Sixes (year 4)
Our aim in the Sixes is to introduce the boys to Geography and help them to form an appreciation of the breadth of this subject. We hope to engender an appreciation of their local area and a wider understanding of geographical issues and concerns. We will be encouraging the development of good study skills by using a variety of resources and learning situations.
Michaelmas Term
This term we will introduce the boys to the 3 strands of Geography – human geography, physical geography and environmental geography. This will be followed by an investigation of our local area where we will mainly focus on the physical aspects of the school environs. The boys will be introduced to map skills at this stage and will have a chance to create their own land-use maps.
Easter Term
This term we will be looking more closely at a human geography theme and will be investigating a variety of jobs, the location of local businesses and will also look at our local community in a little more detail. This will lead onto our first mini-fieldtrip where we will take the boys into Wokingham to investigate local transport issues.
Summer Term
This term we will be investigating the management of our local environment with particular reference to Gorick Wood. We aim to give the boys an understanding of the resources available in our local environment, how these resources are used and how they might best be protected. This will be a more issues-based topic giving the boys an opportunity for some debate about how we manage our environment.
Field Trips
School grounds
Wokingham traffic survey
Visit to Gorrick Wood
Fours (year 5)
This year we aim to broaden our horizons and begin to investigate geographical issues on a more global scale. We will be continuing to develop the mapping and investigative skills introduced in the first year and hope that the boys begin to develop their geographical enquiry skills. Mapwork will continue to be an integral part of our studies this year.
Michaelmas Term
This term we will be introducing the boys to the global environment. We will be investigating the characteristics of various climate zones, accounting for their distribution and, with particular reference to the desert environment, investigating the adaptations made by plants, animals and people. We will follow on from this with a more detailed weather study of our own climate zone where we will look at weather patterns and forecasting in the UK, and use the school weather station to complete a weather diary for the term.
Easter Term
We will start this term with a unit of work on settlements. We will investigate reasons for settlement locations, patterns of settlements and the growth of settlements. Included in this unit will be a decision making exercise where the boys will be asked to investigate the growth of Wokingham in more detail and decide where to put extra housing and a new by-pass (both hot local topics!). Following on from this we will be comparing and contrasting a local village with a village in Kenya. This study will tie together strands from both the climate work and the settlement work carried out earlier in the year.
Summer Term
This term we will be studying industry – the boys will look at a range of jobs and be taught to categorize them. This will lead into a more detailed study of a primary industry. We will learn about the factors that affect the location of different types of farming and what these different types of farming are. The boys will be taken on a fieldtrip to Gray’s Farm to see market gardening in action.
Field Trips
Wokingham
Virtual fieldtrip to Kenya via Google Earth
Gray’s Farm
Threes (year 6)
The programme of study this year is more issues based and we hope to get the boys thinking in more depth about some of the differences between the rich world and the poor world. We also hope that by introducing some more in-depth investigations this year that the boys will begin to become more independent in their learning. They should be able to ask geographical questions, identify and explain different views that people hold about topical geographical issues and communicate this in an appropriate way. This year we also spend some time developing their OS map skills.
Michaelmas Term
The first half of this term will be focussed on map skills. We will introduce the boys in more detail to OS maps and teach them to read scales, grid references and to identify key features in both rural and urban areas. These skills are vital for Common Entrance and we will be laying the foundations for the course which starts next year. In the second half of the term we will teach a unit on natural hazards. We will look at the differences between natural and man-made hazards, compare the impact of hazards on LEDC’s and MEDC’s and discuss how the consequences can be managed. This will lead into a decision making exercise where the boys will decide how best to protect an alpine village from an avalanche hazard.
Easter Term
This term we will investigate settlement on a more global scale and look at the development and growth of cities, particularly in the developing world. We will look at the reasons for rapid urban growth, and the consequences. For the second half of this term we will be linking the developing world with the developed world by tracking the production of chocolate from source to shop.
Summer Term
This term we re-visit the environmental strand of this subject and investigate the exploitation of natural resources for tourism. We will look at the reasons why certain areas attract tourists, the problems they create and how the environment can be managed. We will be visiting Lulworth Cove in Dorset to provide the boys with a real life example of these issues.
Field Trips
Avalanche day – mock up of an avalanche and how to protect against its effects
Lulworth Cove
Shell/Remove/II (Year 7)
Until now the boys have been given a grounding in the subject and developing an interest in the world around them at local and international scale. Now we begin the actual Common Entrance syllabus and train the boys to achieve a high grade in the examination. We aim to encourage the boys to use a range of geographical enquiry skills to develop their knowledge and understanding of places, patterns, processes, environmental change and sustainable development.
Michaelmas Term
Geomorphological Processes
a) An elementary knowledge of physical, chemical and biological weathering, the distinction between weathering and erosion, and the role of rock type in weathering.
b) The processes of river erosion, transportation, deposition; the development of associated landforms such as valleys, floodplains, meanders, waterfalls and gorges.
c) The causes and effects of river flooding, and how people respond to and seek to control the flood hazard.
d) Coastal landforms and the processes that form them; the role of rock type and structure in the formation of coastal landforms.
e) The causes and effects of either cliff collapse or coastal flooding, and how people respond to and try to control the hazard.
Easter Term
Tectonic Processes
a) The global distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes and how these are related to the boundaries of crustal plates
b) The nature and causes of volcanoes and volcanic landforms ( the formation of craters, cones and lava flows)
c) The effects of volcanoes and how humans respond to the volcanic hazard.
d) The nature and causes of earthquakes.
The effects of earthquakes and how humans respond to the hazard
Summer Term
Weather and Climate
a) How weather and climate differs.
b) The effects of relief, convection and fronts on rainfall.
c) How site conditions can influence surface temperatures and effect wind speed and direction
d) Seasonal variation in weather and climate, to be studied with reference to a humid temperate climate( British Isles) and a humid tropical climate (equatorial rain forests)
e) The components and links within the hydrological cycle including evaporation, condensation, transpiration, precipitation and run-off.
Case Studies Mt Etna, Japanese earthquake, Haiti, Nevada del Ruiz
Hurricane Katrina
Top Year (Year 8)
We begin the year by making an extended fieldtrip to Dartmoor, to study the river Dart and other environmental issues. On returning to school the boys complete their individual project with makes up 20% of their final mark. We then complete the syllabus and then concentrate on revision and examination technique in the build up to their final exam early in June.
Michaelmas Term
Fieldwork Investigation
Boys should demonstrate:
a) a planned enquiry
b) First hand data collection
c) Use of secondary sources where appropriate.
Economic Activities
a) The differences between primary, secondary and tertiary industries.
b) The factors that effect the development and distribution of one type of farming and one type of industry. (Sheep farming, car industry)
c) Changes in the distribution of the selected economic activities and the effects such changes have had on people.
Easter Term
Environmental Issues
a) Areas of great scenic attraction; the conflicting demands that are made on such areas and the issues that arise. Examples should be selected at different scales and from different countries (protecting a nature reserve, an historic house, a stretch of coastline, a national park).
b) The attempts made to plan and manage such environments and how these may have unintended affects (footpath erosion).
c) How considerations of sustainable development, stewardship and conservation may affect environmental planning and management.
Summer Term
Revision
Complete a revision of the five themes of the syllabus and also global location and map work, giving practice C.E. papers and going through best possible answers.
Field Trips Dartmoor
Case Studies – Toyota; sheep farming; Dartmeet
Useful websites – GCSE Bitesize; S-cool revision
[updated January 2012]