Geography

A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Teaching should equip pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

As pupils progress, their growing knowledge about the world should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, understanding and skills provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth’s features at different scales are shaped, interconnected and change over time.

At Key stage 3, the curriculum ensures that pupils consolidate and extend their knowledge of the world’s major countries and their physical and human features. They understand how geographical processes interact to create distinctive human and physical landscapes that change over time. In doing so, they become aware of increasingly complex geographical systems in the world around them. They develop greater competence in using geographical knowledge, approaches and concepts [such as models and theories] and geographical skills in analysing and interpreting different data sources. In this way pupils continue to enrich their locational knowledge and spatial and environmental understanding.

At Key Stage 4, the curriculum requires students to extend their Locational Knowledge and to develop competence in Maps, Fieldwork and Geographical Skills as they study the content of the following four areas of geography:

Place: processes and relationships

Physical geography: processes and change

People and environment: processes and interactions

Human geography: processes and change

GCSE course information

Qualification & Board	AQA GCSE Geography
Course Content	Students who opt to study Geography at GCSE develop an awareness of the world around them, what is happening now and the impacts of this in the future. We focus on a wide range of topics, building on our knowledge and understanding gained in KS3, with an emphasis on the understanding of physical, human and environmental geography. This allows us to look at geography through the relationships between humans and our environment. If you want to understand the current and future world then Geography is for you!
Potential Career paths	Geography is a high skill option which develops a range of skills including; data handling and analysis, data presentation, questioning, Reasoning, team work, research skills, the ability to approach problems with a holistic attitude rather than looking at just one issue and understanding of scale and how things operate on a variety of levels. As a result of this, employers and universities really value this as a subject. It feeds into a high amount of careers including conservation, policing, armed forces, teaching, law, journalism, tourism, engineering, management, civil aviation, government, geology, hazard management and many more.
Assessments (inc. field work / assessed practical's)	Geography is assessed by 100% exam, split into three papers; Paper 1 – Living with the physical environment (35% of final grade) * The Challenge of natural hazards * The living world (ecosystems) * Physical landscapes in the UK (Rivers and Coasts) Paper 2 – Challenges in the Human Environment (35% of final grade) * Urban Issues and challenges * The Changing economic world * The Challenge of resource management Paper 3 – Geographical applications (30% of final grade) * Issue Evaluation * Fieldwork Geographical skills are also assessed over the three exam papers. There are two compulsory fieldwork sessions to attend as part of the course and to access paper 3.
Core or Option	Option
No Option Choices (GCSE only)	1
No. GCSE / A Level equivalent	1 GCSE

Aims

The curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length.

Geography curriculum information for Years 7-11

Year	Term	Units of Work	Formal Assessments
7	Autumn	Fantastic Places Population	Extended writing based upon sustainability in Dubai A range of shorter recall and skills based questions to assess understanding
	Spring	Weather and Climate The Urban world	A range of short factual recall questions and skills based questions to assess understanding Extended writing – comparison of two cities
	Summer	Ecosystems Places and International Development	Animal adaptation – a creative task designed to allow students to demonstrate their understanding of an extreme environment via species adaptation A range of shorter recall questions to assess understanding of coverage of all year 7 topics.
8	Autumn	Geology and Tectonics Climate Change	A range of short factual recall questions and skills based questions to assess understanding. Some longer response questions to allow for assessment of comparison and case study knowledge
	Spring	Rivers and Flooding Economic Activity in the UK Development and globalisation	A range of short factual recall questions and skills based questions to assess understanding. Some longer response questions to allow for assessment of comparison and case study knowledge
	Summer	Coasts and Coastal Management Global issues – Resources and Ocean plastics	A range of short factual recall questions and skills based questions to assess understanding. Some longer response questions to allow for assessment of comparison and case study knowledge Decision making based extended writing task

9	Autumn	The Challenge of Natural Hazards	A range of exam questions – extended writing, multiple choice and data response
	Spring	Urban Issues and Challenges	A range of exam questions – extended writing, multiple choice and data response on all topics covered so far
	Summer	Physical Landscapes – coasts (+ fieldwork) Revision and mock exams	A range of exam questions – extended writing, multiple choice and data response on all topics covered so far. (Full mock)
10	Autumn	Physical Landscapes – Rivers The Changing economic world	A range of exam questions – extended writing, multiple choice and data response on all topics covered so far
	Spring	The living world	A range of exam questions – extended writing, multiple choice and data response on all topics covered so far
	Summer	Revision and mock exams The Living world	A range of exam questions – extended writing, multiple choice and data response on all topics covered so far (full mock)
11	Autumn	Resource management – UK resources	Mock exam, full paper
	Spring	Fieldwork and skills Paper 3 focus + pre-release and Revision	Issue evaluation + fieldwork + mocks of physical and human content