Organising a Key Stage 3 Geography Curriculum

Complete the interactive activities in the Seneca app to work towards your CPD certificate.

The aim of this CPD course is to aid you in thinking about why you teach what you do.

In a discipline as broad as geography we cannot teach everything so what to teach is a hugely important decision.
Carefully thinking about what is included in a curriculum is essential if we are to ensure that pupils’ geographical understanding progresses over time.

This CPD course discusses two different ways of coherently organising a Key 3 Stage Geography curriculum:
- Thinking about the distinction between regional and systematic geography.
- Thinking about key concepts in geography.

By using these approaches for curriculum thinking, we can avoid the risk of a curriculum that is made up of distinct topics with little to link them together.
We can use these approaches to connect the silos of information and ensure coherence across our curriculum.

Geography is a horizontal subject unlike, for example, Science, which is more vertical or hierarchical.

This means that new segments of knowledge are added to existing knowledge.
The knowledge is distinct but it is related. Key concepts are revisited periodically and restudied numerous times in different contexts.
For example, the concept of development will be revisited and restudied lots of times in different contexts throughout Key Stage 3.

In a hierarchical subject, the knowledge becomes increasingly abstract as you progress in your studies.
This increasingly abstract knowledge helps understand relationships and helps establish generalisations and laws within the subject.

The horizontal knowledge of geography matters because it means that effective sequencing of content is incredibly important.

There are a number of different ways of thinking about the organisation and sequencing of a KS3 geography curriculum.

There may not be an obvious sequence for teaching and depending on the order of content that you choose, different links can be drawn between topics and concepts.
It is essential that students are able to see, and draw, these links frequently as this is what sets geography apart from other subjects (Enser, 2019).

What is key is that throughout the curriculum, the key concepts are revisited to broaden and deepen pupils’ understanding.
Within segments of geography, the knowledge may be hierarchical and become increasingly abstract (Standish, 2017) so this requires consideration too.
For example, understanding the concept of ‘place’ is hierarchical in nature.

It’s also critical to remember that geography as a discipline and as a school subject is ‘in a constant state of becoming’ (Lambert & Morgan, 2010).
Thus, our curriculum will need to be constantly reflected upon, tweaked, and changed.
The concepts within our curriculum will also need to change as geography creates concepts in response to changes in the nature of the world (Lambert & Morgan, 2010).
So, our curriculum planning and thinking are never finished.

Careful sequencing of content helps to build students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in geography over time.

It helps to add clarity and align expectations around what students will know and what geographical skills they can display at certain ‘end’ points.
- E.g. the end of Year 9 or Year 11.