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Kingswood Secondary Academy

Ofsted Good

Humanities & MFL

Humanities

The Humanities department incorporates the subjects of History, Geography and R.S. The combination of these 3 subjects means you will gain an understanding of people, the world they live in and their values. History looks at the things people have done in the past. We try to explain how and why they did those things. Geography looks at how people live in and use the environment around them in this country and abroad. Religious Studies looks at the variety of religious beliefs people have used to explain the world we live in. You will gain knowledge in Humanities as well as developing skills and opinions. Many of the topics are designed to help you form your own answers to problems that no one has yet solved.  In Humanities we always strive to make our lessons interesting using a variety of media (interactive white boards, lap tops, video clips, music, images etc.) We hope you enjoy working in Humanities.

Geography 

Course Information

Key Stage 3 - Year 7-8

In Year 7 you will be taught a range of key geographical skills that will be taught through a range of physical and human geography topics. The topics include map skills, hazards, rivers, Africa, and Asia.  

In Year 8 you will continue to be taught a diverse geography curriculum building upon previous knowledge from Year 7. The topics will include natural resources, physical landscapes, the Middle East and climate change.

Key Stage 4: Year 9/10/11

We follow the AQA A specification for GCSE.

Students study 6 topics, 3 human and 3 physical. They study the 6 units over the 2 years. Students will also carry out two pieces of compulsory fieldwork visits to collect data and complete a controlled assessment worth  25% towards the final GCSE grade. The units chosen for study are:

Living with the Physical Environment - the Challenge of Natural Hazards; the Living World and Physical Landscapes in the UK

Challenges in the Human Environment - Urban Issues and Challenges; the Changing Economic World and the Challenge of Resource Management

Each exam in 1.5 hours.

Please click here for an Overview of KS4.

Curriculum End Points

Year 7;

- Give detailed descriptions of their opinions on school subjects in Spanish 

- Describe a typical school day in Spanish 

- Describe the differences between school life in the UK and Hispanic countries 

- Give an extended description of their school in Spanish 

- Describe what their post-16 plans are in Spanish 

- Describe the pros and cons of going to University 

- Talk about careers and future plans in Spanish 

- Understand the subjunctive in Spanish. Higher-level pupils will also be able to use the subjunctive in their own written and spoken Spanish.  

- Write accurate, extended and sophisticated Spanish from memory on a range of topics (150 words) 

- Correctly understand extended passages of written Spanish containing vocabulary from a wide range of topics, including topics that they may be less familiar with 

- Correctly understand extended passages of spoken Spanish. Higher-level pupils will also be able to understand a range of dialects and accents from across the Spanish-speaking world.  

- Respond spontaneously to questions in spoken Spanish on a range of familiar and less familiar topics.  

- Ask others questions in a range of familiar topics in Spanish.  

Year 8;

- Explain coastal and glacial processes in detail. Evaluate landscape management processes and be able to make decisions on sustainable management techniques.   

- Students will be able to apply development, resource management and climate knowledge to the UK and Russia and the Middle East.  

-Students will be able to describe and explain a range of phenomena in human and physical geography, describe graphs, explain geographical processes and evaluate geographical issues. 

- Understand the place of Geography in culture within the UK and the wider world. Be able to reflect on how geographical issues are influenced by different stakeholders 

Year 9;

- Understand the value of our living world with focus on small scale ecosystems, rainforests and cold environments. Focusing on opportunities and challenges within two case studies. Build upon the core concept of sustainability and management of environments and evaluating the degree of their success.  

- Understand the pattern of global development and the reason for this focusing on LIC/NEE and HIC countries. Begin to study Nigeria as an NEE and the factors affecting the country’s development. Look at a series of measures that can reduce the development gap and evaluate their success. Study the UK and the changing economy.  

- Build upon their KS3 knowledge Core Knowledge and key concepts to answer exam style questions and understand key concepts such as opportunities and challenges. Build on their ability to evaluate and articulate their evaluation in longer writing answers. Describe a variety of maps and graphs. 

 -Cartographical skills will be revisited in order to further embed the key elements that are threaded throughout the entire GCSE.  

- Students will begin to form and understanding of the geographical investigation process that will be conducted around the academy.

Year 10;

- Explain coastal processes in detail. Evaluate coastal management processes and be able to make decisions about hard and soft engineering approaches (coastal defence) in named areas of the coast.   

- Students revisit hazards with a focus on tectonic and weather hazards, explored through a range of case studies: Italy, Nepal, Haiyan and Cumbria.  Building upon the key ideas of immediate and long-term impacts and responses the hazards. 

