Year 8 Geography Homework Booklet
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- Investigating the crater of Volcano
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- A lava flow on the north flank of Mount Etna
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- Fieldwork in Giardini Naxos
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- Investigating Coryton Cove
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- Alcantara Gorge
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- Field work in Dawlish Town
Court Fields Geography department
Head of Geography – Mr D Williams
Teacher – Miss S Prouse
Teacher – Miss B Casson
Geography department.
“Geography underpins a lifelong ‘conversation’ about the earth as the home of humankind. Geography therefore contributes to a balanced education for all young people in schools, colleges and other settings.”
(A Different View, GA 2009)
Geography at Court Fields School is particularly concerned with developing a sense of place, understanding the relationships between people, cultures and environments along with the processes that have helped to shape those unique landscapes. The Geography department believe that geographical knowledge, the understanding of concepts and skills are essential components of a stimulating, diverse yet balanced curriculum for our young adults. Geography makes a significant contribution to any students’ social, intellectual, physical and emotional development. For we feel it is essential that students in today’s ever-changing world, must display empathy towards others through their knowledge and appreciation of current world issues and natural events at a variety of scales.
Geography today is highly motivating, incredibly topical and challenging for pupils of all abilities. Geography must be a rigorous study of the real world, developing and employing skills and analysis with both sympathetic understanding and highly critical awareness of economic impacts and environmental effects. For now, more than ever sustainability in all aspects of life is becoming increasingly important. We firmly believe in the provision of enriching experiences through fieldwork opportunities, where our students can see the concepts and processes in action. By taking their classroom knowledge out into the world, to measure and test their understanding, our students are able to bring to life the key skills and apply them to real life situations. The field trips we undertake promote invention and innovation, the students are challenged to take risks and learn from their mistakes to make valuable progress along their learning journey.
At Key Stage three we employ a revolving curriculum model, to provide the strong foundations of skills, concepts and processes that help our young adults, establish early connections with the requirement and increasing demand of the GCSE examination. While allowing for the awe and wonder of fantastic and impossible places, to be an inspiration that sparks curiosity and provides a thirst for knowledge. Our key assignments are a mixture of formative and summative assessments differentiated for a range of abilities. Designed to allow the students to apply their understanding, to challenging scenarios and to take them outside of comfort zones. Regularly, our students must sacrifice their expectation of a right and wrong answer, but instead learn to comprise, cooperate, argue and listen to the opinions of others before drawing conclusion.
“GCSE Geography students in Years 10 and 11 spent the first week of the Easter holidays on the Geography tour to Sicily. Study sites included Mount Etna, the Alcantara river gorge, the tourist honeypot of Taormina and the Aeolian island of Vulcano. The highlight of the trip was the visit to the southern flank of Etna where, at an altitude of 2,500m, we were able to marvel at the sight of a stream of molten lava flowing down the slope while snow was falling all around. Mr Latchford commented that this was Etna at its most awesome and the students should feel very privileged to have witnessed such an event.”
