Specification/Exam Board - AQA

Curriculum Allocation

GCSE Geography is taught for three 100 minute lessons per fortnight.

Curriculum Period 1:

Curriculum content

Unit 3. Coastal Field work

Students will be expected to:

  1. apply knowledge and understanding to interpret, analyse and evaluate information and issues related to geographical enquiry.
  2. select, adapt and use a variety of skills and techniques to investigate questions and issues and communicate findings in relation to geographical enquiry.
Unit 2. Section B: The changing economic world. 
  • Different ways of classifying parts of the world according to their level of economic development and quality of life.
  • Different economic and social measures of development: gross national income (GNI) per head, birth and death rates, infant mortality, life expectancy, people per doctor, literacy rates, access to safe water, Human Development Index (HDI).
  • Limitations of economic and social measures.
  • Link between stages of the Demographic Transition Model and the level of development.
  • Causes of uneven development: physical, economic and historical.
  • Consequences of uneven development: disparities in wealth and health, international migration.
  • An overview of the strategies used to reduce the development gap: investment, industrial development and tourism, aid, using intermediate technology, fairtrade, debt relief, microfinance loans.
  • An example of how the growth of tourism in an LIC or NEE helps to reduce the development gap.

Nigeria case study:

  • the location and importance of the country, regionally and globally
  • the wider political, social, cultural and environmental context within which the country is placed
  • the changing industrial structure. The balance between different sectors of the economy. How manufacturing industry can stimulate economic development
  • the role of transnational corporations (TNCs) in relation to industrial development. Advantages and disadvantages of TNC(s) to the host country
  • the changing political and trading relationships with the wider world
  • international aid: types of aid, impacts of aid on the receiving country
  • the environmental impacts of economic development
  • the effects of economic development on quality of life for the population.

Economic futures in the UK:

  • causes of economic change: de-industrialisation and decline of traditional industrial base, globalisation and government policies
  • moving towards a post-industrial economy: development of information technology, service industries, finance, research, science and business parks
  • impacts of industry on the physical environment. An example of how modern industrial development can be more environmentally sustainable
  • social and economic changes in the rural landscape in one area of population growth and one area of population decline
  • improvements and new developments in road and rail infrastructure, port and airport capacity
  • the north–south divide. Strategies used in an attempt to resolve regional differences
  • the place of the UK in the wider world. Links through trade, culture, transport, and electronic communication. Economic and political links: the European Union (EU) and Commonwealth.
Assessment

The assessment will mainly cover topics  covered in the first curriculum period and some from Year 10.  

Curriculum Period 2:

Curriculum content

Unit 3. Urban field work

Students will be expected to:

  1. apply knowledge and understanding to interpret, analyse and evaluate information and issues related to geographical enquiry.
  2. select, adapt and use a variety of skills and techniques to investigate questions and issues and communicate findings in relation to geographical enquiry.
Unit 2. Section C: The challenge of resource management

  • The significance of food, water and energy to economic and social well-being.
  • An overview of global inequalities in the supply and consumption of resources.
  • An overview of resources in relation to the UK.
  • the growing demand for high-value food exports from low income countries and all-year demand for seasonal food and organic produce
  • larger carbon footprints due to the increasing number of ‘food miles’ travelled, and moves towards local sourcing of food
  • the trend towards agribusiness.

Curriculum Period 3:

Curriculum content

Unit 3. Section A: Issue evaluation

This section contributes a critical thinking and problem-solving element to the assessment structure. The assessment will provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate geographical skills and applied knowledge and understanding by looking at a particular issue(s) derived from the specification using secondary sources.

Revision lessons till exams begin.

Assessment

GCSE Exams


Revision resources

We provide booklets of knowledge organisers for all the units covered through Year 10. Pupils should use these to revise for recall tests throughout the year and for the three formal assessments.

There are revision guides which have been published for this course by various publishers. Whichever publisher, it is important that pupils use a revision guide specifically for AQA. Periodically we do make a school order for the CGP guide via ParentPay.

Subject advice and guidance

If you need any further guidance then please contact your child’s teacher via email:

r.cartlidge@endon.shaw-education.org.uk

j.best@endon.shaw-education.org.uk