Geography Department

What will the course be like?

The GCSE Geography course will be of interest to anyone who wants to learn more about the world in which we live in. There are two main areas of study which are broken down into smaller topics:

Unit 1 Dynamic Planet – This covers topics such as natural hazards, climate change, the future of the world’s water supplies, coastal change and extreme climates.

Unit 2 People and the Planet – Topics covered here include world population issues, consuming resources, changing cities and the world at work. Your teachers will be working hard to make lessons interesting and varied. In addition to work in the classroom there will be the opportunity to go on day fieldtrips to Newcastle, the Northumberland coast and the Lake District. You will also be carrying out fieldwork in the Ashington area as part of
your controlled assessment.

Where can it lead?

This course provides a good foundation for anyone wishing to study Geography at Post-16.

Assessment:

Assessment is by both examinations and controlled tasks and involves the following: Units 1 and 2 (25% each) are
assessed by 1 hour written exams which test students’ knowledge of the key areas covered by the course.
Unit 3 (25%) is a 1 hour Decision Making Exercise and is a little unusual because students receive pre-release material to study before the exam. This gives them information on what the exam is about, but does not of course give them the questions.

Unit 4 (25%) is a Controlled Assessment. Here students carry out a piece of fieldwork, set by the exam board, and write a report on it at school under controlled conditions. These four assessments will be spread throughout the course with Units 2 and 4 completed in Y10 and Units 1 and 3 in Y11. This helps to balance the assessment load for students over the two year GCSE course.