--- title: "Geography" url: "https://www.st-wilfrids.org/curriculum/subjects/geography" school: "St. Wilfrid's R.C. College, South Shields" --- # Geography ![Geography banner](https://www.st-wilfrids.org/images/gallery/curriculum-image/250623St_Wilfrid_RC_School___233-2.jpg) # Geography Curriculum Understanding our planet, shaping our future. ![Geography](https://www.st-wilfrids.org/images/lo.png) ## Why study Geography? ### What geography develops - Linking arts and sciences covering global issues - Critical thinking skills like data analysis and essay writing - A facilitating subject that opens the door to a wide range of careers - A deeper understanding of the world ### Student voice “I love geography because it helps me to understand more about our world. I really enjoy learning about why populations change and different push and pull factors.” **Laura, Year 7** - KS3 Geography (Y7–9) - KS4 Geography - KS5 Geography Key Stage 3 Geography– Cycle Overview Cycle 1 #### Year 7 – Is our view of the world accurate and how is the United Kingdom changing? - Classification of countries: LIC, NIC, HIC - Measures of development: Social and Economic - Life in HICs and LICs - Climate change - Population density and distribution - Population change - Migration-causes and consequences - Settlement change-traffic issues - Environmental changes now and in the future #### Key skills - Map skills-location - Photograph interpretation - Annotations - Fieldwork-primary data collection - Explanations - Classifications - Analysing data - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Anthropogenic - Deprivation - Life expectancy - Literacy rate - Perception - Quality of life - Standard of living - Infrastructure - Industrialisation - Population density - Population distribution - Quality of life - Standard of living - Sustainability #### Year 8 – Our restless earth. Is Russia a prisoner of geography? #### Knowledge focus - Location of tectonic hazards - Structure of the earth - Plate boundaries: characteristics and landforms - Hazards \[volcano, earthquake and tsunami\]: causes, impacts and responses - Location of Russia as a transcontinental country - Physical landscape - Climate features - Population distribution and characteristics - Russia’s resources - Russia as a superpower #### Key skills - Map skills-location - Photograph interpretation - Annotations - Explanations-chains of reasoning - Sequencing landforms - Climate graphs and population pyramids - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Convection currents - Conservative Plate - Constructive Plate - Destructive Plate - Dormant - Magnitude - Subduction - Superpower - Territory - Transcontinental - Populated - Distribution - Anomaly - Biomes - Polar Cell - Ferrel Cell - Global atmospheric Circulation - Life expectancy - Infant mortality rate - Economically active #### Year 9 – Our restless earth #### Knowledge focus - Location of tectonic hazards - Structure of the earth - Plate boundaries: characteristics and landforms - Hazards \[volcano, earthquake and tsunami\]: causes, impacts and responses #### Key skills - Map skills-location - Photograph interpretation - Annotations - Explanations-chains of reasoning - Sequencing landforms - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Convection currents - Conservative Plate - Constructive Plate - Destructive Plate - Dormant - Hot Spot - Magnitude - Pyroclastic flow - Subduction - Viscosity Cycle 2 #### Year 7 – How do rivers change the landscape? #### Knowledge focus - Sections of a river-profile, characteristics and landforms - Factors influencing erosion, transportation and deposition - Drainage basin hydrological cycle and flood risk - Causes, impacts and management of flooding now and in the future #### Key skills - Photo analysis-labels and annotations - Sequencing landform formation - Explanations - Decision making - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Long profile - Cross profile - Source - Mouth - Erosion - Transportation - Deposition - Abrasion - Attrition - Hydraulic Action - Solution - Slip-off slope - Interception - Precipitation - Geology - Urbanisation - Impermeable - Monsoon - Hard engineering - Soft engineering #### Year 7 – 2b – Are tropical rainforests at risk? #### Knowledge focus - Location using map skills - Describing distributions - Explanations-Chains of reasoning - Decision making - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer #### Key skills - Photo analysis-labels and annotations - Sequencing landform formation - Explanations - Decision making - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Ecosystem - Biome - Biotic - Abiotic - Flora - Fauna - Adaptation - Food chain - Food