Geography

Staffing and Roles:

Mrs Knab - Head of Geography
Mrs MacAulay - Assistant Headteacher
Ms Battaglino - Geography Teacher
Miss De Noia - Geography Teacher

Vision Statement​:

The Geography department is passionate about the world and its people. Our aim is to inspire students to become every-day Geographers who have a fascination about the world.

We want our students to not just enjoy learning about Geography in the classroom, but to have a curiosity that motivates them to investigate it in their daily lives.

Geography Curriculum Map KS3

Geography Curriculum Map KS4

At Key Stage 3 (years 7 -9) students study a range of topics to develop an understanding and awareness of diverse places around the world and develop an understanding about the Earth’s human and physical processes at work.  We aim to get our students outside as much as possible - this is either by collecting field work data on site or on day trips out.

Key Stage 3 Reading List

We teach the AQA GCSE syllabus over two years (year 10 & 11), during this time we prepare our students for the following exams:

Paper Paper 1: Living with the physical environment Paper 2: Challenges in the human environment Paper 3: Geographical Applications
Topics Covered
  • Natural hazards: tectonic hazards, weather hazards.
  • Climate change.
  • Ecosystems: tropical rainforests & hot deserts.
  • UK physical landscapes: coasts and rivers.
  • Urban issues and challenges (Rio and Southampton).
  • The changing economic world.
  • The challenge of resource management (food).
  • Issue evaluation: pre-release is given 12 weeks before the exam.
  • Fieldwork: on two compulsory field trips carried out.
  • Geographical skills.
Exam Information
  • Written exam: 1 hour 30 minutes.
  • 88 marks (including 3 marks for SPaG).
  • Written exam: 1 hour 30 minutes.
  • 88 marks (including 3 marks for SPaG).
  • Written exam: 1 hour 30 minutes.
  • 76 marks (including 6 marks for SPaG)
% of the GCSE 35% 35% 30%
Key Stage 4 Reading List

Ross, R., Rowles N., Holmes D. and Digby B. GCSE Geography AQA. 1st ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

CPG. GCSE AQA Geography For the Grade 9-1 Course. The Revision Guide.

GCSE Geography AQA Specification

  • CPG revision guides, workbooks, and flash cards: ensure you purchase the correct specification for your child – check the course specific information above. Opportunities to buy revision guides through the school are regularly available to students and their parents/ carers.
  • BBC Bitesize: ensure that students use the content aimed at the correct level – KS3 for Y7-9, GCSE (AQA) for Y10 and Y11.
  • Senecalearning.com: ensure that students add the correct courses when registering for Seneca (AQA: Geography GCSE). Class teachers can provide students with a class code which will enable students to join their class, adding the relevant courses automatically, giving teachers the ability to monitor the time spent revising on Seneca by each student.
  • GCSEpod: students have access to hundreds of podcasts on GCSEpod which they can use to further their revision of GCSE topics. The Geography department will share specific playlists on different topics which will be useful for student’s revision, but students are also encouraged to use the site independently to aid their revision.
  • Revision resources on TCS SharePoint and Teams (GCSE Students): students will need to use their school ICT username and password to access TCS SharePoint and Teams.
  • Encourage your child to read around the subject - looking at articles in the news or reading interesting articles from publications such as National Geographic or Geographical magazine are a great way for students to develop their understanding of geography.
  • Encourage your child to watch geographical documentaries and the news – this is a great way for your child to widen their breadth of knowledge and understanding of places, people and geographical processes.
  • Ensure your child is using their revision materials (e.g. revision guide, knowledge organisers, flash cards, mind maps) to prepare for unit tests and exams.
  • Check they are doing their homework, ask to see it.
  • Check they understand the definitions of important key words and know how to spell them.
  • Encourage the weekly production of mind maps or revision cards, and completion of practice exam questions.
  • Students should make use of mark schemes to check any practice papers or exam questions they have completed so that they can identify where they have gained and lost marks - a great deal can be gained from unpicking questions and understanding what marks are awarded for.

Trips
Sorrento, Italy

A group of year 11 geographers visited Sorrento during October half term 2017. During our visit we had an exciting walk up Vesuvius in the fog, saw the effects of the 79 AD eruption by visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum and travelled along the Amalfi coast looking at the beautiful scenery and coastal features. The students also learnt how to make pizzas and got to taste their creations!

Field Trips

GCSE students will go on two compulsory fieldtrips to collect data for their paper 3 exam. Students visit Cultural Quarter in Southampton for their human fieldwork and Hengistbury Head for their physical fieldwork.

In April, 2023 a group of year 9 students visited the Eden Project for the day! Students had a wonderful time experiencing what it was like to be in a tropical rainforest. They looked at the different types of plants in our rainforests and how they adapt to the hot and wet conditions and investigated how valuable tropical rainforests are to us. We hope to visit again and offer more day trips this coming year.

Further information

For more details, please contact Mrs Knab - Head of Geography, at: l.knab@tesbourne.school.