Geography Curriculum Statement
Students will be taught a well rounded geography curriculum based around the concept of ‘We are global citizens…’. They will explore key geographical questions such as ‘how our world is becoming more dangerous?’ and ‘are humans sustainable?’ whilst also learning key map, graphical and mathematical skills to succeed in their day to day lives. At GCSE level students will travel the world from their classroom, exploring case studies in the United Kingdom (UK), higher income countries (HICs), newly emerging economies (NEEs) and lower income countries (LICs). Areas of study include climate change, poverty, deprivation, global shifts in economic power and the challenge of sustainable resource use. Students are also encouraged to understand their role in society, by considering different viewpoints, values and attitudes. This further embeds our intent for our students to not only become; but understand why it is important to be a global citizen.
Students in Year 7 start their journey by learning about key geographical skills and investigative geography as these skills underpin their studies throughout their time at HGSA, this allows them to question what happens around them. These lead into the GCSE Specification where students go on to study different ecosystems, landscapes and natural hazards including climate change, which is thought to be the biggest hazard that we might face in the future. Assessment is carefully structured in Year 7 and 8 to introduce and refine geographical skills through a variety of assessments that are self, peer and teacher assessed. Students are assessed through quick knowledge tests as well as longer answer questions.
The same assessment procedure occurs at GCSE level; the assessment schedule is designed in a way that students practise and then refine exam technique and are assessed through a combination of both short term and long term retrieval in order to both improve their exam technique as well as assessing their knowledge and understanding.
Students will learn the importance of being a global citizen as well as how their own actions can have global effects. They will learn how to live more sustainably in order to look after the planet on which we live. Being a geographer is being a global citizen and this underpins our love of geography. Leaving school with a wider understanding of our role in society will mean that we have been successful in the delivery of our geography curriculum.
History Curriculum Statement
It is our intention that our students will leave their history education with a better understanding of how history is constructed and with the skills to tackle misconceptions from the past and in present day society.
Students will understand that people in the past had hopes, faced fears and desired dreams, but in the context that they were living in. They will appreciate that we are not smarter, or better, simply because we are born later. They will understand how the modern world came to be by studying the major events in British, European and world history, looking at factors that shaped our society and developing the necessary skills to debate, analyse, argue and explain. This will be done through scrutiny of sources, interpretations, reading information from the past and present in order to gain an awareness of critically approaching old and new information.
Students will; have a chronological understanding of history, whereby they are encouraged to explore continuity and change across the centuries – from the Romans to the 21st century. For example, the role of the government in advancing scientific change, the impact of war on Britain and changing social structures.
Students will leave Heanor Gate Spencer Academy with the ability to critically reflect on the role of themselves and others within society and the impact it leaves on our history. Such analytical awareness of their own history will instil an appreciation as to why it is still important to us today. It will allow students to pursue further education and careers as the skills are transferable into a rage of fields of work.
Curriculum Maps