web - Consumer - Producer - Decomposer - Nutrient cycle - Sustainable - Sustainable management #### Year 8 – 2a-How are cities changing? #### Knowledge focus - Job sectors - Deindustrialisation: causes and consequences - Urban decline - Brownfield development vs greenfield development - Sustainable cities #### Key skills - Explanations-chains of reasoning - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer - Decision making #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Primary - Secondary - Tertiary - Quaternary - Clark-Fisher model - Deindustrialisation - North-South Divide - Globalisation - Mechanisation - Negative multiplier effect - Regeneration - Stakeholders - Investment - Brownfield - Greenfield - Urban Sprawl - Sustainable city #### Year 8 – 2b-How are coasts changing? #### Knowledge focus - High energy coastlines: characteristics, processes and landforms - Low energy coastlines: characteristics, processes and landforms - Factors influencing erosion, transportation and deposition - Landslides and the role of mass movement - Coastal landform change: management now and in the future #### Key skills - Photo analysis-labels and annotations - Sequencing landform formation - Explanations - Decision making - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer - Field work: Secondary data #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Hydraulic Action - Salt Crystallisation - Destructive Wave - Hard Engineering - Solution - Attrition - Constructive Wave - Soft Engineering - Freeze Thaw - Longshore Drift #### Year 9 – Health and wealth #### Knowledge focus - Measures of social development - Impact of health on development of a country - Famine: Causes, effects and responses - Malaria: Causes, effects and responses - HIV: Causes, effects and responses - Future of health and wealth #### Key skills - Decision making - Describing patterns and trends using maps and graphs - Location on maps - Explanations-Chains of reasoning - Classifying-social, economic, environmental, political, short-term and long-term - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Literacy Rates - Number of doctors per people - GDP (Gross Disposable Income) Per Person - Infant Mortality Rate - Birth Rate - Death Rate - Famine - Malaria - Microfinance - Debt Relief Cycle 3 #### Year 7 – 3a-How are populations changing? #### Knowledge focus - Demographics-Demographic Transition Model - Population pyramids - Push and pull factors for rural-urban migration in LICs - Counter-urbanisation in HICs - Ageing and Youthful populations-causes, impacts and responses - Malthus vs Boserup #### Key skills - Interpretating population pyramids - Graph analysis - Explanations-Chains for reasoning - Evaluating - Field work-secondary data - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Demographics - Inequality - Migration - Counter-urbanisation - Quality of life - Demographic Transition Model - Standard of living - Sustainability - Malthus - Boserup - Management policies #### 3b-There is no planet B #### Knowledge focus - Resource and resource exploitation - Water security - Sustainability-Fast Fashion - Sustainability-Climate Change #### Key skills - Classifications: Social, economic, environmental - Explanations-Chains of reasoning - Decision Making - Map and graph analysis - Field work-primary data “fast fashion” #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Mitigation - Management - Resource - Exploitation - Sustainability - Anthropogenic - Water security - Water insecurity #### Year 8- 3a-Africa is NOT a country #### Knowledge focus - Biomes-Hot desert - Hot pressure systems - Nutrient cycle, Carbon cycle and Water cycle - Desertification: causes, impacts and responses - Nigeria: Factors influencing and hindering development #### Key skills - Location using map skills - Describing distributions - Explanations-Chains of reasoning - Decision making - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Biomes - Biodiversity - Nutrient cycle - Carbon cycle - Water cycle - Desertification - High pressure - Rural-urban migration #### Year 8-3b-The geography of conflict #### Knowledge focus - Refugee crisis-causes, impacts and management - Climate change refugees - Ocean governance-Europe Fishing Crisis - Ocean governance-South China Sea #### Key skills - Explanations-chains of reasoning - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer - Decision making - Classifications: social, economic, environmental, political, short-term and long-term #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Refugee - Ocean governance - Sustainability - Climate Change - Anthropogenic #### Year 9 – Ecosystems #### Knowledge focus - Location of world’s major