VLE
The study of Geography is about people and places, allowing us to explore different parts of the world, experience different environments and discover different cultures and different ways of life. Geography helps us understand how people adapt to living in different parts of the world and the effects people have on their environments.
Geography can be studied on a variety of levels. Local Geography can have a serious impact on our lives, for example the building of a new bypass. Global Geography deals with issues such as international trade or climatic change.
Through the study of Geography, students gain an appreciation of the complex world in which they live. They learn to become more effective and sensitive citizens of that world. Students will be able to:
Students are taught one lesson (a double period of 65 minutes) per week in Years 6-8, approximately one and a half lessons (three single periods) per week in Year 9, two lessons per week in Years 10-11 and five lessons per week in the Sixth Form Department.
Unit 1 - Mapping and Making Connections: Students focus on the key skills required for Geography. They study direction, scale, Ordnance Survey (OS) map symbols, four and six figure grid references, relief and height on maps. The OS 3D mapping program is used in combination with Google Earth. Unit 2 - Natural Hazards and Tsunamis: Here students identify how natural hazards affect people and look at the impacts of the Tsunami of 2004. Unit 3 - Settlements: This module gives insight into how settlements and urban areas, both globally and locally, have changed. It gives an opportunity to look at the different functions and services settlements offer and the pressures we face as settlements grow.
Unit 1 - Drainage Basins and River Flooding Hazards: Students look at how an increasing population is generating extreme flooding as a hazard. The module also focuses on the pressures drainage basins face from humans. Unit 2 - Rock Types, Weathering and Soils: This unit identifies the structure of the earth and the physical processes which shape our planet. Unit 3 - Plate Tectonics as a Hazard: Students look at both earthquakes and volcanoes as hazards to people. Unit 4 - Population and Migration: As the population grows at such a vast pace, what implications will this have? Here students look at the issues population which growth and decline can have on countries and the world.
Unit 1 - Extreme Weather and Climate: Students investigate the weather and whether our climate is changing. Unit 2 - The Environment, Energy and Resources: This unit looks at how we are consuming our planet's resources, and at what cost. Unit 3 - Ecosystems: Students identify what ecosystems are and examine two ecosystems: rain forest and deserts. They then compare them and see how species have adapted to living in these environments Unit 4 - Coral Reef Ecosystems and Management: Students focus solely on coral reefs and ocean management. This unit gives an insight into how fragile and vulnerable our biggest ecosystem is.
Unit 1 - Development: Students identify the key development indicators and determine whether the development gap is sustainable. Are we all the same? China's development is used as a case study. Unit 2 - Economic Activities: Using Ghana as a case study, students focus on the economic activities in which countries are engaged globally. Do they affect development, and how? Unit 3 - Globalisation: Are we all the same? This controversial topic allows students to realize that the world is flat and has indeed shrunk. Students look at how cultures, lifestyles, diets and expectations have changed drastically. Unit 4 - Global Tourism: As the world's largest economic activity and controversially a key contributor to globalisation, students look at the impacts of tourism and any sustainable options, such as ecotourism.
Terms 1 and 2: The dynamic earth, volcanoes, earthquakes and plate tectonics, population dynamics and migration, world population growth and its associated problems, population-structures, theories and policies,density and distribution, movements of population. Terms 3 and 4: Settlement, settlement characteristics, villages, urban issues in the developed and developing worlds - including case studies. Term 5: Natural environment, rivers and valleys, flooding, water supply and pollution, rocks and relief, energy and water resources, industry, energy.
Term 1: Weather, ecosystems and tourism, weather instruments and measuring the weather (using our electronic weather station), local climates, atmospheric pollution, tropical rainforests. Term 2: Recent trends and changing patterns of tourism, extractive industry, manufacturing industry, tertiary activities, organisation of industry Term 3: Agriculture and rural issues, factors affecting farming and types of farming, issues in world farming, politics and farming, rural land uses. Term 4: Fieldwork techniques, revision and examination practice, fieldwork skills and activities, practice in exam technique. Various websites are used. Term 5: Past-paper revision.
Terms 1 and 2: Unit 2 - 'Geographical Investigations' (examined in January and June) Physical Topic 1: 'Extreme Weather', with its increasing ferocity and frequency, fascinates some people and threatens many others, OR Topic 2: 'Crowded Coasts', reveals how increasing development is testing our ability to manage these valued environments. Human Topic 4: 'Rebranding Places' focuses on how we need to re-image and regenerate rural and urban places, using appropriate strategies, OR Topic 3: 'Unequal Spaces', explores the causes and consequences of rural and urban disparities and how to manage them. Terms 3 and 4: Unit 1 - 'Global Challenges' (examined in June)
Topic 1: 'World at Risk' Topic 2: 'Going Global' Term 5 - Revision and examination