Geography
Key Stage 3 Geography Curriculum Intent
‘We aim to create confident individuals, who have a well-established resilience and a passion for continued self-improvement. The students who are moulded from the Humanities department at Holmesdale will be able to make informed decisions and judgements about the past, present and future. Being critical thinkers who have developed a strong set of values and responsibility’.
The Holmesdale School Humanities department is committed to providing a curriculum that is broad, balanced, challenging and fosters a love of learning. We match our curriculum to the abilities, interests, and aspirations of our students, to give every child the opportunity to strive for personal excellence. Our curriculum aims to open doors for every pupil, and we therefore value the contribution that creative, practical and vocational learning brings to a child’s development alongside the traditional subjects. Our hope is that every child who leaves The Holmesdale School has the qualifications, skills, knowledge and character to access aspirational Post-16 opportunities and to lead a life that includes positive relationships, resilience and financial independence.
The Humanities curriculum has been built around a skills and concept based design in order to develop students that have a broad understanding of a variety of topics with the subjects offered, whilst also developing a practised understanding of transferable skills for students that choose to continue Humanities subjects at GCSE. Emphasis on assessment and feedback of skills within units and across the units of years 7, 8 and 9, allow for students to practise and master those skills by the end of the key stage. This encourages students to be at a level by the start of year 10 that promotes progress and successful outcomes, as emphasised in the school’s vision.
All students are exposed to the same topics throughout all key stages. The learning objectives are progressive so that all students are able to access the higher level knowledge and skills required. As well as this, tasks within all lessons are progressive in nature to promote development. There is an emphasis on the consistently strong delivery of lessons so that all students are included and supported within Humanities. The department caters for the provision of key groups including SEND, Pupil Premium and HPA students through firstly ensuring that positive relationships are built and fostered between staff and pupils. This ensures a positive learning environment where students are confident to try, make suggestions and develop buoyancy in their subject area. Where appropriate, resources are differentiated to support the processing of a given task in order to facilitate access to the learning objective and in compliance with the schools teaching and learning priorities.
The KS3 Geography curriculum follows a skills and concepts based curriculum. These key concepts have been selected through the themes that exist in the AQA Geography GCSE specification. They are mapped throughout the KS3 curriculum in order to create a strong foundation for start of the KS4 curriculum in year 9. The learning objectives for every lesson are written using the command words from the AQA specification as well as this, the success criteria’s have been written using the mark schemes. Lessons are taught through two, one hour lessons a week for year 7 and year 8. Key stage 3 Geography is a springboard not just towards further study at GCSE and A level but also to aid our pupils in their journey to becoming well-rounded adults who can contribute positively to their local and global community. Knowledge, application and skills are at the core of our 21st century curriculum. We will support the pupils to develop the essential employability, enterprise & transferable skills in information technology and data/resource analysis and interpretation through the curriculum content and how it is taught and delivered.
Key Stage 3 - Geography Overview
