What is Geography and why is it important?
Geography is the study of Earth’s landscapes, peoples, places and environments. It is, quite simply, about the world in which we live.
" Geography is an education for life and for living. Learning through Geography helps us all to be more socially and environmentally sensitive, informed and responsible citizens and employees." Royal Geographical Society
Geography informs us about:
The places and communities in which we live and work
Our natural environments and the pressures they face
The interconnectedness of the world and our communities within it
How and why the world is changing, globally and locally
How our individual and societal actions contribute to those changes
The choices that exist in managing our world for the future
The importance of location in business and decision-making
Staff structure
The Geography Department at St John Fisher School comprises of
Mrs A Joy - Head of Humanities
Miss L Knowles
Mr D Heaton
Mrs D Matthews - Head of Year
Mr R Chatten
Curriculum at Key Stage 3
In Years 7 and 8, students at St John Fisher School study the following topics
Year 7
Who do you think you are?
The Geography of Sport
Kenya
Flooding
Tropical Rainforests (Brazil)
Population and Migration
Year 8
Fantastic Places
You are what you eat
China
Tsunami
Geography in the News
Development and Globalisation

Extra - curricular provision including trips at Key Stage Three
At Key Stage 3, we aim to enrich our students through our extracurricular provision. As part of the Geography of Sport topic, all Year 7s participate in a visit to the Stadium of
Light, the home of Sunderland Football Club, to explore the impact that football and the club has on the local community.
We provide learning opportunities within the buildings and school grounds to develop map skills and essential geography fieldwork skills in the school grounds.
In Year 7 there is also the opportunity for students who have been identified as Gifted and
Talented in Geography or have displayed an aptitude and enthusiasm for Geography to participate in a 3 day residential fieldtrip at the Cranedale Centre near Malton. This trip is an excellent opportunity for students to experience a wider set of Geographical skills and work with their teachers and specialist staff from the
Cranedale Centre outside of the classroom.
In year 8 we offer students the opportunity to visit Leeds
University and take part in a 'Geography themed' workshop as part of their 'Festival of Science'.
At St John Fisher School, we also believe it is important to develop an understanding of issues taking place throughout the world. On 19th November we raise awareness of World Toilet Day, which promotes an understanding of poor sanitation throughout the world, and all Y7 students complete an activity to produce a campaign to raise awareness of hygiene and sanitation. Likewise in Year 8, we aim to enrich our student's understanding of world issues by celebrating 'Geography Awareness Week'. This year's focus was on promoting an understanding of why Hunger exists.
All Year 7 students are welcome to attend 'Globetrotters Club' which takes place on a
Tuesday lunchtime and involves completing mini projects and challenges with a
Geographical theme.
Curriculum at Key Stage Four including exam board and structure of course
(exams, controlled assessment)
At Key Stage 4, students are currently working towards the AQA GCSE Geography B.
The course provided by AQA is broken down into the following units:
Unit 1 : Managing Places in the 21 st Century
The topics covered for this unit are
Coastal Environments
Urban Environments
Unit 1 is assessed by a written exam paper for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
It is worth 86 marks (80 marks are available for content and 6 marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG)

