Course Content

The AQA syllabus for A level challenges perceptions and stimulates students’ investigative and analytical skills. Units reflect the world today as well as retaining the core content and knowledge of Geography.

The physical geography section will cover a range of areas as outlined below:

The water and carbon cycles where we will focus on the major stores of water and carbon at or near the Earth’s surface and the dynamic cyclical relationships associated with them.

In the coastal systems and landscapes unit, we focus on coastal zones, which are dynamic environments in which landscapes develop by the interaction of winds, waves, currents and terrestrial and marine sediments. Student engagement with subject content fosters an informed appreciation of the beauty and diversity of coasts and their importance as human habitats.

The hazards unit focusses on the lithosphere and the atmosphere, which intermittently but regularly present hazards to human populations, often in dramatic and sometimes catastrophic fashion. By exploring the origin and nature of these hazards and the various ways in which people respond to them, students are able to engage with many dimensions of the relationships between people and the environment they occupy.

Within human geography the areas covered will include global systems and global governance, changing places and Population and the Environment.

Global systems and governance will focus on globalisation – the economic, political and social changes associated with technological and other driving forces which have been a key feature of global economy and society in recent decades. Changing places will investigate people's engagement with places, their experience of them and the qualities they ascribe to them which are of fundamental importance in their lives. Students acknowledge this importance and engage with how places are known and experienced, how their character is appreciated and the factors and processes which bear upon these matters.

Population and the environment focuses on the continuing growth of human populations, associated with economic development and changing lifestyles, which continues to be one of the defining features of the present era. This unit of study explores the relationships between population numbers, population health and wellbeing, migration, levels of economic development and the role and impact of the natural environment.

Assessment

Both Physical and Human Geography are covered in this course and are assessed in 2 final exams of 2 hours 30 minutes each. These exams include multiple-choice, short answer, leveled medium level answers and extended prose.