What is Geography and why do we teach it?
Geography lessons at Brompton Hall study physical and human geography based on the National Curriculum Programme of Study and explore how these affect each other.
Boys are encouraged to make links between the topics they study and current world events to enhance their appreciation of the relevance of these. Links are frequently made with the History Scheme of Work; for example, year 8 boys study Africa in Geography whilst studying Slavery in History and in year 9 they learn about modern China in Geography whilst studying the Qing dynasty in History.
Aims
- To deliver the current National Curriculum for Geography to all KS 3 students.
- To encourage an enquiring attitude in boys.
- To deliver a differentiated curriculum with resources tailored to the needs of all pupils that enable each one to access every task and make progress from that point of access.
- To identify and encourage skills such as collaboration, respect for others, how to overcome a difficult task.
- To monitor and record the progress of each student, delivering units of work that enable each boy to understand how he can progress and that ensure he does so.
Resources
The department is developing its resources to enhance learning. It is designing and producing resources to support the new Curriculum and has purchased new text-books so that there are full-class quantities of the relevant texts.
It is developing a range of resources and activities designed and produced ‘in-house’ to help pupils develop literacy, numeracy and working memory.
Teaching & Assessment
A typical geography lesson includes a starter activity, teaching input then a range of differentiated activities with a plenary or summary task. Starters often focus on promoting literacy, numeracy or memory skills. All main activities are differentiated, usually using a familiar ‘Must Do’, ‘Try to’ and Go for it’ challenge for written and practical tasks.
The teacher works closely with an Advanced Skills Teaching Assistant who is also involved in the planning and preparation of resources and classroom displays that support learning.
Following the removal of levels, the Department developed a system of statements to show progress against the new Programme of Study. This was implemented for all year groups in September 2016. Knowledge of facts and details in a unit are assessed alongside the skills of a historian such as comparing different historical periods, using this information to answer higher order questions and relating information from different periods or regions. Verbal and written feedback is given to all boys during lessons and a range of experiences recorded using 2 Build a Profile. The Progress Tracker spreadsheet is completed each term to show progress measured against CAT scores.
Boys are also given regular opportunities to reflect on their own work and that of their peers, usually using the WWW (what went well) and EBI (even better if) format but also using a range of methods to encourage meaningful engagement with these activities.
Marking
Geography books are marked in line with the school marking policy, which is displayed in the classroom. Boys are regularly given time in lessons to check through recently marked work and respond to points raised.