Geography

Year 7

Students follow four broad modules. The first module is about Geography itself, what it means and the key three concepts that underlie everything we teach:

• Physical Geography
• Human Geography
• Environmental Geography

In the autumn term we study economic geography, considering the differences between primary, secondary and tertiary jobs and how these affect our landscape.  The topic is brought to light in our day trip to Docklands.

In the spring term students will conduct a comparative study of Africa and India, looking at both physical and human aspects.

The entire summer term is devoted to climate change.  What is the nature of the evidence we have for it, what are the causes, what are the impacts and what can we do about it.  Case studies from Asia and Africa are considered.

Year 8

We look at the Earth as a series of dynamic systems. During the year we will study four main systems:

Population: By the end of the module students should be able to understand the following opinions:

• That to conserve the world’s resources, population growth must be arrested.
• That the world’s resources are not just threatened by population growth in southern countries, but also by high levels of consumption in the northern countries.
• That education and a higher standard of living play an important part in reducing population growth.
• That government policies can often cause large problems.

Our Weather System: We look at the atmosphere and how it influences the weather that we have to live through. 

The Earth’s Ecosystem: The emphasis is placed on environmental destruction and conservation schemes. We will use a wide variety of data to enable the pupils to gain maximum geographical understanding.

The River System: Rivers are an important part of the Hydrological cycle – a system in itself. We study the physical features and have a day’s fieldwork measuring the River Bulbourne in Hertfordshire. 

Year 9

Coastlines:  Students study the coastlines around Britain, why and how they are changing so rapidly and what impact people have on them.  

Earthquakes and Volcanoes:  Students study the location and relationship between earthquakes and volcanoes, where they occur and how they happen and the impact they have on the communities that live near them.

Inequalities: In the summer term students begin the material which forms part of the GCSE course.  They will consider the nature of inequalities in geography and how by many measures inequalities are on the rise.  

In the different modules attention is drawn to mapwork using both atlases and OS maps.

Paper 1: Physical Geography (35% -  1.5 hours long)(largely taught in Year 10)

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

Paper 2: Human Geography (35% - 1.5 hours long)(largely taught in Year 10)

• Urban issues and challenges
• The changing economic world
• The challenge of resource management
• Geographical skills

Paper 3: Geographical applications (30% - 1 hour long)(largely taught in Year 11)

• Issue evaluation
• Fieldwork
• Geographical skills