We are a highly-successful Department with four dedicated specialist teaching staff. All students receive four lessons per fortnight in Geography in Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. We have an exciting fast-paced curriculum that builds students' knowledge, confidence and skills in Geography through the learning of place, space, scale, location and interconnections.

Students will experience a range of teaching strategies, which aim to encourage them to be independent learners. Key Stage 3 Geography homework consists of GeoPacks in which the students will undertake their own research and tasks so that they are given an opportunity to take control of their own learning at home and allow for parents/guardians to become directly involved in students' learning.

Topics studied at Key Stage 3 include: Weather and Climate, Climate Change, Natural Hazards, Globalisation and Russia. At Key Stage 3 there is a clear focus on developing the students understanding of Geographical processes and skills, which means that our students will work with a wide range of resources from maps, atlases, fieldwork equipment and graphs so that the students have every opportunity to build an understanding of the subject.

Geography is offered as an Option at GCSE and we currently follow the AQA course. Topics are broken down between Human and Physical Geography. Human Geography has a focus on Resources, Urban Issues and Challenges and The Economic World. Physical Geography has a focus on Natural Hazards, Ecosystems and Physical Landscapes of the UK. There is also an Issue Evaluation section, in which the students undertaken fieldwork investigations in a Human and Physical environment and will be assessed on a range of their data collection, presentation and evaluation.

Year 7 Curriculum

Topics studied in Year 7 include:

• What is Geography- Continents, British Isles and Fieldwork.
• Mastering Map Skills- Grid References, Symbols, Scale and Latitude & Longitude.
• Extreme Environments- Las Vegas, Tesso Nilo, Volcanoes and Earthquakes.
• Wondering about Weather- Weather, Air Masses, Fieldwork, Rainfall and Tropical Storms.
• Adventure Into Africa- Blood Diamonds, Climate Zones, Piracy and White Slums.
• Curious About Climate Change- Causes, Effects and Impacts on Continents.

Year 8 Curriculum

Topics studies in Year 8 include:

• Popping Population- Population Growth, Mega-cities, Resource Pressure and Population Control (including Russia and China).
• Crazy Coasts- Processes, Landforms and Coastal Management.
• Raging Rivers- Fieldwork, Processes, Landforms, Flooding and River Management.
• Diving Into Development- Development Indicators, Globalisation, TNCs, Diseases and Food Miles.
• Russia and the Radical North- Biomes of Russia, Russian Politics, Living in the Tundra, Arctic Conflict.

Year 9 Curriculum

The GCSE course provides a broad overview of key events from Human and Physical Geography and provides the students with an insight in to social, economic, environmental, political and geopolitical Geography. The course develops students' analysis, justification, evaluation and research skills, all of which are invaluable to future colleges, universities and employers. Pupils at GCSE level will be supported with a fully comprehensive revision programme.

In Year 9 we start the GCSE course with:

• Natural Hazards: Starting with tectonic hazards with a focus on earthquakes and some new case studies including Japan. Then moving on to climatic hazards with a look at tropical storms, weather hazards in the UK and the causes, impacts and management of climate change.
• The Living World: Students are introduced to ecosystems at a small-scale, looking at producers, consumers and predators and how food chains work. This will move on to large scale ecosystems with a focus on characteristics, adaptations and challenges faced in Tropical Rainforests and Deserts.

Year 10 Curriculum

In Year 10, we will look at:

• Urban Issues and Challenges: Looking in to the push and pull factors to and from major cities and the emergence of mega cities. Students will compare the opportunities and challenges found in a city in a Higher Income Country versus a city in a Lower Income Country. This knowledge will be used to complete an urban area fieldwork investigation.
• Physical Landscapes in the UK (Coasts): This will look at the processes, landforms and mass movement seen along UK coastlines. There will be a focus on case study material when looking at what coastal management has been put in place around the UK.
• Physical Landscapes in the UK (Rivers): This will look in to the processes, landforms, causes of flooding and management found along rivers, with a key focus on case study material. This will set the students up with the knowledge to complete rivers fieldwork at the end of Year 10.

Year 11 Curriculum

In Year 11, we will finish with:

• The Changing Economic World: The final year looks in to how the economy of the world is changing and why some countries need aid and support in order to develop. The students will make comparisons between the development of a Lower Income Country (Nigeria) and the development of a Higher Income Country (The UK).
• Resource Management: An insight in to the pressure of resources in the UK from energy, food and water and how we are trying to improve our supply of these resources. Then a more global look in to the pressure put on water supplies, the impacts that this has on people and how countries are trying to increase water supply.
• Pre-Release: A Pre-Release booklet is released in March on a specific topic from the AQA specification, in which the students are taught in preparation for Paper 3. Previous years has seen the pre-release focus on water reserves in the UK, road development in a rainforest and slums in Africa and Asia.

Year 12 and Year 13 Curriculum

A-Level Geography has developed a fantastic reputation at Higham Lane School, with exceptionally high standards being set and outstanding results being achieved. Students will follow the Edexcel exam board and will sit three exam papers at the end of Year 13 (Paper 1- Physical, Paper 2- Human and Paper 3- Synoptic) and will complete an assessed independent investigation worth 20%. Students study:

• Tectonic Hazards and Processes
• Coastal Landscapes
• The Water Cycle
• The Carbon Cycle
• Diverse Places
• Globalisation
• Superpowers
• Human Rights

In addition, they will partake in two fieldwork trips, one to be shown how to collect data and another to collect their own data on a Physical or Human study of their choice.

Extra-curricular Activities

The Geography Department are committed to offering trips and activities which complement students' studies with opportunities in each year group, with GCSE students going to a river site and urban site to collect their fieldwork and A-Level students taken to areas to collect their NEA data such as Southwold, Wales, Norfolk and Northumberland.

The department also look to organise international trips every academic year, with successful trips to Iceland and Italy and the upcoming 2023 USA Tour including Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. There is also a 2024 Norway trip in the planning process.

D Turley, Subject Leader for Geography