Key stage 3 Geographers at Bishop Young have an opportunity to learn key Geographical skills, develop their extended writing and evaluative skills, explore new places and compare their lives with people around the world.

We start year 7 by encouraging students to gain a good understanding of their place in a globalised and interconnected world. Students then study the Geography of their local area, before investigating the physical and human Geography of the UK.

The remainder of years 8 and 9 are structured by studying each continent of the world as a separate unit of work. Within these topics we learn about contemporary and relevant issues, such as climate change, resource management, population change, economic development and sustainable futures. It is important that our students understand the physical world and how humans interact with natural environments.

Year 7 topics:

• Our place in the world (global development and population change)
• Our local area (map skills)
• Physical Geography of the UK (rivers, weather and climate, geology)
• Human Geography of the UK (energy and urban issues)

Year 8 topics:

• Geography of Africa
• Europe (Glaciation and tectonics)
• South America (rainforests)
• Asia (natural hazards and economic development)

Year 9 topics:

• The Middle East (economic development and sustainable futures)
• North America (physical landscapes, resource exploitation and migration)
• Geography of Russia
• Climate Change
• Oceans and seas (coastal processes, coral reef sand sustainable management)

Course title and type of qualification: Geography GCSE AQA (1 -9)

What will I learn?

The course will allow you to develop your knowledge of both Physical and Human Geography. You will also be given an opportunity to develop your Geographical skills.

You will study the challenges of natural hazards and the living world, physical landscapes of the United Kingdom and human interaction with them. You will develop an understanding of the factors that produce a diverse variety of human environments; the dynamic nature of these environments that change over time and place; the need for sustainable management; and the areas of current and future challenge and opportunity for these environments.

Alongside the subject content listed below, you’ll also learn:

• How to recognise the different sides in debates and make decisions based on sound argument.
• How to undertake a fieldwork enquiry developing transferable skills in research, data collection, analysis and evaluation.
• How communicate both verbally and in the written form so that you can including write reports and present data.
• How to work independently and within a team, considering different ideas and coming to an agreed consensus.

How will I be assessed?

Paper One: Living with the physical environment (Written exam: 1 hour 30 minutes)

• Section A: The challenge of natural hazards
• Section B: The living world
• Section C: Physical landscapes in the UK

Paper Two: Challenges in the human environment (Written exam: 1 hour 30 minutes)

• Section A: Urban issues and challenges
• Section B: The changing economic world
• Section C: The challenge of resource management

Paper Three: Geographical applications (Written exam: 1 hour 15 minutes)

• Section A: Issue evaluation
• Section B: Fieldwork

What could I move onto?

Geography can be used as a stepping stone to a variety of courses in Higher Education and many different careers; including environment management, planning, law, surveying, education, accountancy, business, socal

services, meteorology and engineering.

Exam Board: AQA