ecosystems - Desert ecosystems: location and biodiversity - Tundra ecosystem: location and biodiversity - Food chains - Human uses of ecosystems and sustainability #### Key skills - Map skills - Explanations - Labels and annotations - Writing like a geographer - Reading like a geographer - Fieldwork: Primary data “litter impacting ecosystem” #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Week 10 assessment - Formative assessments #### Key Vocabulary - Ecosystem - Biome - Biotic - Abiotic - Flora - Fauna - Tundra - Desert - Temperate deciduous - Tropical rainforest - Food chain - Food web - Consumer - Producer - Decomposer - Nutrient cycle - Sustainable management - Deforestation Key Stage 4 Geography Cycle 1 #### Year 10 -Theme 6-Economic development and resource issues #### Knowledge focus - Economic measures of development - Causes of inequality: Trade - Causes of inequality: Multi-National Corporations - Growth of tourism - Consequences of tourism and role in development - Responses to inequality: Aid \[Emergency vs long-term developmental\] - Responses to inequality: Fair Trade - Water resources: scarcity vs security - Water footprint - Water management at a range of scales #### Key skills - AO1-Knowledge - AO2-Understanding - AO3-Inference - AO4-Geographical skills #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Formative assessment - Exam questions - Week 10 assessment #### Key vocabulary - Abstraction - Development Indicator - Development continuum - Enclave tourism - Leakage - Outsourcing - Protectionist Policies - Sustainable development goals - Top down/Bottom up - Trade deficit/surplus #### Year 10 -Theme 7-Social development issues #### Knowledge focus - Social measures of development - Factors influencing birth rates and death rates - Causes, consequences and management of child labour - Causes, consequences and management of HIV - Causes, consequences and management of Malaria - International Refugee Crisis: causes and management #### Key skills - AO1-Knowledge - AO2-Understanding - AO3-Inference - AO4-Geographical skills #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Formative assessment - Exam questions - Week 10 assessment #### Key vocabulary - Bottom-up - Economic migrants - Human Development Index - Infant Mortality Rate - Refugees - Top-down development #### Year 11 - Theme 5-weather, climate and ecosystems #### Knowledge focus - Evidence of climate change: past and present - Natural and human causes of climate change - Impacts on carbon cycle - Global atmospheric circulation-Hadley and Ferrel cell - Low-pressure systems: causes, consequences and management - High-pressure systems: causes, consequences and management - Variation in UK climate - High- and low-pressure weather systems: causes, consequences and management - Ecosystems: location and biodiversity \[Tropical Rainforest and Semi-arid Savannah Grassland\] - Nutrient cycle and water cycle \[Tropical Rainforest and Semi-arid Savannah Grassland\] - Vegetation structure and adaptation \[Tropical Rainforest and Semi-arid Savannah Grassland\] - Human uses and sustainable management \[Tropical Rainforest and Semi-arid Savannah Grassland\] #### Key skills - AO1-Knowledge - AO2-Understanding - AO3-Inference - AO4-Geographical skills #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Formative assessment - Exam questions - Week 10 assessment #### Key Vocabulary - Carbon sink - Desertification - Greenhouse - Inter-glacial - Quaternary - Air mass - Depression - Leeward side - Maritime - Ocean currents - Inter Tropical Convergence Zone - Urban heat island - Microclimate - Biodiversity - Biomes - Mono-culture Cycle 2 #### Year 10 -Theme 3-Tectonic landscapes and hazards #### Knowledge focus - Distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes - Plate boundaries: constructive, destructive, conservative - Plate boundaries and associated landforms - Vulnerability - Volcanic hazards: causes, effects and responses in a LIC - Earthquake hazards: causes, effects and responses LIC Vs HIC #### Key skills - AO1-Knowledge - AO2-Understanding - AO3-Inference - AO4-Geographical skills #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Formative assessment - Exam questions - Week 10 assessment #### Key vocabulary - Ash cloud - Caldera - Cinder Cone - Constructive plate margin - Destructive plate margin - Divergence zones - Hazard map - Lahar - Lava Flows - Lava tube - Ocean trench - Pyroclastic flows - Rift valley - Shield Volcano - Stratovolcano - Subduction - Tsunami - Volcanic hotspot - Vulnerability #### Year 10 -Theme 1-Distinctive landscapes #### Knowledge focus - Features of a distinctive landscape - Management of distinctive landscapes - Processes