Geography

The Cockburn Geography Department aims to develop students who have enquiring minds and a sense of adventure. Our dynamic and purposeful teaching approach ensures that our students enjoy engaging lessons both inside and outside of the classroom. The department runs numerous field trips and residential visits each year. In recent years, students have: camped on the eastern flank of Hellvellyn during a storm; orienteered across Snowdonia national park; studied coastal landforms at Flamborough Head and investigated inequalities in development across Leeds. This year a new ‘Adventurous geography’ residential fieldtrip has been planned where students will complete team building activities and carry out a river investigation in the beautiful Lake District National Park’

The purpose of the Geography curriculum is to inspire in students a fascination about the world and its people.  It aims to give students knowledge of places, people and environments.  Furthermore, it aims to enable pupils to understand the dynamic physical and human processes which shape our world.

Geography is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills.

At Cockburn School we seek to inspire in students a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people; to promote an interest and understanding of diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

We aim for all students to understand how all these aspects of the Earth are interconnected.

The curriculum is designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive, as well as transferable.

Cockburn’s Geography curriculum aims to ensure that all students:

• develop knowledge of the location of globally significant places including their defining physical and human characteristics.
• understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.

Cockburn’s Geography curriculum aims to ensure all students have the skills needed to:

• collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
• interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

2024-25 Curriculum Overview for Geography
This gives details for each year group of curriculum content, knowledge/understanding that will be revisited, and assessment for each half term across the academic year.