Year 11

In Year 11 we continue the two-year GCSE Edexcel 1312 course (Specification A).

At Key Stage 3, students have already developed a range of relevant skills and knowledge that the GCSE course builds upon. The course introduces students to new skills, places, ideas and management issues. Students are taught to apply their skills and knowledge to real world situations. This allows them to understand how peoples’ decisions shape the world we live in. Geography is a subject that requires a certain level of general knowledge and an ability to use common sense to think logically when answering questions.

Curriculum Organisation
 4 periods per week
 Teaching groups are of mixed ability and students remain in their form groups for these.
 The work covered is from a variety of textbooks including; Tomorrow’s Geography, the core textbook, and is supplemented by numerous worksheets and videos

Assessment and Reporting
 Parents will receive progress reports on a regular basis
 Selected pieces of homework and classwork are assessed throughout the year
 End of unit projects and tests
 End of year examination

Examinations:  75 % (2 Papers)
Coursework:  25 %

The first examination paper tests students’ geographical skills such as interpreting and analysing graphs, maps or photographs in a number of structured short answer questions. All the questions on this paper need to be answered.

The second paper focuses more on case studies of different people-environment interactions in both More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs) and Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs). There is a choice of 4 questions, of which two are answered. Each question is broken down into a number of shorter parts.

Coursework
Students do one piece of assessed Geography fieldwork as part of the course. This is where students put their geographical skills and knowledge into practice. The present coursework topic is entitled ‘Dubai’s settlement pattern’.  Students collect their data on an organized day with school using a variety of methods and produce a structured report analysing this information using a mixture of graphs and written work.

Area of Study:   Term One
 Natural World
o Weather and trees
o Preparation for mock examination

Area of Study: Term Two
 Managing Natural Hazards
 Managing Urban Areas
 Revision

Area of Study: Term Three
 Revision

Useful Websites to support learning

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/revision/
www.juicygeography.co.uk/
www.rgs.org
www.internetgeographer.co.uk/

Careers

A good grade at GCSE will help students move on to study it at AS Level. Apart from Geography there are many other related subjects. Biology, Geology, Environmental Science, Government and Politics, Economics, Business Studies, Travel and Tourism and Leisure and Recreation all have close links with the material studied in GCSE Geography.

Employment opportunities where geographical skills will be particularly valued include journalism and media, the law, engineering, business management, teaching, economic planning, marketing, leisure, recreation and tourism.