fluvial and coastal: erosion, deposition, transportation - Landforms fluvial and coastal - Future risks: river flooding, coastal flooding - Management: Hard and soft engineering #### Key skills - AO1-Knowledge - AO2-Understanding - AO3-Inference - AO4-Geographical skills #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Formative assessment - Exam questions - Week 10 assessment #### Key vocabulary - Carrying capacity - Honey-pot sites - Abrasion - Attrition - Deposition - Drainage basin - Floodplain - Gorges - Hydraulic action - Meander - Plunge Pool - Slip-off slope - Transport - Fetch - Longshore drift - Retreat - Wave-cut platform - Annual regime - Discharge - Hydrograph - Overland flow - Throughflow #### Year 11 - Theme 2-Rural-urban links #### Knowledge focus - Location of rural and urban areas in the UK - Counter-urbanisation causes and impacts - Changes in rural areas: deprivation and ageing population - Causes and consequences of population change in the UK - Challenges facing UK towns and cities: new homes and sustainable urban areas \[brownfield and greenfield development\] - Retail changes: causes and impacts - Global patterns of urbanisation-World Cities - Consequences of urban growth in a world city HIV vs LIC or NIC #### Key skills - AO1-Knowledge - AO2-Understanding - AO3-Inference - AO4-Geographical skills #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Formative assessment - Exam questions - Week 10 assessment #### Key Vocabulary - Ageing population - Brownfield site - Counter-urbanisation - Commuting - Deprivation - Egan’s Wheel - Greenfield site - Sphere of Influence - Sustainable community - Urban-rural continuum - Global cities - Globalisation - Infrastructure - Urbanisation Cycle 3 #### Year 10 -Paper 3-Fieldwork #### Knowledge focus - Fieldwork concept set by the exam board for each exam series - Planning, location and risk assessments - Methodology: Primary and Secondary data collection, sampling techniques, qualitative and quantitative - Data Presentation - Data analysis and Conclusion #### Key skills - AO1-Knowledge - AO2-Understanding - AO3-Inference - AO4-Geographical skills #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Formative assessment - Exam questions - Week 10 assessment #### Key Vocabulary - Primary data - Secondary data - Qualitative data - Quantitative data - Systematic sampling - Random sampling - Stratified Sampling - Cartographic - Reliability #### Year 11 -Revision #### Knowledge focus - Paper 1 - Paper 2 - Paper 3 Key Stage 5 Geography Cycle 1 #### Year 12-Paper 1-Changing Places #### Knowledge focus - Relationship and connections: continuity and change in places - Meaning and representations of places - Economic characteristics of places over time: Clark-Fisher Model, external factors influencing change in primary and secondary sector employment - Economic change and social inequalities in deindustrialised urban places - The service economy (tertiary) and its social and economic impacts - The 21st century knowledge economy (quaternary) and its social and economic impact - The rebranding process and players in rural places - Rural management and the challenges of continuity and change - The rebranding process and players in urban places - Urban management and the challenges of continuity and change #### Key skills - AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of places, environments, concepts, processes, interactions and change, at a variety of scales - AO2: Apply knowledge and understanding in different contexts to interpret, analyse and evaluate geographical information and issues - AO3: Use a variety of relevant quantitative, qualitative and fieldwork skills #### Assessment - Formative assessment - Exam questions - End of module assessment #### Key vocabulary - Endogenous factors - ethnic clustering - exogenous factors - gentrification - governance - idyll - locales - perception - placelesness - rebranding - social clustering #### Year 12-Paper 2-Global Governance #### Knowledge focus - Globalisation, migration and a shrinking world - Causes of international economic migration - Consequences and management of international economic migration - Causes, consequences, and management of refugee movements - Causes, consequences, and management of rural-urban migration in developing countries - Global governance of the Earth’s oceans - Global flows of shipping and sea cables - Sovereignty of ocean resources - Managing marine environments - Managing ocean pollution #### Key skills - AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of places, environments, concepts, processes, interactions and change, at a variety of scales - AO2: Apply knowledge and understanding