Welcome to the Geography Department

Subject Overview
Teaching Aims and Objectives
Course Information
Marking and Assessment
Homework Policy
Examinations
Department Resources
Department Policies

Subject Overview

Key Stage 3

Students are taught modules that provide a better understanding of the world in which they live. They study a range of locations around the world and focus on major geographical issues that are becoming increasingly important in today’s world. A balance is maintained between the study of physical and human geography.

Key Stage 4

The course followed allows students to develop their knowledge of geographical topics and focuses on the management of geographical issues.

Key Stage 5

The AS and A Level course encourages students to deepen their geographical knowledge and understanding as well as to develop their geographical skills. The final synoptic A Level unit requires students to draw on all their previous studies of the subject.

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Teaching Aims and Objectives

The Department aims to engage and inspire students to be passionate about the world in which they live. Students are also taught skills which will be relevant to their future working lives.

Students learn to be effective problem-solvers and critical thinkers. They are required to evaluate a range of resources and to recommend solutions. Students are encouraged to question critically in order to develop their research skills and in order to analyse geographical issues more objectively. Naturally, their literacy and numeracy skills develop in tandem.

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Course Information

The following topics are studied:

Key Stage 3

• My World – an understanding of our place in the world, and of the places around us
• Foodmiles – Where does our food come from? What effects does that have?
• Wild Weather – how weather systems can drastically affect life
• I’m Off to the Seaside – a study of coastal issues
• Unequal Places – understanding the development gap between the world’s countries
• Dangerous World – plate tectonics and associated hazards
• Climate Change – causes, effects and management
• Save My Planet – a collection of global issues – deforestation, desertification

Key Stage 4: GCSE

• Water on the Land
• Ice on the Land
• The Challenge of Weather and Climate
• Population Change
• The Development Gap
• Globalisation

Key Stage 5: AS Level

• Rivers, Floods and Management
• Coastal Environments
• Population Change
• Health Issues
• Geographical Skills

Key Stage 5: A2 Level

• Plate-tectonics and Associated Hazards
• Weather and Climate and Associated Hazards
• World Cities
• Development and Globalisation
• Geography Fieldwork Investigation

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Marking and Assessment

Students’ work is marked regularly to acknowledge effort, knowledge, understanding and development of independent learning.

Marking takes two forms:

• Contact marking
• Formative assessment

Contact marking is intended to check that all work has been completed with appropriate effort by the students. Geography teachers do not formally grade this work, but will offer encouragement and may point out grammatical errors or give directions to improve the presentation of the notes.

Formative assessment is intended to give specific advice to each individual student. At Key Stage 3, this form of marking is usually part of the extended writing process. When students write an extended task, they are given a marking sheet that gives advice on how they should mark their own work. In addition, this work is then marked by the teacher who gives specific advice on how to improve it. This work is marked to National Curriculum grades and the students record their progress on a personal record sheet. At GCSE and AS/A Level, essays and examination work are marked in a similar way. Work is marked according to the Examination Board’s marking criteria.

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Homework Policy

Students in Years 7 and 8 are set homework once a week. Students will be expected to do research relevant to the topics being studied.

GCSE students are set homework once a week to meet the demands of the course. There may be occasions when more homework is necessary.

AS/A Level students are expected to support their study with extra research and wider reading. This is in addition to essays set.

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Examinations

GCSE

AQA Geography.

Students take two examinations and produce one Controlled Assessment.

Paper 1 – (1 ½ hours) Unit 1: Physical Geography. Worth 37.5% of the GCSE

Paper 2 – (1 ½ hours) Unit 2: Human Geography. Worth 37.5% of the GCSE

Unit 3: Local Fieldwork Investigation Controlled Assessment – 2000 words based on a study of the River Chess

AS/A Level

AQA Geography

Students take two exams at both AS and A2 Level.

AS

• Exam 1 (1 ½ hours): Geog1 – Physical and Human Geography (Rivers, Floods and Management, Coastal Environments, Population Change, Health Issues)
• Exam 2 (1 hour): Geog2– Geographical Skills

A2

• Exam 1 (2 ½ hours): Geog3 – Contemporary Geographical Issues (Plate-tectonics and Associated Hazards, Weather and Climate and Associated Hazards, World Cities, Development and Globalisation)
• Exam 2 (1 ½ hours): Geog4A – Geography Fieldwork Investigation

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Department Resources

The Geography Department is well-resourced, with a bank of resources which engage and inspire students. As Geography is a highly visual subject, there is an excellent bank of photographic resources and all staff have laptops with access to data projectors. This enables access to the growing supply of on-line resources such as Google Earth. DVD resources are being expanded.

The Department is well supplied with course textbooks and has an extensive research library to support wider reading and investigation. Students taking GCSE and AS/A Level are required to buy their own copy of their specification textbook to act as a first point of reference for their private study.

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Department Policies

Exercise Books

Students are issued with exercise books. They are expected to treat these with respect. The Geography Department expects students to follow these guidelines:

• Exercise books should be covered in clear plastic film
• Writing should be in blue or black ink
• Work should have a title and be dated
• Titles and dates should be underlined using a ruler
• Diagrams and pictures should be drawn in pencil, labelled in ink, given a title and have a border drawn round them.

Writing

Students are taught to use a variety of written styles, ranging from formal extended writing to note-taking. The Geography Department believes that it is vital for students to be able to write effectively to succeed academically. Extended writing is a key skill that helps students to develop their thinking. In written work, students adhere to the following guidelines:

• Paragraphs in handwritten work must be indented
• Students should not miss a line between paragraphs
• Students must write clearly, setting their work out with care and with pride.

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