Please click on the link below to access the Geography Curriculum Summary: 

In Geography, our aim is to inspire, enthuse and motivate students to develop a love of the subject within their studies at school and beyond. Students’ geographical knowledge, understanding and skills should bring benefit and enrichment to their everyday life as well as in their professional life allowing them to stand shoulder to shoulder with those from any educational background. They will learn to live their lives more sustainably by studying up-to-date case study examples and topics such as urban planning and resource management and use this knowledge to develop a love of the planet to safeguard for future generations. In order to develop the cultural capital of our students, they will learn to appreciate the diverse and multicultural world in which we live and be accepting of all views and values in various topics from development to rivers and flooding, and this will be completed at all levels.

The curriculum is designed so that our students will be open minded and have the analytical ability to challenge beliefs, stereotypes and concepts. They will have many opportunities to ’think like geographers’ and ask inquisitive questions that will help them to reason critically about certain scenarios and situations. From this our students will become more effective communicators and be reflective in their practice. Students will develop cross-curricular learning skills, particularly with the Science and Maths departments, that will enable them to progress and succeed in other subject disciplines in school and beyond. Our curriculum is designed so that students are constantly building on and developing their knowledge and understanding throughout their time at Spen Valley High School. The synoptic links created in topics will ensure that content and skills are revisited and built upon in order to improve student progress.

An excellent geographer will be able to show explicitly how the physical and human world work, and how they interact with one another both positively and negatively. They will be confident in understanding what can be done on a variety of scales (local to global) to ensure that the planet will be here to sustain the growing population for future generations. Excellent geographers will understand the complex physical processes and human interactions that play a huge role in changing our already dynamic planet and be able to analyse and use skills-based understanding such as maps, photographs and data to support this understanding. They will be able to incorporate the views of others and empathise with different cultures and traditions across the globe where people live in varying and often contrasting levels of development. Excellent geographers will be open minded and have the analytical ability to challenge beliefs, stereotypes and concepts. They will ’think like a geographer’ and ask inquisitive questions that will help them to think critically about certain scenarios and situations. Excellent geographers will be able to apply specific case study information (from a range of scales) to support their understanding of processes, formations and development. They will also be able to confidently use a range of graph and map skills to support their understanding of places and apply these skills when carrying out their own fieldwork.

AQA GCSE Geography