how advancement has created tensions.

Summer 1, Rapid Rivers: River processes, landform changes, the systems and methods of rivers with links to intense flooding due to changing weather and climate patterns.

Summer 2, River: Fieldwork Focus: Fieldwork Day to look at Rivers. The students can study the infiltration rate across a transect, followed with a formal write up.

Year 8

Autumn 1, Sustainable Solutions: Sustainability, including topics like plastic waste, energy sources, international agreements such as COP conferences, sustainable living, technologies, and cities.

Autumn 2, Cutting Crime: studying the locations of crime and how this link to fear. With wider global views of crime in developing nations and ways to manage and reduce.

Spring 1, People on the Move: Different human and physical reasons for why people migrate, gives students an understanding of diversity and their role as a global citizen.

Spring 2, Weather and Climate: How these weather events occur and the impact that they are having. How these weather events are responded to and consider what possible changes increase the number of tropical storms.

Summer 1, Cool Coasts: Gain an understanding of how these landscapes are formed and changing through the different physical and human processes that occur on the coastline.

Summer 2, Coastal Fieldwork Focus: Develop their understanding using fieldwork to gain an understanding of the process required when completing fieldwork at a coastal location.

Year 9

Autumn 1, Tectonic Hazards: Tectonic hazards are physical geographical features of the world. To know the impacts of these as well as how countries respond and the variation between them.

Autumn 2, Trade and Diamonds: How trade shapes the economics of different countries. The economic sectors e.g Fairtrade. The role of people, organisations and governments in shaping trade relations.

Spring 1, Prisoners of Geography Part II: Geography creates winners and loser for us and themselves. By questioning the political decision of the world, we look at the choice’s governance take.

Spring 2, Cold Environments: From ancient ice ages to present-day glaciers, these regions reveal crucial geological processes. They also host resilient communities like Greenland’s.

Summer 1, EOYE exam and Geography skills: End of year exam that covers all units previously taught. Revision methods and recall tasks are included here.

Summer 2, Ecosystem: Fieldwork: Topic aims to look at, what we use regarding Tropical Rainforest resource management and the impact on Climate Change. Ethical views of Zoology.

Homework

Students will be set an Optional A or B task for each unit each Half term. This will take form of revision materials, model making, long written formats and creative data representations. Below is an overview of each half tern task for KS3 with the suggested activities. (Full clarification will be submitted each half erm via TEAMS).

KS4 Overview

Assessment

Year 10

Autumn 1, Ecosystem, biodiversity and management Covers a range of ecosystems, explores other the rainforest and humans’ relationship with these ecosystems and ways we can manage

Autumn 2, River landscapes: Fluvial processes shape our land, allowing students to explore physical changes over time and study river impacts and flood management

Spring 1, Changing Cities: Studying urban areas helps students understand city development, structures, global variations, and challenges like pollution and overcrowding, while exploring sustainable solutions

Spring 2, Weather and Hazards: Studying global climate patterns to appreciate natural and human-induced climate changes, the impact of droughts and tropical cyclones, and explore mitigation strategies

Summer 1, Coastal Landscapes: Evolution of coastlines due to weather, climate, and erosional forces. The impact of human activities, sustainable coastal management to preserve environments.

Summer 2, Coastal Landscapes Field Trip: Fieldwork Day to look at Coastlines. The students can study the process and landform changes. To prepare for paper 3 exam.

Year 11

Autumn 1, Resource Management: Studying resource demands and their environmental impact across countries, with a focus on water resources, is crucial for managing diverse needs in our finite planet.

Autumn 2, Global Development: Explores the development of nations globally, focusing on the causes and consequences of uneven development through detailed case studies in emerging countries.

Spring 1, UK Challenges: Draw upon students’ knowledge of physical and human geography to investigate contemporary issues, focusing on the four challenges outlined in Topic 8

Spring 2, Geography Skills: We will re-explore geographical, cartographical, analytical, and mathematical skills required through all 3 exams papers

Summer 1, EXAMS: Supporting students prior, between and before each exam is untaken to allowing for the best results for every student in the cohort.

Homework

Homework will be set weekly. Homework assignments will cover a variety of skills, including mathematical, cartographic (including map analysis), photography analysis, and data analysis. Additionally, students can expect exam practice papers, case study revisions, and a range of printed and ICT-based resources available on platforms like TEAMS, Forms Quizzes, websites (including Bitesize and YouTube). Supplementary study notes from their Geography CGP guide will also aid exam preparation.