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The Wavell School

Year 11 Geography


GCSE Geography

SUMMARY OF SUBJECT CONTENT:

The course aims to actively engage students in the process of geographic enquiry to develop them as effective and independent learners, and as critical and reflective thinkers with enquiring minds.  Students should, by the end of the course, have a knowledge and understanding of both processes involved in physical geography and human geography. They will also develop the geographic skills to analyse and interpret source information and to evaluate this information to reach conclusions.  As part of the course they will undertake two fieldwork enquiries, one of these in Year 11.

Specification at a glance

Exam Board: AQA

Specification Code: 8035

 Units

 Summary of Assessment

 Time

 Weighting

 

Living with the physical environment

 

External Examination – Paper 1

 

 

What's assessed

3.1.1 The challenge of natural hazards, 3.1.2 Physical landscapes in the UK, 3.1.3 The living

world, 3.4 Geographical skills

 

Questions

• Section A: answer all questions (33 marks)

• Section B: answer all questions (25 marks)

• Section C: answer any two questions from questions 3,4 and 5 (30 marks)

Question types: multiple-choice, short answer, levels of response, extended prose

 

 

1 Hour 30 minutes

 

35%

 

 

Challenges in the human environment

 

External Examination – Paper 2

 

 

What's assessed

3.2.1 Urban issues and challenges, 3.2.2 The changing economic world, 3.2.3 The challenge of

resource management, 3.4 Geographical skills

 

Questions

• Section A: answer all questions (33 marks)

• Section B: answer all questions (30 marks)

• Section C: answer question 3 and one from questions 4, 5 or 6 (25 marks)

Question types: multiple-choice, short answer, levels of response, extended prose

 

 

1 Hour 30 minutes

 

35%

 

Geographical applications

 

 

 

External Examination – Paper 3

 

 

What's assessed

3.3.1 Issue evaluation, 3.3.2 Fieldwork, 3.4 Geographical skills

 

 

Questions

• Section A: answer all questions (37 marks)

• Section B: answer all questions (39 marks)

• Question types: multiple-choice, short answer, levels of response, extended prose

 

• Pre-release resources made available 12 weeks before Paper 3 exam.

 

 

 

1 Hour

 

30%

What did my child study during Year 10?

Term

Topic

Resources

Winter Term

Living World

  • Ecosystems

Small scale ecosystems

Ecosystem change

  • Tropical Rainforest Characteristics

Characteristics

Interdependence

Adaptations

Biodiversity

  • Tropical Rainforest Management

Causes of deforestation

Effects of deforestation

Sustainable Management of forests (selective logging, conservation, tourism, debt relief)

  • Hot Deserts

Characteristics

Interdependence

Adaptations

Biodiversity

  • Thar Desert case study

Development opportunities

Challenges of Development

  • Desertification

Causes of desertification

Strategies to reduce the effects of desertification

AQA Geography 9-1 text

Pages 52-76

 

Kerboodle online resources and revision quizzes.

 

 

Spring Term

Changing Economic World

  • Global variations

Classifying Countries

Measuring development

Causes of the development gap

Solutions to the development gap

Tourism and development

  • Nigeria Case Study

Location and context

Industrial structure

Role of TNCs in development

Effects of development on  Quality of Life

  • UK Economic Future

Cause of deindustrialisation

Post industrialisation

Environmental impact of industry

Infrastructure investment (road / rail / airport)

North / South divide

Global links

AQA Geography 9-1 text

Pages 194-250

 

Kerboodle online resources and revision quizzes.

 

 

Summer Term

UK Landscapes

  • UK physical landscape
  • Rivers (physical geography)

Long and Cross profile

Fluvial processes

Erosion Landforms (waterfalls)

Erosion and deposition landforms (meanders)

Deposition landforms (Levees)

  • Rivers (flooding and flood management)

Factors affecting flooding

Hydrographs

Flood management

Hard engineering

Soft engineering

Jubilee River example of flood management

 

AQA Geography 9-1 text

Pages 114-130

 

Kerboodle online resources and revision quizzes.

 

 

What will my child study during Year 11?

Term

Topic

Resources

Winter Term

Urban Challenges (completion of topic started in year 10)

  • UK Case Study (Bristol)

- Location and Importance

- Urban migration

- Urban social & economic opportunities

- Urban greening

- Urban Challenges

- Social and economic challenges

- Dereliction and brownfield sites

- Urban sprawl

- Urban regeneration

  • Sustainable development
  • Fieldwork

 

UK Landscapes

  • Coasts (physical geography)

- Marine processes

- Erosion Landforms (Headlands)

- Deposition landforms (Dunes / Spits)

- Swanage bay example

  • Coastal management

- Hard engineering

- Soft engineering

- Lyme Regis example

AQA Geography 9-1 text Pages 148-190 for urban.  Pages 92-113 for Coasts

 

 

Kerboodle & Seneca online resources and revision quizzes.

 

 

Spring Term

Natural Hazards

Tectonic Hazards

Plate theory

Effects of hazards

Response to hazards

Management of hazards

Weather Hazards

Causes of tropical storms

Effects of hazards

Response to hazards

Management of hazards

Typhoon Haiyan example

UK extreme weather

Causes

Risks

Management

Climate change

Evidence

Causes

Management

 

AQA Geography 9-1 text

Pages 8-49

 

Kerboodle & Seneca online resources and revision quizzes.

 

 

Summer Term

Resource Management

  • Energy management

- Demand for energy

- Energy insecurity

- Energy supply

- Sustainable energy use

 

Synoptic case study

  • This is released by the exam board at ½ term.  It is about 6 hours teaching on the case study they provide.

 

AQA Geography 9-1 text

Pages 288-299

 

Kerboodle online resources and revision quizzes.

 

 

How will my child be assessed and how will I know how well they are doing in Geography in Year 11?

  • Each topic has an end of unit assessment of between 25 and 33 marks. These are based on AQA sample papers and marked to GCSE standard.  Students are given a mark and an indication of the grade that would be awarded if this question was answered in a GCSE.
  • Students are given an indication of how well they are doing in relation to their progress banding and are given areas where they can focus to further develop skills and focus future revision.
  • These end of unit test, combined with the teacher’s assessment of classwork and homework, form the basis of the reports sent home
  • The year 11 mock will cover a selection of the topics covered at the time of the paper (up to 88 marks).

What homework will my child be expected to do in Year 11 in Geography?

Students will be set weekly homework that they will be expected to spend around 1 hour completing. The homework will be a variety of tasks that will primarily be:

  • Completion of classwork with further research and note-making
  • Completion of past GCSE questions
  • Revision for tests
  • Online revision/quizzes using sites such as Kerboodle

How can I support my child to do well in Geography during Year 11?

  • Ensure they complete their homework properly
  • Support them by ensuring they have somewhere suitable to work, away from distractions but with online access to the textbook etc.
  • Buy a revision guide (order forms available to download via this website) and encourage the use of moderated subject revisions website including Kerboodle
  • Support them to revise and prepare properly for each test

My child is struggling during the course, what additional help is available to help them keep up?

  • Students should be encouraged to seek assistance from their teacher when they are struggling with any concept.
  • Students can access the digital textbooks to help with revision and catch-up.
  • After school revision sessions have been run in Year 10 and will be available in Year 11.
  • Revision books can be purchased to assist with understanding, clear
  • Students have access to the kerboodle learning platform which have a range of resources to help boost understanding.
  • For physical geography and fieldwork BBC bitesize has good, clear resources

Recommended Textbooks:  GCSE GEOGRAPHY AQA (Oxford University Press)

Links: http://www.aqa.org.uk

Last Updated September 2023