Geography

Exam Board : AQA GEOGRAPHY

Mr A House ● Head of Geography ● ahouse@kgs.org.uk

Geography is one of the most exciting, adventurous and valuable subjects you can study today. It is about real world issues and the study of it helps inspire, address and explain curiosity about the Earth.

Coping with natural disasters, reducing poverty, and ensuring that our rapidly growing cities develop in sustainable ways are just some of the challenges facing the next generation of geographers. As part of the GCSE course, students will be encouraged to participate actively in enquiry, to critically consider these and similar issues. The study of Geography will challenge both opinions and perceptions of the world around you.

Geography is unique in bridging the arts and the sciences, and it is highly flexible in terms of which other subjects it can be combined with, both at GCSE and A Level. Due to the diversity of skills, knowledge and understanding developed throughout the courses studied, Geography at GCSE and beyond provides excellent preparation for a wide variety of University degrees. Employers are similarly impressed by geographers because of the subject’s robust academic background and the range of transferable skills developed by students.

The AQA GCSE Geography syllabus content has the following elements:

• An emphasis on locational knowledge of the world and the UK • An exam module titled “Living with the physical environment”, including the study of natural hazards, weather and climate, and ecosystems • An exam module titled “Challenges in the human environment” to include the study of cities, economic development processes and resource management • Fieldwork and geographical skills developed throughout the course with compulsory field trips currently to Seaford and Bristol and no controlled assessment

The content has been heavily prescribed by the Government, and has been developed concurrently with the new A Level examinations. As a result, the content and skills have been developed to promote symbiosis between Geography and other key subjects such as Mathematics, the sciences and English. This ensures that even at GCSE, Geography provides a wealth of knowledge, understanding and skills, at a range of scales, which can be transferred to almost any future to which students aspire. Ultimately this is the most exciting thing about studying Geography, and why it is such a highly regarded subject amongst universities and employers.