Geography
Geography is a fascinating subject about the environment, how places differ, how physical systems work and about how people interact with the world. Geography is about real-world events, their impacts and their different interpretation. With contemporary challenges facing society and the environment it has never been more important to explore and understand that which is central to our being.
Course content
Human geography includes the exploration of Place development and identity, Migration and Human Rights.
Physical geography incorporates Coasts and Earth’s life support systems.
The ‘debates’ units address a selection of Exploring Oceans, Disease Dilemmas, Climate change and Tectonics.
Skills throughout include cartographic skills, data collection, presentation and analysis, interpreting a source, predicting and persuading, evaluating and improving.
The independent investigation is driven by the student and will link to an area of study from Coasts of Places units.
Entry requirements
GCSE grade 6 in geography
Assessment
Paper 1 (22%): Physical Systems 1hr30
Paper 2 (22%): Human Interactions 1hr30
Paper 3 (36%): Geographical Debates 2hr30
Non-exam assessment (NEA) (20%): Independent Investigation
Beyond the classroom
The NEA requires you to attend four days ‘in the field’. Two of these will be to conduct a pilot/introductory NEA style trip in the local area at the start of year 12. This is intended to give you context to the NEA and sow seeds for future titles. A second two-day trip takes place at the end of year 12 with a purpose of data gathering for the NEA title you will have created. You will have a choice of a coastal or urban environment to undertake this study.
We hope our more experienced geographers will take part on mentoring programs. These help younger geographers to access work or extent their understanding. This may also be in the form of running a ‘Survivor’ style club that explores extreme environments.
