Geography - Secondary

The geography curriculum at NIA aims to raise awareness of learning about human and physical topics on both a local and global scale. Our students will learn about their planet outside of the classroom, assessing the spatial and temporal factors that have shaped it, and the impact it has on their lives. Within each key stage students at NIA will learn physical and human geography to understand how their planet works, the impact they can have on this and the consequences of these actions on themselves and future generations in their local community, nationally and internationally.

Within Key Stage 3, students will focus on the core geographical skills allowing them to access the wide range of topics. These topics start in year 7 with the science of the world, building up to topics in year 8 such as current issues and worldly topics, moving further in year 9 to looking at the crucial need for sustainable development.

The inclusion of such a wide range of core geographical skills taught in Key Stage 3 allows the curriculum to move forward in Key Stage 4 to more in-depth topics that focus on the UK in Year 10 and topics around the world in Year 11. Students are able to work on their map and field skills along with written skills such as explanation and evaluation to ensure that they are able to effectively communicate their learning and understanding.

All geographical skills and focus are taken to a higher academic level in Key Stage 5 where students begin to analyse the interconnectivity between all aspects of geography, take more ownership over their learning and adapt their skills to learn more in depth topics. They are also able to apply this to an individual NEA.

Throughout the key stages, students will learn where and how the geographical skills could be using in their future careers. Different tasks within lessons will show students how their learnt skills can be applied to different situations and encouraged to note the types of careers they would be needed or useful for.

Careers:

Students who study Geography are very employable, with the skills, knowledge and understanding gained during this subject held in high regard by employers, as they are highly transferable. As part of our curriculum Geography provides transferable skills such as:

• Being a good communicator with strong presentation skills
• Being able to carry out research
• Being used to working effectively in a team and taking a variety of roles in a team
• Being able to manage your time by juggling commitments, meeting deadlines and managing stress
• Being good at combining information from a variety of sources with excellent writing skills

Geography provides with subject specific skills, such as:

• Scientific and lab skills
• Producing and interpreting maps
• Research and interpretation of data, including GIS skills
• Environmental and social awareness
• Team-based project work
• Fieldwork techniques

There are a multitude of different careers geography can feed into such as town planning, disaster management and environmental and waste management to name but a few.