Geography

The Geography Department seeks to widen the horizons of our students and to nurture, develop and enable students’ ability to understand a range of physical and human issues facing our word and society. As students study geographical processes they will develop the knowledge, understanding and skills to enable them to be critical, moral and independent learners who are successful and positive global citizens.

Importance

Geography plays a crucial role in understanding our ever-changing world. It makes a vital contribution to our knowledge of the rapidly changing environmental, economic, political and social challenges facing us and how we should tackle them. At Fernwood students follow a broad and balanced geography curriculum that encourages them to develop their geographical skills and to critically explore a wide range of human and physical themes. Students have the opportunity to develop knowledge and understanding of our natural environments and the pressures they face and will learn about how and why the world is changing, both globally and locally. They will be encouraged to see how our world is increasingly interconnected and explore the role of our community within it. Students at Fernwood will discover how our individual and societal actions contribute to those changes and will be encouraged to appreciate the choices that exist in managing our world for the future. Students will learn the value of studying geography and explore where the subject can take them beyond their time at Fernwood, through further studies and the world of work.

Aims of the Curriculum

The aims of the Geography curriculum is to:

• Widen their horizons through having the opportunities to explore a range of human and physical themes about people, place and the environment
• Encourage our students to become responsible global citizens through education about sustainability and the environment
• Enrich their cultural capital by providing learning opportunities beyond the classroom and see geography as a living subject which relates to their lives
• Develop their geographical skills needed to interpret a range of geographical information
• Build transferable skills which equip students for further study, in Geography, other subjects and the world of work. This means students are able to evaluate work issues by giving balanced arguments and make decisions; collect and interpret data from a variety of sources to present reasoned  conclusions both written and oral