in different contexts to interpret, analyse and evaluate geographical information and issues - AO3: Use a variety of relevant quantitative, qualitative and fieldwork skills #### Assessment - Do it now tasks - Formative assessment - Exam questions - Week 10 assessment #### Key vocabulary - Acquisition - containerisation - cumulative causation - cultural erosion - diaspora - Foreign Direct Investment - Global common - interdependence - offshoring - off sourcing - sovereignty - transformationalist #### Year 13 - NEA #### Knowledge focus - Individual enquiry process - Context and planning - Data collection - Presentation - Analysis - Conclusion - Evaluation #### Key skills - NEA formal submission #### Assessment - NEA formal submission Cycle 2 #### Year 12-Paper 3-Development in an African context #### Knowledge focus - Definitions, measures and patterns of development - The influence of physical factors on the development of two or more countries - The influence of economic factors on the development of two or more countries - The influence of political, social and cultural factors on the development of two or more countries - The impact of development on the environment of two or more countries - Challenges of desertification in two or more countries - Strategies to promote development in two or more countries #### Key skills - AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of places, environments, concepts, processes, interactions and change, at a variety of scales - AO2: Apply knowledge and understanding in different contexts to interpret, analyse and evaluate geographical information and issues - AO3: Use a variety of relevant quantitative, qualitative and fieldwork skills #### Assessment - Formative assessment - Exam questions - End of module assessment #### Key vocabulary - Development - multivariate analysis - indices - development gap - development continuum - Rostow model - colonialisation - desertification - sustainability #### Year 13-Paper 3-Tectonic Hazards #### Knowledge focus - Tectonic processes and hazards - Volcanoes, processes, hazards and their impacts - Earthquakes, processes, hazards and their impacts - Human factors affecting risk and vulnerability - Responses to tectonic hazards #### Key skills - AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of places, environments, concepts, processes, interactions and change, at a variety of scales - AO2: Apply knowledge and understanding in different contexts to interpret, analyse and evaluate geographical information and issues - AO3: Use a variety of relevant quantitative, qualitative and fieldwork skills #### Assessment - Formative assessment - Exam questions - End of module assessment #### Key Vocabulary - Asenthosphere - continental - Degg Model - hazard mitigation cycle - lithosphere - love waves - palaeomagnetism - Park’s Model - primary waves - Rayleigh waves Cycle 3 #### Year 12-21st Century Challenges #### Knowledge focus - Knowledge and understanding of appropriate specialised and key concepts such as place, space, scale and environment. The core themes become linked through applied understanding of these key concepts. #### Key skills - AO2: Apply knowledge and understanding in different contexts to interpret, analyse and evaluate geographical information and issues - AO3: Use a variety of relevant quantitative, qualitative and fieldwork skills #### Assessment - Formative assessment - Exam questions - End of module assessment #### Key vocabulary - Adaptation - causes - challenges - conflicts - consequences - implications - issues - management - opportunities - negative feedback - positive feedback - scale - strategies - sustainable #### Year 13-Revision #### Knowledge focus - Paper 1 - Paper 2 - Paper 3 ![St. Wilfrid's R.C. College, South Shields](https://files.schudio.com/st-wilfrid-s-rc-college-south-shields/images/logo/logo-footer-with-diocese-02(2).png) ### St. Wilfrid's R.C. College, South Shields Temple Park Road South Shields Tyne & Wear NE34 0QA 0191 456 9121 ### Useful Links - [Term Dates](https://www.st-wilfrids.org/term-dates) - [Policies](https://www.st-wilfrids.org/policies) - [SEND Information](https://www.st-wilfrids.org/send) - [Sixth Form](https://www.st-wilfrids.org/sixth-form) - [Website Terms](https://bccet.org.uk/website-terms/) - [Accessibility Statement](https://bccet.org.uk/accessibility-statement/) - [Privacy Notice](https://bccet.org.uk/privacy-policy/) ### Social Media - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/stwilfridsrccollege) © Copyright 2025–2026 St. Wilfrid's R.C. College, South Shields School & Trust Websites by [ ![Schudio logo](https://www.st-wilfrids.org/img/logo/light.png) ](https://www.schudio.com/)