Examination board specification: Edexcel

Sixth Form Geography, is a popular and very successful option with significant proportions of our students choosing to continue with studies in Geography or related fields at university. We follow the Edexcel GCE A level Geography course and achieved a 100% pass rate in 2018.

A level Geography, builds on the understanding developed at GCSE and while extending the breadth and depth of some familiar topics, it also introduces new ones chosen from the wide, interesting and relevant world of Geography. The approach is issues-based, setting up, exploring and evaluating contemporary geographical questions and themes such as, the consequences of globalisation, human rights, responses to hazards, water insecurity and climate change. These are important issues that are all around us, ever changing and so relevant.

They are taught and examined in themed units with three 2 hour and 15 minute exam papers at the end of the two years.

Paper 1: contains the more physical topics and Paper 2: the human ones.  Paper 3: is synoptic in that it takes one issue (for example the destruction of the tropical rain forest) and this is explored using the set of varied resources presented, together with the knowledge and skills that you have built up over the two year course.

Geography would not be geography without fieldwork to back up and extend learning and experience. We offer more fieldwork than most because we know how important it is.  Several days are spent in the local area and we organise two residential courses, one in Birmingham and the other in South Wales. These feed into our teaching and also provide experience for the 4th exam component, the Independent Investigation, coursework which is worth 20% of the total marks.