Geography: Key Stage 3 and 4
Geography Department, the very essence of what we do, is to encourage students to think globally, inspiring them to care for the world and for the people around them.
Our overall core purpose is exactly the same as SGS: to inspire, challenge, and enrich. We do this through our department-specific purpose: to help our students understand their own environments and the wider complexities of the world; to broaden their horizons; and enhance their capabilities. This is achieved through our core values – our raison d’etre – the reason we come to school every morning and make the decisions we do: to help students become better geographers through an engaging curriculum relevant to work and life in the 21st Century.
Broadening horizons and inspiring students through geographical thinking
Thinking globally is woven through Geography, from globalisation and interconnectedness in Year 7 to environmental injustice in Year 9. Throughout, students develop their capacity to think geographically and to care for the world and its people. Whilst in Year 7 they may be describing simple geographical patterns, or how people improve or damage environments, in Year 9 they may be analysing how decision-making influences sustainability. The routes taken throughout this journey are signposted by ‘big’ curriculum questions designed to engender inquisitiveness, enquiry, and a deep learning of geographical knowledge. In doing so we encourage a rigorous application of geographical skills. We also aim to gain a ‘sense of place’, an appreciation of how others experience the world, and an aspiration to tackle serious global issues. Our geography has no single worldview.
Geographers at Spalding Grammar School study through enquiry. This is because making sense of the world is done by an active process of meaning-making that depends on past and existing thinking. It is also because enquiry processes reflect an authentic discipline-related approach - young geographers come to know the world through the same processes as professional and academic geographers. The enquiry process also requires students to develop their analytical and critical thinking skills, and to develop their capabilities in data presentation and writing.
Students in geography are also required to develop subject-specific and trans-disciplinary skills. These include the analysis of geographical information, spatial data (particularly through geographic information systems or GIS), fieldwork skills, including qualitative and quantitative skills. These are embedded throughout the curriculum and are an intrinsic part of thinking geographically. Map reading and map making are fundamental aspects too, helping students negotiate the multi-scalar nature of space - converging local-regional-global scales - and enhances their capabilities in spatial thinking. A multitude of different types of maps are used in the classroom, from Ordnance Survey maps of the United Kingdom, digital maps and Google Earth, political, physical and thematic maps (including specialist maps like isotherms), to more creative maps and infographics. The increasing use of geographic information systems (GIS) in a wide range of industries requires an increasing understanding and application in school settings. SGS Geography subscribes to the latest mapping providers, including Digimap and ArcGIS, and is building the capacity for GIS to become a much greater part of the curriculum.
The geography curriculum provides inspiration to know the world better, and to inspire meaningful change.
Enhancing student capabilities through challenging issues
Students in geography, at all key stages, are challenged to develop their communication skills to the highest possible standards. Communicating effectively is relevant not only to school subjects like Geography but is also one of life's long-term worthwhile skills. Students are encouraged to read different literature in different forms, from core educational texts to the news media, and are required to write for different purposes depending on the goal and the particular viewpoint under study. For example, a diary entry is useful for students developing empathy and understanding the effects of particular events (e.g. a tsunami). But also, students are encouraged to write academically, bridging both the arts and the sciences: to write with nuance, avoid hyperbole, and use data / evidence / information to support their ideas and arguments, but also creatively, with flair, and critique.
From Year 7 to Year 11, our students will become more capable in a variety of ways: they become more knowledgeable about places and environments in several contexts and at a number of scales; they can more readily apply geographical concepts; they can question and enquire with greater depth and precision; and they can draw on their geographical knowledge and understanding to interpret unfamiliar processes and events. These are essential skills and knowledge that not only broaden their horizons, but also inspire them to want to know more about the world, challenging their assumptions, and enriching their lives. This contributes to a more capable person, but also underpins the prerequisite knowledge for GCSE and A-Level geography.
Retrieval Practice is also part of our daily practice and is focused on the powerful disciplinary knowledge of the geography curriculum: the sequencing of geographical concepts, the use of case studies, and the knowledge that we want students to embed in their long-term memories.
Enriching Geography
Learning geography helps develop in young people greater capabilities and contributes to an educated person that can more greatly participate in work and life in the 21st Century. The geography curriculum at Spalding Grammar School is enriching because it enables young people to think beyond themselves and their everyday experiences and contributes to the ‘substantive freedoms’ available to young people: to think, make good choices and decisions about how to live. It also offers significant opportunities to study geography in the ‘real world’ through high-quality fieldwork every year. Whether coastal studies in Year 7, investigating inequality in Cambridge in Year 8, local environmental issues in Year 9, or urban development at GCSE, geographers tackle meaningful topics through contemporary research methodologies.
Geography also offers students the chance to listen and speak to guests, whether academic or from industry, and significant careers guidance is a feature throughout the curriculum. One thing is certain about the future, and that is humankind’s need to develop greener fuels, greener economies, and greener ways of living. This inevitably means interrogating the relationship between us and the natural resources extracted from surrounding environments. It also necessitates a deeper understanding of how changing environments – like the atmosphere – will continue to affect us. The ‘green sector’ and ‘green economy’ are terms coined to reflect both the burgeoning renewable industries and the need for all companies to reduce environmental risks and ecological damage. In almost all sectors, firms are looking to reduce their carbon footprint, reduce plastic use, and streamline production processes to reduce energy consumption in what has been termed ‘green growth’. Today, there may be comparatively few jobs in this sector, but it will certainly grow exponentially in the next few decades, requiring more and more of those with the skills secured in the Geographical and Earth Sciences.
Being professional services, with great responsibility and high accountability, the vast majority of the career pathways mentioned in this letter command high salaries. Indeed, Geography graduates are, on average, some of the highest earners in Britain. This will continue to grow as more and more jobs become available in a burgeoning sector that requires humankind to deal with greater environmental issues. Environmental Consultancy, Geo-Engineering, and Sustainability Coordination will become indispensable parts of the economic fabric of Britain and indeed, the whole world. Don’t miss out.