Geography

Course Overview

Click on the subject for the relevant year group in the table below to find out more information about each course.

Geography raises awareness of links between people and their environment on a local, national and international scale. It equips pupils with the skills to be a responsible global citizen in a rapidly changing world. Geographers have the transferable skills and the adaptability which employers are looking for.

“Geography is the subject which holds the key to our future” Michael Palin

Ambition for our pupils

Pupils studying Geography at Sawston Village College will gain an understanding of the key concepts and processes in the ever-changing world around them. Pupils will learn about the interactions between human and physical/natural processes. A main theme within Geography looks at current issues, e.g. climate change, and the impact of these issues on society, the economy, the environment and current/future political policy. Pupils will engage with the latest academic thinking, learn about geographical process first hand and have the opportunity to engage with fieldwork on a local, national and international scale. 

Structure of our curriculum

Geography is studied by all pupils at key stage 3. It is a GCSE option at key stage 4. The key themes to be revisited across the programme of study are:

1. Contextual knowledge of different locations: why they are globally significant on a local, national and international scale / their defining physical and human characteristics and how these allow us to understand the processes that have shaped them and the interaction between humans and the environment.
2. Geographical processes that create key physical/natural and human geographical features of the world: how these are interdependent, how they bring about spatial variation in the physical and human landscape and how they change over time.
3. Geographical skills/fieldwork: Collecting, analysing and presenting a range of data from fieldwork; Interpreting a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS); Communicating geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills; and writing at length.