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Blackfen School for Girls

Blackfen School for Girls

Raising aspirations - releasing potential

Geography

Geography and Travel and Tourism

Welcome to the Geography Department

The Geography department aims to create Geographers, not just students who study Geography.

KS3

In Key Stage 3 the Geography department aims to enthuse students in the subject and the main human and physical processes that are shaping and re shaping our world. The curriculum aims to provide students with transferrable and cross curricula inquiry, data presentation and analytical skills, while providing students with the base for further learning in KS4 and KS5.

Year 7 Overview

Term

Unit of Work

Summary

Term 1

Map Skills
  • Using an OS map: grid references, scale, keys and route planning

Term 1

Ecosystems and Biomes
  • How do global climates affect the distribution of ecosystems?
  • How do biotic and non-biotic ecosystems interact within the ecosystem
  • Tropical Rainforests, Tundra and Polar, Deciduous Woodlands, Taiga, Deserts, Savannah.

Term 2

Geography of the UK
  • What are the UK, British Isles and Great Britain? What is the key physical and human Geography
  • UK Industry, UK Cities, UK climate and weather.

Term 2

Settlement and World Cities
  • What and where are the largest cities in the world? How do cities grow? What issues can this cause?
  • Makoko Shanty Town

Term 3

Tourism
  • What is tourism?  How is the industry changing and what different types of tourism exist in different parts of the world?
  • Benidorm, Blackpool, National Parks
Term 3 India
  • Why is India emerging as a powerful country?
  • Development, Climate, Colonisation, Land Use, Caste System, Globalisation

 

Year 8 Overview

Term

Unit of Work

Summary

Term 1

Rivers and Water
  • What are the key processes that change these physical environments, such as erosion, weathering, transportation and deposition?
  • What landforms occur as a result of these processes?
  • How do humans manage these environments?

Term 1 

Population and Migration
  • How are populations changing in HIC, NEE and LIC world?
  • How do governments manage populations and why?
  • Migration, Immigration, Emigration, Population Pyramids, Dependency Ratio

Term 2

Africa
  • Dispelling myths about Africa. What is the key physical and human Geography?
  • Lagos, Kenya

Term 2

Weather and Climate
  • Global air circulation and the processes in the troposphere that influence our climate.
  • Rainfall Types, Climate Change, Enhanced Green House Effect

Term 3

Coasts
  • What are the key processes that change these physical environments, such as erosion, weathering, transportation and deposition?
  • What landforms occur as a result of these processes
  • How do humans manage these environments?
Term 3 Development
  • What is development? How do we measure it? What factors cause it and how it is changing the human Geography of the world?

 

Year 9 Overview

Term

Unit of Work

Summary

Term 1

Hazards, plate tectonics, volcanoes and earthquakes

  • What is the physical Geography that creates these hazards?
  • What impact do they have on people?
  • How can these events be managed?

Term 1

China

  • Emergence of China as a superpower and the impact that this process is having on Chinese society
  • One Child Policy, Development, Trade, Human Rights.
Term 2 Weather Hazards
  • Cause and effects of tropical storms
  • Droughts, Greenhouse Effects
Term 2 Resources
  • What are resources? Ideas of surplus and deficit and the impacts of each
  • Energy, Water, Food

Term 3

Crime
  • How does the built environment create different types of crime and how can crime be managed?
  • Knife Crime, Corporate Crime, Environmental Crime

Term 3

Geography of terrorism
  • How are different terrorism groups dispersed around the world? Is there a link between Geography and ideology?
  • Mapping global conflicts, Heroin Trail, Blood Diamonds.

 

KS4 

Welcome to Geography

The subject is a popular option choice at KS4. In year 10 and 11 we currently offer the AQA GCSE syllabus, grade 9-1. Like many other GCSEs the course is linear with three external exams at the end of Year 11. Paper 1 and 2 are worth 35% each, with paper 3 worth 30%. As part of the course there is compulsory fieldwork to: Darenth valley and Sidcup town centre.

Term

Unit of Work

Summary

Term 1

UK physical environments and rivers
  • Where are the UK’s major lowland/upland and river systems?
  • How do rivers change from source to mouth?
  • How do river features form?
  • How are rivers managed to prevent flooding?

Term 1 

River Fieldwork
  • How does the Darent river change from source to mouth

Term 1&2

Economic World
  • Why are countries at differing levels of economic development?
  • Which strategies are successful in reducing the development gap?
  • What are the social, cultural, environmental and economic consequences are rapidly developing countries?

Term 2

Urban issues
  • Why are more and more people living in urban areas?
  • How are cities growing in rapidly developing countries?
  • What are the social, cultural, environmental and economic consequences are rapidly developing cities?

Term 2

Coasts
  • Which processes shape the coastline?
  • Why does the coast have distinctive landforms?
  • Which strategies are used to protect the coast from physical processes?

Term 3

Resource management
  • Why are resources unevenly spread across the globe?
  • What is the link between resource supply and consumption?

Term 3

Water resources
  • Why is there likely to be conflict over the supply of water?
  • Which strategies are used to increase water supply?
Term 4 Ecosystems and Tropical rainforests
  • Where are biomes located?
  • Why does the rainforest have distinctive characteristics?
  • What are the causes and effects of deforestation?
Term 4 Hot deserts
  • What are the distinctive characteristics of hot deserts?
  • What challenges and opportunities do hot deserts present?
  • Which areas are at risk of desertification?
Term 5

Natural hazards and tectonics    

  • What are natural disasters?
  • What are the causes and effects of volcanic and seismic hazards
  • How do the effect and responses vary between countries of different levels of development?
Term 5

Urban fieldwork

Weather hazards
  • Bexleyheath town centre
  • What is the global weather pattern?
  • Why do tropical storms develop?
  • What are the effects of tropical storms?
  • Why does the UK experience weather hazards?
Term 5 Climate change
  • What are the human and physical causes of climate change?
  • How can the effects be mitigated?
Term 6 Issue evaluation
  • Pre-release booklet from the exam board