KS4 Geography
For Geography, we will achieve this by ensuring: That UTC Leeds Geography students consider the issues of sustainability, climate change and inequality in their roles as engineers and in their everyday lives.
Overview
Students in year 10 at UTC Leeds have the option to study Geography GCSE. Through their Geography GCSE, students will explore how engineers’ choices affect the physical world, and how engineers can use their skills to improve conditions for people and protect the environment.
Students will travel the world from their classroom, exploring case studies in the United Kingdom, higher-income countries, newly emerging economies and lower-income countries. Topics of study include climate change, poverty, deprivation, global shifts in economic power and the challenge of sustainable resource use. Students will also develop their understanding of their own role in society but will also consider different viewpoints, values and attitudes. Employers value GCSE Geography as it highlights the links between many different areas of learning and it requires those taking it to analyse and evaluate; these are skills that are highly sought after.
The Geography Department has links with a number of employers and organisations that support us with contextualising the learning that we do.
We follow the AQA GCSE specification that is a linear course and is assessed through three exams: Living with the Physical Environment (90 minutes), Challenges in the Human Environment (90 minutes) and Geographical Applications (75 minutes). There is no coursework, however, students will undertake fieldwork and will be assessed on this as part of the Geographical Applications paper.
Our Geography curriculum is broken down into ‘non-negotiables’ – the vital areas that a student needs to master in that subject. These non-negotiables underpin the learning throughout the duration of the study and our students understand that after developing competency in each strand, they will aim to develop mastery in each. The learning is coherently sequenced across the 4-year plan and mapped cross-curricular, and our sequence of learning plans specifies which non-negotiables are the learning foci and/or the knowledge that students will gain.
Geography GCSE
Exam board: AQA
Year 10
Topics of study include:
- The challenge of natural hazards
- The living world
- Physical landscapes in the UK
- Geographical skills
Students also study case studies and examples. Case studies are broader in context and require greater breadth and depth of knowledge and understanding.
Year 11
Topics of study include:
- Urban issues and challenges
- The changing economic world
- The challenge of resource management
We also complete an exciting fieldwork trip to Bridlington where we collect primary data which will be used in the exam. We look at both the human (town/tourism) and physical side (the beach) of the seaside town. Through this, students are given the opportunity to consolidate and extend their geographical understanding by relating learning to real experiences of the world.
Staff and Contact Details
Alastair Chambers, Subject Leader of Geography [email protected]