Staff :

GCSE

Students at Abersychan study the WJEC Avery Hill Syllabus B Geography course.

Geography students engage in a wide range of activities such as role play, designing and presenting parts of lessons, use of ICT, thinking skills and problem solving. These activities develop the skills required to be successful in the GCSE examination but also are aimed at providing life long skills and promoting self esteem. As part of the course there are several field trips that contribute to the student’s social, ethical and moral development as well as coursework.

Coursework

This comprises 25% of the final examination grade. Students will complete 2 pieces of coursework that will be engaging, challenging and highly accessible.

1. Design a magazine article about the Tropical Rainforests. The article covers all elements of the ecosystem including structure of the forest, how vegetation has adapted to the climate, food webs, nutrient cycles, deforestation, traditional uses of the forest and threats to the future of tropical forests. Students will also be asked to write a letter to the Brazilian government outlining a plan to make use of the forests more sustainable.
2. A bigger project which will require a trip to Cardiff Bay. Students will produce a detailed report on the redevelopment of Cardiff Bay paying attention to how the redevelopment has affected different groups of people. The study will examine how social, economic and environmental change can be both positive and negative for varying groups of people.

The examinations are set in two tiers;-

1. Higher Paper which gives access to the full range of grades eg A*-G.
2. Foundation Paper which gives access to grades C-G.

The tiers are designed to allow students of all abilities to be successful in the examinations. No matter which tier is being examined, all students study together the same schemes of learning. Usually the tier that is appropriate to each particular students will be decided upon by the teacher after Year 10 and is generally based on each student’s performance in coursework, lesson tasks and the year 10 examination.

Along with the coursework students study 4 units that will be examined.

UNIT 1 Climate, Environment and People

Students study weather systems, different climates, the impact of different weather systems on people eg hurricanes, ecosystems eg tropical rainforests, acid rain, global warming and sustainability.

UNIT 2 Water, Landforms and People

This unit examines the processes and activities in the hydrosphere. Examples of topics are the hydrological cycle, river basins and river features, coastal landforms, coastal management, flood management, how people use landforms created by water and conflicts caused by their use eg High Force waterfall.

UNIT 3 People and Place

In this unit students understand why there are differences in standard of living and quality of life between different groups of people, why access to services is not equal, the impact of urban redevelopment on different groups of people, urbanisation and counter-urbanisation eg in New York, and how to assess solutions to all these problems.

UNIT 4 People, Work and Development

Students study the development and location of economic development, how this economic development affects people and the environment in different countries eg Less Economically Developed Countries and More Economically Developed Countries, differences in employment opportunities, how does international trade operate, and how does technology affect a countries development?