A Level Geography

Please refer to EN's Entry Requirements Guide for specific advice on our Admissions Policy. This guide is supplied at interview to prospective students and is also available to Schools & Careers Advisers.

Geography provides an exciting opportunity to engage with the world around us. With a focus on fieldwork to delve more deeply, this gives a great opportunity for students to investigate an area of the specification that interests them.

Geography aims to encourage learners to develop a range of essential skills for Higher Education and the world of work through content which is relevant to any citizen of the planet in the 21st century. Through exciting topics learners will understand the nature of physical and human geography whilst unpicking the debates surrounding some of the challenges facing the world today.

Year 1:

Coastal landscapes - explore how the landscape can be viewed as system, how landforms developed and the influences of both climate and human activity on this

Changing spaces; making places - exploration of the relationships and connections between people, the economy, and society and how these contribute to creating places.

Climate change - explores variations in the Earth’s climate and how both human and natural factors have influenced this

Year 2:

Hazardous Earth – exploration of plate tectonics, the hazards which are generated and how humans cope with living in these environments

Earth life support systems – explore how water and carbon are cycled between the land, oceans and atmosphere in open and closed systems and can be altered by human activity

Trade in the contemporary world – exploration of trade which produces uneven geographies of winners and losers

Power and borders – exploration of the political map and the role of global governance in regulating conflict

Independent investigation – students identify their own title to investigate

Exam - 90%

Coursework - 10%

Keen to study the subject - 5 GCSE passes at grade 4 or better including good passes at English and Maths and a GCSE average score of 5.40

There will be a compulsory 5 day fieldtrip to complete the independent investigation which is 20% of the A level grade, students will have to fund this themselves.

Assessment

- AS Landscape and place (90 marks, 2 hour paper, 60% of AS level)

- AS Geographical debates (60 marks, 1 hour 30 minutes paper, 40% of AS level)

- A2 Physical systems (72 marks, 1 hour 45 minute paper, 24% of A level)

- A2 Human interactions (72 marks, 1 hour 45 minute paper, 24% of A level)

- A2 Geographical debates (96 marks, 2 hours 30 minute paper, 32% of A level)

- A2 Independent Investigation (60 marks, 20% of A level)

An A level in Geography enables students to develop a thorough appreciation of human interactions with our planet, and opens up a wide variety of degree options. Students who study geography at East Norfolk progress study both sciences and the humanities at university. The A Level prepares students with a range of transferable skills for the world of work including analytical thinking, essay writing and application of statistics.