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Geography

An Amery Hill geographer will have a better understanding of the planet we live on, a love of geography and the skills to navigate and adapt to an ever-changing world. They will value global cultures, people and opinions, whilst developing their own perspective and ideas on the crucial physical and human challenges faced by Earth. The world is an exciting and fascinating place and Geography lessons will provide students with a window to explore it and learn how it works. From weather systems and hazards, to slum living and energy use, there is so much to understand about the make-up of the world we live in. There are also trips which students can participate in.  Geography lessons start in Year 7 and they are compulsory until Year 9. Students can choose Geography as one of their GCSE options. 

KS3 Curriculum

Year 7 Geography follows a variety of units that aim to introduce students to a wide range of topics, whilst building on knowledge and understanding brought from primary school. The focus this year is on: map skills, tectonic hazards, food and farming, and China. This unit also involves one educational visit to a local farm to coincide with the food and farming work.

Year 8 Geography provides many strong units balancing the need to teach both physical and human geography at different scales. The year starts with the investigation of hot desert ecosystems and continues with the exploration of weather, both daily and extreme (tropical storms).  The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro comes next allowing a focus on urban challenges and opportunities. The management of our globally important resources of water, food and energy with a focus on the UK follows and the year ends with discovering the rapidly developing African country of Kenya.

Year 9 Geography will start the process of teaching GCSE. This is a great opportunity to start GCSE units and spend more time with them. This will also allow time to recap map skills and practice other numeric and statistical skills key to GCSE. Students will be able to choose Geography as a GCSE option, should they wish to do so. The units this year include Hazards (Earthquakes/Tropical Storms/Climate Change) UK Coasts and UK Rivers.

 

GCSE Study

GCSE geography is a forward-looking three-year course following the AQA GCSE specification, starting in Year 9. Year 10 begins with some Physical Geography and swiftly moves on to Human Geography which continues into Year 11.

1. Physical Geography: 

  • Tropical Rainforests
  • Hot Deserts Ecosystems.
     

2. Human Geography: This unit is concerned with human processes and systems and how they change. This includes:

  • Urban (city) issues and challenges: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Southampton, UK
  • The changing economic world: Nigeria.
  • Economic futures in the UK
  • Management of food, energy and water in the UK and globally
  • Management of freshwater in more depth.
     

Fieldwork: Students will experience fieldwork first hand in Year 10. This will be in two different environments including a visit to Mudeford Spit, near Bournemouth, for a coastal study and an urban based study in Alton Town Centre. Both will involve time out of school covered in a single day each.

Having a GCSE spread across three years means that the core teaching should be completed in enough time for a well-structured and thorough revision programme.