-Students study the concept of urbanisation. Explain and suggest causes for key urban processes. Understand the difference between urban processes in an NEE (Nigeria) and an HIC (UK). Students analyse the success of urban planning projects used to solve urban challenges.  

-Fieldwork will be undertaken as instructed by the exam board. Students will study the process of a geographical investigation in both a human and physical geography context. Students will collect their own primary data and evaluate their own fieldwork process. (A04) 

- Build upon their KS3 knowledge Core Knowledge and key concepts to answer exam style questions and understand key concepts such as opportunities and challenges. Build on their ability to evaluate and articulate their evaluation in longer writing answers  

- Describe a variety of maps and graphs. 

Year 11;

- Study resource management with a focus on energy in the UK and food as a resource.  

- Explain fluvial processes in detail. Evaluate fluvial management processes and be able to make decisions on flood defences along UK rivers.   

- Further embedding the skills of AO1 knowledge, AO2 understanding, AO3 evaluation and justification, AO4 geographical skills. Express themselves using specific technical language. Be able to formulate an argument which is substantiated with evidence. Be able to analyse and evaluate a variety of geographical concepts.  

- Foster a lifelong love of Geography. Have the desire to learn more about the place where they live, places they visit and people they meet as well as understand geographical concepts in the wider world and how geography has influenced these.  

- Build upon their KS3 knowledge Core Knowledge and key concepts to answer exam style questions and understand key concepts such as opportunities and challenges. Build on their ability to evaluate and articulate their evaluation in longer writing answers. Describe a variety of maps and graphs. 

Year 12;

- Understand how place are changing and how this influences human connections with named locations. Focusing in-depth on representations of place in New York City and Corby. Students will evaluate the influential factors on place and analyse complex graphs and maps. This will build on GCSE describe skills.   

- Understand interdependence of population and environment. Beginning to look at agricultural systems and resources which leads to a judgement on carrying capacity. Student will research population theory and make predictions of their own, developing their justification skills.  

- Understand the water and carbon cycle. Explaining key physical geography processes and analysing a variety of map and graph material. Evaluating external factors influencing physical processes within the water and carbon cycle.  

- Further developing AO1 and AO2 from KS4. Developing further independence and the ability to write like a geographer.  

- Revisiting fieldwork skills and working towards starting the NEA which is research using primary data sources, involving evaluations on methods and findings. Further development of A04 at GCSE. 

Year 13;

- Study Hazards with a focus on the lithosphere and the atmosphere, which intermittently but regularly present natural hazards to human populations. Explain fires in nature, storm hazards, seismic hazards, volcanic hazards and plate tectonics.  

-Building upon knowledge of coastal process studied as part of the GCSE. Increased focus on international coastlines and the impacts of climate change on the coast. Sustainability will be linked to coastal management. Students will engage with a wide range of quantitative and qualitive data.  

- Understand the influence of governments and other organisations on politics, decision making and global development. Discover the interconnectedness of multiple human geography concepts, further developing evaluation and justification skills.  

- Further develop AO1, AO2 from year 12 and learn the skills of AO3 for A Level geography.  

- KS5 students will have the skills to grapple with a range of cartographical and geographical data to enhance their evaluation and analysis skills. Students will be able to make their own interpretations, be able to formulate their own questions, research as a scholar, draw conclusions from evidence and make a substantiated judgement about a range of geographical concepts

Useful Links

 

GEO (Geography Education Online) is an innovative new website created by the Geographical Association (GA), for students studying for GCSE geography, A level geography or equivalent qualifications. GEO is designed to offer young geographers a new and engaging way to extend their geographical thinking and support examination success in 2021 and beyond.

The GEO website provides access to live online sessions with fieldwork tutors, live academic lectures and interactive subject content, free of charge. The site is mainly designed to support students working independently – alone or in groups.  

 

www.geography.learnontheinternet.co.uk/

www.nationalgeographic.com

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/

www.discoverychannel.co.uk/

www.britannica.com/topic/radical-geography

www.geography-site.co.uk/

www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/

https://www.gcsepod.com/

 

History 

Accordion content

 

Modern Foreign Languages (MFL)

In this day and age it is more important than ever that students learn to speak a foreign language. Languages are a practical discipline where students should be allowed to develop the ability to use languages effectively for the purposes of communication. We also encourage positive attitudes towards the learning of foreign languages and to the speakers of that language and a sympathetic approach to other cultures and civilisations. Throughout our teaching we encourage students to work independently and as part of teams in varied activities. Modern Languages contributes to the basic core skills of ICT, reading, writing and speaking. We aim to employ teaching methods and resources that allow all students, irrespective of their gender, ethnic origin or academic ability to have equal access to the subject.

  • Ofsted
  • NOS
  • NOS 2
  • Career Mark
  • DofE
  • London Institute