Geography Curriculum Philosophy and Intent Statement
Our passion for teaching students geography is one we aim to transfer to our students and reflects our strong belief that, by developing a better understanding of the world around us, students can make informed decisions and judgements about issues that can have a considerable impact on our planet.
Our rigorous Geography curriculum teaches students a rich knowledge and understanding of a broad variety of places and environments around our world. This insight into a range of cultures and environments stimulates student thinking about the many impacts that natural process on our planet can have towards people and their environment. Crucially, we teach students how people can work in partnership with each other and our planet, to minimise our impact and manage the planets precious resources, ensuring that future generations enjoy the benefits of the one key element we all have in common, our relatively small world. Through our students growing knowledge and understanding of human geography, students become increasingly tolerant, appreciative and accepting of life in other cultures, along with their traditions and values, as well as becoming aware of the many disparities that exist locally, nationally and globally. Geography teaching also inspires students to find out about our physical world and the considerable, and often devastating, power that the forces of nature can unleash on people, communities and civilisation in an instant. Students learn about responsibility and the importance of sustainable development, making sure that our actions today do not compromise the lives of future generations on our planet, preserving and providing balance for our common future.
As well as a global aspect to our curriculum, students also develop an understanding about our nation and their local area, comparing their life in this area with that in other regions in the UK, at a variety of scales. The important philosophy of ‘think global act local’ is a key message running throughout our curriculum, promoting awareness of the fact that even our own individual small actions at a local scale, when brought together, have great power to change global outcomes both at that moment in time and potentially for generations to come. In addition to the development of knowledge and understanding, students learn a variety of important skills through the curriculum, learning how to draw and interpret maps and develop the skills of research, investigation, analysis and problem-solving in order to successfully navigate the world around us. Through Geography, we also encourage students to gain a greater awareness of global debates, issues and current affairs and actively promote discussion, improving resilience, communication skills and the ability to develop and justify an evidenced argument. Geography develops strong cross curricular links and provide students with invaluable transferable skills that can be applied across a range of other subjects.
Through a broad curriculum, academic rigour and instilling a passion for Geography, we recognise the importance that the curriculum has is developing our students into responsible members of society. We want to develop students that are aware of their current actions, appreciate future consequences, and understand our place in the world. As the custodians of our planet in the future, we need to make sure that they are ready to play their part in preserving and shaping our ever changing world.