KS3 Overview

Geography want to help students develop a sense of place and make sense of their surroundings and to gain a better appreciation and understanding of the variety of physical and human inter-relationships that form the diverse place, space and environment of planet Earth.

The subject extends students’ interest and knowledge beyond their immediate experiences, using images and information to help them understand about people and concepts they acquire from media, internet and textbooks. Geography develops major skill areas: map and fieldwork skills; cross-curricular skills such as ICT, literacy and numeracy; graphical skills as well as an increasing awareness of the world around us and the idea of sustainability.

We want students to become global citizens and show a keen awareness of the role they play in the world around us. Geography is everywhere and students at TGGS develop a keen awareness and appreciation of the geography around them.

We have four specialist teachers, teaching from common resources developing exam technique skills right from the start of Year 7. We develop students thinking skills by using activities that allow them to be decision makes and able to evaluate and assess using supporting evidence to make judgements.  Throughout KS3 we build on atlas and map skills teaching such skills through our units.

In Year 7 students begin the course by looking at 'Fantastic Places' around the world giving them a broad introduction to different processes and geographical features. Our second unit is called 'Life in the Freezer' and we study the geography of Antarctica - the last great wilderness, teaching then about the challenges and opportunities for Antarctica. In January they learn about threats to our oceans including coral reefs and marine pollution; we focus on what can be done to save them, supported by a trip to the Plymouth Aquarium which includes various workshops for the students. We follow this learning about population in the UK in 'Who do we think we are'. We look at migration and the impacts on the UK and the migrants themselves. Our nexxt unit supports our partnership with Imprezza, studying the physical and human 

geography of Kenya, looking at climate, population, traditions and culture and tourism to help give them a thorough understanding about one country in depth.  Finally we . Finally, we will explore our local area through a unit on Torquay.  Students will develop map skills, local area knowledge and an understanding of the key human and physical features of the area. 

In Year 8 students start off studying 'global cities' learning about urbanisation and the impacts. They study the problem of waste and how we manage it and find out about life in cities in low-income countries and the challenges and opportunities they face. Unit 2 focuses on 'Extreme Weather', where they study climate change and the impacts that has on our weather. They look at Tornadoes and how people cope with living in Tornado Alley. They also use weather equipment to study microclimates in our school. Next our focus moves to learning about inequality and our perceptions of global inequality in a unit we call 'Factfulness'. We use the work of Hans Rosling to support this. Students then move on to look at 'Asian Superpowers' where we focus on China and Japan and their rapidly increasing status in the global economy. Students complete a homework project focusing on one specific aspect of the unit e.g. China's One Child Policy or the Three Gorges Dam and share these with the rest of their class. Unit 5 teacher our students about the geography of health, looking at patterns of diseases and how different parts of the world manage diseases and their impacts. Finally, students study our challenging coastlines unit and in July they go to Slapton to determine whether or not it is seen as challenging given the vulnerability of it's coastline and repetitive destruction of the transport links.

In Year 9 students study the geography of film and fashion which broadens their geographical understanding of 'sense of place' and perspectives on place and ties. Students study fashion's 'dirty secrets' and how fast fashion is one of the main contributor's to severe global environmental issues. We then start our GCSE course, studying KS3 topics at a more challenging level. We start with Tectonic Hazards, part of the Hazards GCSE unit. We study plate boundaries, volcanoes and earthquakes. Our final unit is part of the GCSE 'Living World' unit where we study ecosystems and tropical rainforests.

Building on KS2 and preparing for KS4…

At KS3 we build on KS2 content to start to fulfil that outlined above by teaching thematic units which explore physical and human inter-relationships, whilst introducing content that underpins GCSE and A level content so that girls who are going on to study at a further level will have the baseline knowledge and understanding to build academic success on. Perhaps more significantly we also want to inspire a love and enjoyment of geography by including content that is relevant and helps to develop caring attitudes towards our environment and other people, enabling our girls to be better prepared for life in our ever-changing world. 

KS3 Assessment

At KS3 we use a mixture of formative and summative assessments about 5 times a year. Formative assessments are assessed at the end of some units using GCSE style questions, to get them used to the style of assessments. Summative assessments use a mixture of homework, projects, extended writing and quiz type questions. The students will receive a combined grade based on this work. Written feedback is provided showing what students did well and their next steps to improve. For the formative assessments, good answers are provided so students can act on feedback and see what they need to do to make progress.

KS3 Content

Y7 Content Autumn	Fantastic Places Life in the Freezer
Y7 Content Spring	Threatened Oceans Who do you think you are? – Population and Migration
Y7 Content Summer	Kenya Our Local Place - Torquay
Y8 Content Autumn	World Cities Extreme Weather
Y8 Content Spring	Factfulness – Our Unequal World
Y8 Content Summer	China – An Asian Superpower Our Challenging Coastline
Y9 Content Autumn	Geography of Fashion and Film Tectonic Hazards
Y9 Content Spring	Tectonic Hazards The Living World
Y9 Content Summer	The Living world

Useful links & resources for KS3:

AQA Geography https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/geography/gcse/geography-8035
KS3 Geography: Heading towards GCSE https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/geography/gcse/geography-8035
BBC Bitesize: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zrw76sg
Cool Geography: https://www.coolgeography.co.uk/
Internet Geography: https://www.internetgeography.net/