Geography Department: Ruislip High School
Geography is taught by an enthusiastic and dedicated team within a thriving Humanities
faculty. There are four discreet Geography teaching rooms, each with an interactive
whiteboard. The department is well equipped with fieldwork equipment for the two residential
field trips we run annually.
Key Stage 3
At Key Stage 3, students study Geography for two one-hour lessons per week. Students
learn about a wide variety of physical, human and environmental geographical themes
following the National Curriculum programme of study.
Year 7 Geography
1: Atlas skills: countries and continents; regions; latitude and longitude.
2: Rivers and flooding: the River Severn; river landforms; flood management.
3: Map skills and the British Isles: symbols; grid references; direction; scale; the physical and
human Geography of the British Isles.
4: Cold Environments: the 1953 ascent of Mount Everest; ice sheets and glaciers;
Antarctica, the 1911 race to the South Pole and the Antarctic Treaty.
5: Settlement: the development of Ruislip; the world's biggest cities.
6: Coasts: coastal processes; coastal erosion and deposition landforms; Dorset's World
Heritage status coastline.
7: Ecosystems: savanna; deserts; forests.
Year 8 Geography
1: The structure of the Earth and volcanic hazards: examples from Iceland, the USA and the
Caribbean.
2: Earthquake hazards: how they are caused; how humans try to limit their effects; the 2004
Indian Ocean tsunami.
3: Japan: physical and human features; how it has developed to become one of the world’s
richest countries.
4: World population: 7 billion and counting; which countries have the most and least people,
and why?
5: Energy and resources: fossil fuels and sustainable energy; the Hoover Dam story.
6: Weather and climate: factors affecting our climate; forecasting; climate change.
7: Europe: the names and capital cities of Europe’s 48 countries; key physical features; the
European Union.
Year 9 Geography
1: Development: why countries are considered more or less developed; issues facing less
developed countries such as rural-urban migration and shanty towns.
2: Brazil and South America: the physical and human geography of the continent, with a
focus on Brazil.
3: Globalisation: reasons for globalisation; why companies such as Nike operate globally;
the positives and negatives of globalisation.
4: Sport: the globalisation of sport; stadium location factors; Olympic Games legacies.
5: Crime: how the police use Geographical information and maps.
6: Geographical conflicts: the Falkland Islands; the Middle East; oil spills; Northern Ireland;
Heathrow’s third runway plans; HS2.
7: Tourism: UK tourism and national parks; global tourism development.
Key Stage 4 GCSE Geography
Geography is currently the most popular GCSE option at Ruislip High, with four classes in
Year 10 and Year 11. We follow the AQA exam board’s Syllabus A specification. There is
residential field trip to Swanage in Year 10, which all students are expected to attend if
possible.
Year 10 GCSE Geography
1: Water on the Land: How rivers change from source to mouth. Landforms created by river
erosion, transportation and deposition. Factors affecting river discharge and flooding.
Understanding flood hydrographs. How flooding affects richer and poorer countries
differently. Flood management using hard and soft engineering approaches. Meeting the
demand for water supply in the UK.
2: The Restless Earth: How and why the Earth’s crust is unstable. Tectonic plate boundary
processes and landforms. How humans use and live in fold mountains. The causes and
effects of volcanic eruptions. Prediction and management of volcanic eruptions. The causes
and effects of earthquakes. The measurement of earthquakes using the Richter and Mercalli
scales. How earthquakes affect richer and poorer countries differently. Earthquake
preparation, protection and prediction. The causes, effects and responses of tsunami.
3: Changing Urban Environments: The pace and causes of urbanisation in more and less
developed countries. Urban land use and change. Issues facing urban areas in richer parts
of the world: improving CBDs and inner cities, traffic, managing the cultural mix. Issues
facing urban areas in poorer parts of the world: squatter settlements, environmental
challenges such as pollution and waste management. Examples of sustainable urban living.
4: The Coastal Zone: Coastal processes. Landforms of erosion, transportation and
deposition. Erosion and its management. Reasons for rising sea levels. Social,
environmental, economic and political effects of sea level rise. Coastal ecosystems.
July of Year 10: Swanage residential field trip.
Year 11 GCSE Geography
1: Controlled assessment coursework project: based on the residential field trip to Swanage.
2: Population Change: Why is world population growing much more rapidly than in the past?
Why is world population growing exponentially today? Understanding birth and death rates.
Understanding population pyramids. Why population is falling in some countries. The
demographic transition model. Factors affecting the rate of population growth in different
countries. Examples of birth control programmes. Issues and opportunities of an ageing
population. Reasons for and effects of international migration.
3: Tourism: Why has global tourism grown? The importance of tourism to the economy of
different countries. Coastal resort tourism in the UK. Mass tourism in tropical countries.
Extreme tourism in polar environments. The benefits of ecotourism.
4: Revision.
Key Stage 5 A-Level Geography
In the sixth form we follow the Edexcel A-Level syllabus. There is residential field trip to
Norfolk in Year 12 as well as a field studies day to London.
Year 12 AS Level Geography
Unit 1: ‘Global Challenges’.
World at Risk: What are the main types of physical risk facing the world today?
Going Global: What is globalisation and how is it changing people’s lives?
Unit 2: ‘Geographical Investigations’.
Rebranding Places: What is rebranding and why is it needed in some places more than
others?
Crowded Coasts: Why is the coastal zone so favoured for development and what are the
issues surrounding this?
Year 13 A2 Level Geography
Unit 3: ‘Contested Planet’.
Six compulsory study units:
- Energy Security
- Water Conflicts
- Biodiversity Under Threat
- Superpower Geographies
- Bridging the Development Gap
- The Technological Fix?
Unit 4: ‘Geographical Research’.
Students select from one of the following research options:
- Tectonic activity and hazards.
- Cold environments: landscapes and change.
- Life on the margins: the food supply problem.
- The world of cultural diversity.
- Population and human health at risk.
- Consuming the rural landscape: Leisure and tourism.