Geography at Tring School empowers students to develop a curiosity about the world around them, developing their exploration and discovery of our rapidly changing environment in both far and near places.
The vision of Geography is to have an exciting and engaging curriculum that creates well rounded ‘Geographical thinkers’. Students will develop a curiosity of both human and physical characteristics of the world, an empathy and understanding of different places and cultures on a range of scales, to be able to think critically and analytically about global events and issues shaping the world. Students will be able to demonstrate a range of transferable skills, gained through fieldwork, wider reading and a range of assessments, throughout their academic life to take into their future study or career.
“I really enjoy learning about different cultures and places that I want to go and explore. I also like learning about how we learn about being more eco-friendly and how to save the planet! The teaching is really engaging and I look forward to the lessons.” Lucy Year 9
"I choose geography because it is extremely interesting and incorporates multiple subjects such as business and maths into it. I like geography because it covers a variety of topics and it is really interesting and fun :)." Jasmin Year 11
How do we implement this?
We have 5 Geography specialists in the department with a wealth of experience and passion for their subject, as well as many other outstanding teachers contributing to the team.
The Geography Learning Journey
shows you the development of key ideas and concepts across the key stages. At all key stages we aim to incorporate fieldwork, numeracy and literacy skills through engaging lessons. A PDF copy of the graphic below is available in the folder at the bottom of this page.
Key Stage 3
The curriculum at key stage three has been designed to draw on ‘big thinking questions’ designed to develop students' geographical questioning and understanding and develop students to be ‘Geographical Thinkers’. The topics cover a range of current affairs, misconceptions and topics we as geography specialists find really interesting!
Assessment across key stages involve a mixture of summative and formative assessments. Summative assessments occur within the topic and can consist of quizzes, posters, 9 markers and beautiful work. Formative assessments are at the end of the topic and consist of tests made of longer, 6 and 9 mark questions and shorter, 1, 2, 4 mark questions.
Students who are enthusiastic and passionate geographers are encouraged to attend Geography club where they can enjoy taking part in a range of practical fun activities, games and quizzes to further their knowledge.
|
YEAR 7 |
YEAR 8 |
YEAR 9 |
|---|---|---|
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What is my place like? |
Which global issue is the most damaging? |
Why are our coastlines so important? |
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Is climate change a real problem? |
How does erosion shape our landscape? |
How does development affect the world? |
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How does water affect people's lives? |
Tectonic Vs Meteorological - which hazard wins? |
How is Africa so diverse? |
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Which biome would I most like to live in and why? |
Should the Amazon be protected? |
Independent project |
Key Stage 4 - GCSE
Students follow the AQA specification commencing at the end of Year 9. The structure of the course is split into papers outlined below and is 100% examined.
Students also get the opportunity to spend two days on fieldtrips. The first field trip takes students to the River Chess where they get to soak up the sun, have a paddle in the river and complete a range of methods to help understand the river in more depth. Their second trip takes students into London where they look at regeneration of chosen areas and investigate how this impacts the locals socially, economically and environmentally.
For more course information please click on this link to the AQA website
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PAPER |
TOPIC |
TIME & PERCENTAGE |
|---|---|---|
|
Paper 1 Living with the physical environment |
|
1 hour and 30 minutes 35% of GCSE |
|
Paper 2 Challenges in the human environment |
|
1 hour and 30 minutes 35% of GCSE |
|
Paper 3 Geographical applications |
|
1 hour and 15 minutes 30% of GCSE |
Celebration of Work
Beautiful Work
Beautiful work is produced by all key stage 3 groups to give students independence and creative autonomy to produce projects answering an enquiry based question. Beautiful work encourages students to develop their written, research and analytical skills to produce fantastic projects that they are incredibly proud of.
EPQ Project
At the end of Year 9 students are given the chance to prepare and develop their enquiry based skills even further by completing a mini EPQ project. This is a smaller version of the EPQ qualification students complete at A level. Students design enquiry questions based on a topic of their choice and then are given time to complete and present their final piece.
NEA
As part of the A level requirement students complete an non-examined assessment piece. Similarly to the Year 9 EPQ students have to design, plan, implement and present a written piece based on either a human or physical topic linked to the specification.
Geography Department
| Subject Leader | Mrs L Jones |
| Assistant Subject Leader | Mr J Stirling |
| Miss B Lawton | |
| Mr I Rogers (Assistant Headteacher) | |
| Mrs L Williams (Assistant Headteacher) |
| Subject Documents |
|---|
| Curriculum Intent |
| Geography Learning Journey (pdf) |