Geography
FHS Geography Department Gained the Centre of Excellence Award & Quality Mark
Geography is taught at KS3, as an option at GCSE and A Level. Pupils develop an understanding of a complex and dynamically changing world. Pupils learn where places are, how places and landscapes are formed, how people and their environment interact, and how a diverse range of economies, societies and environments are interconnected.
Pupils are encouraged to carry our geographical enquires inside and outside the classroom, developing a wide range of investigative skills.
You can follow our Geography Instagram page to find out more about the subject.
Exam Boards:
A Level Geography: OCR
GCSE Geography: OCR
Statement of Intent
We expose students to a range of enriching activities, such as the lectures at the Royal Geographical Society, Harrow School, St Mary’s University Twickenham, links with developers in the local area, Berkley and the Southall Green Quarter SOAS. Sixth form students also give back to the community by planning and leading a series of Geography club sessions at a local primary school. All Geographers engage in enquiry-based fieldwork, ranging from the local, school and high street based to the River Pang, Barton on Sea and Stratford for GCSE to the Lake District at A Level.
We enrich students’ cultural capital by exposing them to Geography in the News, current affairs such as Climate Change, Immigration, Global Hazards, and Threats to Global Ecosystems‘. We teach a range of themes, based on ‘Current Affairs’ to enhance students’ knowledge of the world they live in. Our curriculum emphasises respect and tolerance, promoting fundamental British values and challenging misconceptions and stereotypes. Students are encouraged to critically consider the importance of education for all, the moral and amoral arguments of the development gap and emerging economies.
To ensure students understand how human and physical processes interact to influence, and change landscapes, environments and the climate; and how human activity relies on effective functioning of natural systems this further aids students understanding of the synoptic nature of Geography. This in turn helps interleave content and skills necessary for this element of the course and more importantly aids their development as conscientious global citizens.
From KS3-5, we sequence our curriculum using spacing and of knowledge of content and skills. We teach a challenging, yet accessible curriculum, in accordance with FHS5. Our KS3 Curriculum meets the requirements of the National Curriculum. This is strategically designed to challenge students as they consider a number of concepts, processes and applications at a range of scales.
The two-year KS4 curriculum prepare students for the challenging academic literacy of the new GCSEs and the complexities of the concepts taught (coupled with the high intake of EAL and low-ability students). This has been successful, substantiated by students’ consistently positive A8 scores. We teach OCR B at GCSE and A Level as the range of topics covered enables students to gain a deeper understanding of a range of contemporary issues and challenges facing the world today and which helps develop our students as global citizens as well as giving them the best opportunity to achieve at their respective levels of study.