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Geography

Subject Leader: Mrs L Matthewman

KS4

GCSE Geography A (2016) KS4 (Years 9-11)

Exam Board: AQA

Course Overview

This course consists of three externally examined papers:

Component 1: Living with the physical environment (35% of the qualification)
Content overview:

  • The challenge of natural hazards
  • The living world
  • Physical landscapes in the UK
  • Geographical skills

Component 2: Challenges in the human environment (35% of the qualification)
Content overview:

  • Urban issues and challenges
  • The changing economic world
  • The challenge of resource management
  • Geographical skills
  • Component 3: Geographical applications. (30% of the qualification)

Content overview:

  • Issue Evaluation
  • Fieldwork
  • Geographical skills

The aims and objectives of this qualification are to enable students to build on their Key Stage 3 knowledge and skills to:

  • Develop and extend their knowledge of locations, places, environments and processes, and of different scales, including global; and of social, political and cultural contexts (know geographical material)
  • Gain understanding of the interactions between people and environments, change in places and processes over space and time, and the interrelationship between geographical phenomena at different scales and in different contexts (think like a geographer)
  • Develop and extend their competence in a range of skills including those used in fieldwork, in using maps and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and in researching secondary evidence, including digital sources; and develop their competence in applying sound enquiry and investigative approaches to questions and hypotheses (study like a geographer)
  • Apply geographical knowledge, understanding, skills and approaches appropriately and creatively to real world contexts, including fieldwork, and to contemporary situations and issues; and develop well-evidenced arguments drawing on their geographical knowledge and understanding (applying geography)

Assessment: 100% examination

 

KS5

A-Level Geography (Year 12 and 13)

Exam Board: AQA
Level: 3

Course Overview

Qualification - at a glance.

This qualification is linear. Linear means that students will sit all their exams and submit all their non-exam assessment at the end of the course. This qualification enables students to explore the world, its issues and their place in it. The specification explores current issues of local, national and global importance in contexts specific to different parts of the world. A-level introduces new content and approaches to geographical processes, systems, place, scale and space.

Subject Content

Physical geography:

  • Water and carbon cycles
  • Hot deserts and landscapes
  • Coastal systems and landscapes
  • Glacial systems and landscapes
  • Hazards
  • Ecosystems under stress

Human geography:

  • Global systems and global governance
  • Changing places
  • Contemporary urban environments
  • Population and the environment
  • Resource security

The course consists of two externally examined papers and an internally marked Fieldwork investigation.

  • Paper 1: Physical geography (40%)
  • Paper 2: Human geography (40%)
  • Paper 3: Geography fieldwork investigation (20%)

 

Curriculum Content

Year 7

Term 1 - Geographical skills
Term 2 - India
Term 3 - Weather
Term 4 - China
Term 5 - Ecosystems
Term 6 - Ecosystems / Crime
 

Year 8

Term 1 - Development - Rich world, poor world
Term 2 - Hazards
Term 3 - North America
Term 4 - Globalisation
Term 5 - Africa - a continent of contrasts
Term 6 - Megacities

Year 9

Term 1 -Urban issues and challenges 1
Term 2 -Changing economic world 1
Term 3 -Natural hazards 1
Term 4 -Living world 1
Term 5 -Physical landscapes 1
Term 6 -Resource management 1

Year 10

Term 1 -Urban issues and challenges 2
Term 2 -Changing economic world 2
Term 3 -Natural hazards 2
Term 4 -Living world 2
Term 5 -Physical landscapes 2
Term 6 -Resource management 2

Year 11

Term 1 -Hot Deserts / Field experience 2
Term 2 -Urban Change in the UK
Term 3 -Urban Sustainability
Term 4 -Preparation for Issue evaluation/revision
Term 5 -Preparation for geographical skills / revision
Term 6 -Revision and exam focus


Useful Website Links

Pearsons - (relevant for GCSE and A level courses)
AQA - Relevant for GCSE and Year 12 A-Level
 

Suggested Revision Guides and Books:

CGP GCSE AQA Geography (for the grade 9-1 course)
Revise AQA GCSE (9-1) Geography revision guide and workbook (Pearson)
My revision notes: AQA AS/A level Geography (Hodder Education)
New A-level Geography: AQA year 1 and 2 complete revision and practice (CGP)


OSL and Extra-Curricular Activities:

  • Thursday in the Geography area – GCSE.
  • Friday in the Geography area – A level.