Geography is a very popular subject at Eckington School. The teachers are highly qualified subject experts who are passionate about helping young people to study the subject they themselves love.  Geography helps you to understand how both the physical world and the human world around us works.

Geography helps you to develop a wide range of key skills.  Literacy is developed through reading articles and building extended written answers. We collect primary data through fieldwork and examine secondary data to help develop numeracy, data handling and research skills. Communication and teamwork skills are developed on our fieldwork visits. Graphicacy and computing skills are developed in many of our lessons. We also develop the skill of working with growing independence as pupil’s progress through the school.

A big majority of Y8 pupils choose GCSE geography at ‘options’ time. The main reason they give is that they have enjoyed the exciting new topics we have covered and appreciate the style of teaching.

Many of our GCSE geographers choose either geography or geology at A Level, where we have consistently performed at or above the school average as measured by external examination results.  A number of our students go on to study geography or geology at top universities. It is lovely when they come back to visit us and let us know how they are getting on!

GCSE fieldwork

Our students undertake two investigations, one in the Peak District National Park and one in Sheffield. Here are some photographs of our students in action:

Please insert photos here!

A Level Fieldwork to the Yorkshire Coast

The photos here show Year 12 students on a recent fieldwork visit to the Yorkshire coast. The 4 day trip involved urban fieldwork in Hull investigating inner city regeneration, coastal fieldwork investigating erosion rates on different cliffs and carbon and water cycling in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park.

Please insert photos here!

Some Y12 student comments:

“When I woke up at home this morning I was disappointed that I wasn’t still at Whitby”

“I wish I had a full English breakfast every day, like we did at Whitby”

“It was really useful revision and exam preparation seeing the geographical issues in real life”

“It was really nice to work away from school and bond as a geography team”

A Level Geography 2018 onwards:

KS5 geography students follow the ‘AQA A Level Geography 7037’ specification, linear course, with the first exam being summer 2018.

The course provides a natural progression from GCSE and allows for specialisation and progression to higher education and employment.

There is a further development of the skills from GCSE level (qualitative and quantitative skills, graphical and cartographical skills, ICT skills, statistical skills, interpersonal skills, literacy, numeracy, problem solving and entrepreneurial skills) with greater opportunity to develop fieldwork skills and study geographical issues and impacts, particularly through our day site visits and our residential fieldwork visit.

The core geographical concepts we study are water and carbon cycles, coastal systems and landscapes, hazards, global systems and global governance, changing places and contemporary urban environments. In addition, students undertake a geography fieldwork investigation based on data they collect in the field.

Exam Board: AQA

Specification: 7037

KS4 Geography

GCSE Geography for first entry summer 2018 onwards:

KS4 geography students will follow the ‘AQA GCSE Geography 8035’ specification, linear course, with the first exam being summer 2018.

The course provides progression from Key stage 3 to post-16 studies and lays an appropriate foundation for further study in geography or related subjects. This specification allows the opportunity to develop cartographic, graphical, numerical, statistical, quantitative, qualitative, enquiry and literacy skills.

These skills are developed through the teaching of three ‘physical’ topics; the challenge of natural hazards, the living world and physical landscapes in the UK, and three ‘human’ topics; urban issues and challenges, the changing economic world and the challenge of resource management.

Integral components of the course are two fieldwork visits to contrasting environments, with a geographical applications exam paper at the end testing students on their knowledge and understanding of geographical skills and the outcomes of their fieldwork enquiries.

Exam Board: AQA

Specification: 8035

KS3 Geography

Our new KS3 geography curriculum from 2018 is really exciting. We look at BIG ISSUES in the world around us today and try to answer the questions everyone is talking about. Some examples include, “Should Donald Trump build a wall between Mexico and the USA?” “Is modern slavery part of our everyday lives?” “How can we reduce marine plastic?”

KS3 Geography students will develop a number of geographical skills over the two years, including the ability to describe and explain geographical issues, analyse information, draw conclusions, empathise with different groups of people and evaluate their work.

These skills will be developed through studying maps, photos, fieldwork site visits and interrogating geographical information systems.