Geography - Kirkbie Kendal School

“Geography explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future. What could be more important than that?”
Michael Palin 2007

Year 7

Geography is delivered in all Primary schools, but often as part of a project and pupils rarely come to Secondary school with any understanding of the subject past it involving maps! At KKS we aim to embed these skills and develop a sense of place in the first term with local based geography. The following units allow pupils to gain an understanding of the world and their place within it.

	Autumn Term Our local Geography	Spring Half Term 3 Rivers	Spring Half Term 4 Globalisation	Summer Term 5 Tropical Rainforests	Summer Term 6 Tourism
Curriculum Knowledge	Development of Mapskills: grid references, scale, contours, direction, symbols Investigation of Settlement – developments over time, reasons for Kendal, structure, reasons for location	River processes River landforms – waterfalls and meanders River Management – Hard and Soft	Using sporting links to investigate the world in terms of distribution and wealth. How do we measure development? Sweatshops and Fairtrade	Where are TRF? What is the climate? What is the structure? How are organisms adapted for TRF? What causes deforestation and what are the impacts?	What is tourism? What are physical and human attractions? What are the impacts of tourism?
Subject Skills	Throughout our studies we will develop the following skills: Mapskills and interpretation Description and explanation Justifying opinion and constructing a balanced argument A continuing introduction of key terms and reminders of them.
How can you help your child engage with the content?	Offer your child the chance to map read, using a phone or map book whilst travelling or walking.Whilst in Kendal look at historical Kendal street information and discuss how Kendal has changed over time.Geocaching – lots of fun for the competitive!	When walking identify river landforms and discuss how they form.	Look at items around the home, where do they come from? Does anything surprise you?	Watch Nature documentaries on BBC iPlayer	Watch The Lakes with Simon Reeve on iPlayer
Curriculum Opportunities	Fieldwork walk during a lesson to complete land use survey and investigate Kendal’s past.	Field Sketching the River Kent	Investigate 10 items in your home. How are you linked to the rest of the world? Does anything surprise you?	Take on a debate and make sure your voice is heard!
Carreer links	Town planner Cartographer	Hydrologist	Sports development officer	Forester	Travel and tourism agent

Year 8

Our Y8 curriculum building on skills and knowledge taught in Y7. The Coasts topic for example echoes the physical processes that pupils learn in Y7 Rivers. The geographical skills of enquiry, appreciation of scale and being able to construct a balance argument are threaded through our lessons. The assessments come in traditional tests, but with the beginnings of extended responses that pupils can expect at GCSE.

	Autumn Term 1 Coasts	Autumn Term 2 Antarctica	Spring Half Term 3 Earthquakes and Volcanoes	Spring Half Term 4 Food and farming	Summer Term Africa and Europe
Curriculum content	What are coastal processes? How do erosion and deposition create coastal landforms? How can coasts be managed using hard and soft engineering strategies?	Where is Antarctica? What is the climate? How do animals survive there? Who owes Antarctica? Should development be allowed?	What is the structure of Earth? What happens at plate boundaries? How do volcanoes and earthquakes happen? What are the causes, effects and responses to a tectonic event?	What are the difference types of farming found in the UK? Where does a range of farming take place? How has farming changed? What is organic food and does it make a difference?	What is the physical geography of Africa? Why is Africa so special? Do we have preconceptions about ‘Africa’? How can we measure wealth? A comparison between areas allowing variety to be investigated and an broader understanding gained.
Key Skills	Throughout our studies we will develop the following skills: Mapskills and interpretation Description and explanation Justifying opinion and constructing a balanced argument A continuing introduction of key terms and reminders of them and link back to Year 7.
How can you engage with your child?	Visit the beach! Watch the BBC Coasts programme	Listen out for any news about Antarctica melting.Talk about any current news on climate change and how it might affect Antarctica.	Watch the news to keep up to date with events that would be considered as natural hazards. Visits to ‘Dynamic Earth’ centre in Edinburgh and ‘Natural History’ museum in London	Read the countries of origin on your food. How far has your food travelled? Speak to family and friends involved in local farming. How has local farming changed? Have the changes been for the best?	Watch documentaries such as ‘Africa with Ade Adepitan‘ on BBC iPlayer
Curriculum Opportunities	Fieldwork to Morecambe to investigate coastal defences			Organic food – can you taste the difference?
Career links	Civic design and engineer	Antarctica Scientist	Volcanologist	Logistics planner	Oil rigs

Year 9

Y9 Geography allows pupils to place themselves and their actions in a global context and broadens their understanding of global issues which they will experience moving forward. The topics allow pupils to experience some of the GCSE topics in a basic for and allow them to select the GCSE with a greater understanding of what will be covered. Assessments require knowledge, but an increasing amount of marks are allocated to application of this knowledge, a skill they will need moving forward to GCSEs.

	Autumn Term 1 Population and migration	Autumn Term 2 Weather and flooding	Spring Half Term 3 Energy	Spring Half Term 4 Decision making	Summer Term GCSE Living World
Curriculum content	What impacts on population distribution? Investigation into the population of Australia. Population pyramids Causes of migration Impacts of migration	What gives the UK it’s weather? How are weather patterns changing over time? Investigation of extreme weather and how this can cause flooding.Case study: Storm Desmond	What are renewable and non-renewable energy sources? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of energy sources? Calculating carbon footprints and investigating ways to reduce our impact.	Presentation of dataInterpretation of dataUsing a range of sources to form make a decision	What is an ecosystem? Where are the major world biomes? Tropical Rainforests – location, climate, adaptations, managementLocated example: Malaysia Cold environments in Y10
Key Skills	Throughout our studies we will develop the following skills:Mapskills and interpretationDescription and explanationJustifying opinion and constructing a balanced argumentA continuing introduction of key terms and reminders of them and link back to years 7 and 8.
How can you engage with your child?	Watching any of the population lecture given by Hans Rosling on youtube.https://www. youtube.com /watch?v=Z8t4k0Q8e8Y	Watch documentaries such as ‘Climate Change’: The Facts on BBC (available on clickview).Watch and discuss issues in the news related the the climate crisis.	Discuss the energy use in your home. Calculate the household carbon footprint? https:// footprint.wwf .org.uk/#/	Watch the news and discuss the stories together. What do you think and why? The key is being able to support your points.Here are some debates to get you thinking! BBC Teach Geography	Whilst walking in woods look at the structure and the components. How do they interact with each other? How is the area managed? Take care in a guided peat restoration session, or a beach clean, or a tree planting. It is a great family day out and you are making a difference.For example the Cumbria Wildlife Trust run a range of events you could get involved in. Watch any BBC documentary on Nature, e.g. The Green Planet
Curriculum Opportunities		Flood defence visit and discussion with the Environment Agency	Visit to Heysham Power Station and the Lancaster Co-housing Project		Walk to local woodland to investigate our local ecosystemsLocal tree planting.
Career links	Working on the census collection	Meterologist	Watch the Powering Britain BBC series. A huge range of careers discussed. Powering Britain BBC		Ecologist Scientist Conservationist Town planner