At Ormiston Denes Academy we place a big emphasis on environmental issues. We look at the big questions facing the future generation and we try to equip our students with skills that will allow them to get at the truth behind the information we are all swamped with today. We enjoy trips and fieldwork (both on site and out of the academy) where we encourage the students to appreciate the world that we live in.
Curriculum
The geography curriculum covers both physical and human topics, looking at other places around the world and processes that sculpt the landscape. The topics look at how we interact with the natural world and change it. Lessons look to develop transferable skills including:
- The analysis and presentation of maps, photos and data.
- Different styles of writing.
- The use of IT for research, data analysis and presentations.
- Thinking skills and problem solving.
- The collection of data to investigate hypotheses.
- Decision making.
- Group work and discussion.
In lessons students will be involved in a variety of activities:
- Thinking tasks and problem solving.
- Decision making tasks.
- Data analysis and presentation.
- Different kinds of report writing.
- The interpretation of maps and photos.
- The use of IT for presentations and research.
- Discussions and debate.
- Group work and quizzes.
Geography at GCSE
Students will study the AQA Geography course.
The GCSE course includes topics that cover many important human and environmental issues, which are of concern today. The course allows students to gain a very good understanding of the Earth’s natural and human environments, how we affect them and how people can manage them:
- Natural hazards: the causes of volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, extreme weather events and how people manage the effects.
- River landscapes and how river flooding can be managed.
- Coastal landscapes and the management of disappearing coastlines.
- The living world: tropical rain forests, why they are important and how they can be protected.
- Thar Desert: how this environment can be protected.
- Cities in different parts of the world and how we can make them better places to live.
- Development and quality of life: global and UK issues.
- Resource management: the importance of water and how water supplies, in different parts of the world, can be managed.