The Year 7 Course

Our first module covers the area around Blythe Bridge High School. We look at the centre of the village and how that has developed to the present day. We then look further afield at the village of Caverswall, how villages link together, our local town - Longton and the City of Stoke - on - Trent. This leads us on to study the problems of cities and how they have overcome them e.g. Festival Park and the Potteries Shopping Centre.

Here we look at what the subject of Geography consists of and your understanding of it. We look at Physical, Human and Environmental geography and how they work together to make the world we live in. We will then look at our world and its main features before looking at some of the skills needed to study geography.

We first look at how the water cycle works as a system and what happens to rain when it reaches the ground. The pupils will then study the main features of a river basin before looking at some of the main rivers of the world. Pupils will then experience the effects major floods have on peoples’ lives and some of the factors which caused them. Finally the pupils will look at the problems of not having a reliable supply of water as in Egypt.

Our first task is to see which type of transport is best for certain purposes and look at the advantages and disadvantages of each. The pupils will then look at transport routes and see how physical and human factors can affect the choice of route. How can transport routes and settlements affect each other? Finally we ask the question - how can the development of transport systems bring both advantages and disadvantages?

 The final topic we undertake in Year 7 is to do with map reading. Here we aim to build up each pupil’s map skills. We go over the basics of compass work, scale and how to measure on a map, how to interpret map symbols, how to use grid references and describe routes on a map. Finally using Ordnance Survey maps, the pupils will able to follow exercises to improve their understanding further.