Unit 2 : Hostile World and Investigating the Shrinking World
The topics covered for this unit are:
Hostile World (Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Tropical Storms and Wildfires)
Investigating Global Tourism
Unit 2 is assessed by a written exam paper for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
It is worth 86 marks (80 marks are available for content and 6 marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG)
Unit 3 Controlled Assessment
Task 1 – Local Investigation including fieldwork for Investigating Tourism (worth 15% of the overall GCSE grade)
Task 2
– Geographical Issue investigation – Energy in the 21 st Century (worth 10% of the overall GCSE grade)
For unit 3, the task will change slightly each year depending on the question set by AQA
Unit 3 is worth 25% of the overall GCSE Geography grade .
The work is markjed interbally and moderated by AQA.
Extra curricular provision including trips at Key Stage Four
At Key Stage 4 we offer a number of local fieldtrips to provide students with case studies to enrich their understanding of the course, as well as offering international fieldwork enrichment opportunities.
Throughout the 3 year GCSE we run fieldtrips to Leeds and Flamborough Head to provide our students with an understanding of regeneration taking place in urban areas, and to see coastal erosion taking place.
In preparation for the controlled assessment task, GCSE Geography classes visit Malham in the Yorkshire Dales National Park to explore some of the challenges that this honeypot faces due to tourism.
Year 9 students are offered the opportunity to visit Paris to study urban land use and tourism and Year 10 students have the opportunity to visit Sorrento in Italy. This enrichment trip allows students to experience one of the most stunning areas of Europe, witness parts of the dramatic coastline and climb Mt Vesuvius and then visit
Pompeii to see first hand the effects of tectonic activity.

Sixth Form Curriculum including exam board and structure of courses
In our Associated Sixth Form students study the Edexcel Geography AS and A Level qualification. The following units are studied:
Unit 1 Global Challenges focuses on 2 main topics:
1. World at Risk which studies hazard formation, vulnerability, management and distribution, such as, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, bushfires and drought. Students then explore the causes and consequences of climate change.
2. Going Global which enables students to understand globalisation, why it occurs, the consequences of globalisation and how it allows people to stay connected. This then moves on to focus on migration, the issues, reasons for and against migration.
Unit 1 is assessed by a 90 minute exam which is worth 60% of the AS grade.
Unit 2 Geographical Investigations covers 2 main topics
1 Crowded Coasts allows students to carry out detailed studies of contrasting coastal environments at a local scale, exploring competing and conflicting land uses, and investigating the growing risk our coastlines face from coastal erosion and coastal flooding.
2 Rebranding where students investigate what rebranding is and why it is needed and then examines and evaluates some of the rebranding strategies that are taking place in the UK in coastal, urban and rural areas.
Unit 2 is assessed by a 75 minute exam and is worth 40% of the AS grade.
Unit 3 Contested Planet allows students to learn about major issues facing the globe currently ranging from geopolitics to the biodiversity crisis which is present throughout the world. The topics interconnect to enable students to link the units together for the final exam allowing students to realise that although there are very different subjects within
Geography, everything is connected.
The 6 topics that students study are:
Energy security
Water conflicts
Biodiversity under threat
Superpower geographies
Bridging the development gap
The technological fix
Unit 3 is assessed by a 2hrs 30 minute exam paper which is worth 60% of the A2 grade.
This exam has 2 sections - Section A where students select two from five questions and answer a 10 mark data response question and write a 15 mark essay for both questions.
Section B involves a pre-release paper from any of the 6 topics with 3 essay questions.
Unit 4 Geographical Research involves students researching in detail one of the topics offered by Edexcel. The options are designed to expose students to a range of geographical information in a variety of forms, namely books, journals, video and the internet. Many of these will be unfamiliar in terms of context and content. Part of this research will involve linking content and concepts from Units 1, 2 and 3 into students’ research.

Unit 4 is assessed by a 90 minute exam in which the students are required to produce a
70 mark report on their research topic. This is worth 40% of the overall A2 grade.
Extra curricular provision including trips in the Sixth Form
In the Sixth Form we have a number of enrichment and extra curricular opportunities. All sixth form students are invited to apply to become a Geography Ambassador.
As part of the preparation for the Unit 2 Geographical
Investigations exam, all students participate in residential fieldwork to explore the topic of Coastal Erosion and
Management along the Yorkshire East Coast and visit
Leeds and Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales to examine evidence of and evaluate the success of rebranding schemes taking place. We use Sneaton Castle in Whitby as our base for this fieldtrip to follow up our findings in evening activities.
At the end of Year 12 students have the opportunity to participate in an enrichment trip to
Iceland to see first hand the powerful effects of tectonic activity and visit the volcanic areas.