Showing posts with label Examinations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Examinations. Show all posts

Thursday, 17 August 2023

Congratulations to King's Ely students

It's always pleasing to see the success of students at GCSE and 'A' level who you taught lower down the school - starting them off on their journeys towards the success and getting them into the habits of mind and ways of thinking that sustain them.

That's particularly true of geography, where an appreciation of the stories, processes and places that change through the years that students focus on them is so important. Students remember those places you focus on, the postive stories and the negative stories you unpick with them, and the enquiries that they choose based on their own personal geographies.

There were some fantastic performances from King's students this year, and several will be heading off to study Geography at University. I wish all King's Geographers the best of luck for the next stage of their geographical journey, and look forward to the GCSE results next week as well.



Wednesday, 23 March 2022

AQA Pre-release 2022

I was told yesterday that the AQA GCSE pre-release material for the 2022 summer exam season was based in / or mentioned Ely, so I asked for a copy and discovered that it was based on an application by Amey to add an incinerator to their existing waste management park near Waterbeach / Denny Abbey to the south of Ely, along the A10.


The scheme was controversial, although the benefits were clearly stated by the company. A protest group was set up, and commissioned a report on the impact of the proposal, which included mention of the chimney which would be taller than Ely Cathedral and spoil the view towards it from Madingley (a place of geographical significance).

Interestingly, for a pre-release where students usually have to weigh up whether a planned development should go ahead, the decision has already been made in that the scheme was .... spoiler alert.... turned down in 2020.


I tried to add some local contexts - newspaper articles, campaign group reports, local landscape character analysis reports etc. into the mix and shared to the community - AQA is the most popular GCSE specification choice so there will be lots of teachers looking to prepare something on this, and we are all working at our limits at the moment with hybrid learning for many still due to students recovering at home from COVID.

Anthony Bennett has added a copy of the document to his page of pre-release materials. This is available to subscribers and non-subscribers of Internet Geography.

An editable version is below or on this link...


Feel free to download a copy and add your own ideas to the document - there have already been some deletions from the document which is a little disappointing, but I have been able to recover to previous versions.

Images: Alan Parkinson and shared under CC license

Sunday, 29 April 2018

Labels vs Annotation

This tweet from a Geography teacher outlines some key differences which those approaching exam season might do well to take notice of...

Saturday, 30 December 2017

Advice as we move into Mocks and then Exam season

I'm very fortunate to have worked with lots of excellent geographers over the years, and currently working on a project with Dr. Peter Knight from Keele University, who is an expert on glaciers.
Here's a reminder of why knowing stuff matters...

Monday, 13 June 2016

Year 9 Revision Cards

Year 9s can use these cards to make their own, there are some blank ones, or answer the questions that are provided below to make yourself some revision cards /flash cards. You could also produce some mind maps or other visual forms of revision material to refer to as the week progresses.




Saturday, 21 May 2016

Year 9 Revision Materials

These are now available on Firefly.
Go to Pupils > Year 9 > Geography > Revision Materials 2016

The theme is ENDANGERED BIOMES.

Tuesday, 10 May 2016

Strength to Dream

Good luck to all King's Ely Geographers who have exams over the next few months… which is most of you to be honest… Dream big… Work hard.
 

Friday, 14 August 2015

'A' level results

Congratulations to all King's Ely students who picked up their 'A' level results yesterday.


Fingers crossed for next week and the GCSE results.

UPDATE: Congratulations on the GCSE results too

Friday, 21 November 2014

Year 7 Exam week

It was Year 7 Exam week this week, and I hope that Year 7s enjoyed the exam...
We'll be going through the results in your next lesson.

What did you do with this question?

Sunday, 1 June 2014

Rainforest Destruction - tips for the exam

Take a look at the poster below.
What does it tell you about the reasons why forests are being removed ?
What value do they have when they have been removed ?
What products are created when forests are removed - do you use any of those products ? Are you sure ?
Check this GREENPEACE ad, for example...



A more SUSTAINABLE use of the forest might be to use it to extract products through harvesting, or perhaps a more selective removal of trees. The easiest way to remove forest is to burn it, and there is a burning season which can be seen from space on satellite images.

Remember the importance of sustainability to actions that we take now...

EXAM REMINDER 1

You will have a number of longer answers to produce in the exam.
These are marked on a level of response rather than being point marked.
We will be looking for you to go deeper with these answers, and explain your points clearly. Don't forget to PEE: Point, Explanation and Evidence for each thing that you add. Don't be repetitive and go round in circles.
Read the revision notes carefully.

EXAM REMINDER 2

Each of the questions needs to be answered accurately, but for the longer questions there are further marks which are available (or which can be lost) for what is called SPaG: Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar. Write clearly and legibly, and make sure that you are spelling key words correctly.

Saturday, 31 May 2014

Made in Bangladesh...

Year 8 will be familiar with the links between their clothes and the countries where they are made. We looked at the situation where Rosa (from Manila in the Philippines) took Rosa (from the UK)'s job manufacturing clothing, but was then prone to being exploited, with the rise of factories called sweatshops. We also discussed the fact that not all factories in these countries are sweatshops...

We also mentioned the Rana Plaza disaster, just over a year ago, when a factory collapsed in part of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and over a thousand workers were killed. Labels from many UK high street stores were found in the rubble, and implicated in the decision to keep the factories in the building open despite safety concerns.

Although Bangladesh are not going to be playing football in the World Cup finals, they will be 'represented'. The Brazilian team's kit is going to be made in Bangladesh and will also have the words 'Made in Bangladesh' on the bottom of the shirt, as well as on the label.

For more on the issues, check the Follow the Things website and resources, which Mr Parkinson was involved in writing.

Sunday, 25 May 2014

Fairtrade helps people in other countries get a fairer deal.... right ?

Year 8s preparing for exams will be familiar with the impact of Fairtrade and similar schemes on the lives of workers in other countries.
Usually Fairtrade is described as being a benefit for the workers, as the social premium that is paid as part of the scheme is used to fund schemes which benefit the whole community.
This Guardian article from the weekend suggests that there might be some alternative views on the benefits of the scheme, and those wanting a fuller picture might want to read it.



Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Year 8 Revision Support 6: Globalisation of Food

Just to show I'm not the only teacher who puts stuff on the internet, here's a short reminder of the Globalisation of Food...


Globalisation of food from Geographybee on Vimeo.

This does have some environmental consequences of course...

Remember the importance of a simple piece of technology: the shipping container.... (also called the intermodal container)

Saturday, 17 May 2014

Year 8 Revision Support 4: A n(ice) watch....

How globalised are the products you own and wear ?
Who made your clothes ?
Are you supporting or exploiting workers in other countries ?

How does Bethany's Ice Watch show an element of globalisation ?

Wednesday, 14 May 2014

Year 8 Revision support 1: What is Globalisation ?

The first part of the Year 8 exam will explore the idea of Globalisation and how it connects the world, and creates opportunities for some people and companies.
One useful resource to find out more is the BBCs Learning Zone, where there are links to hundreds of films for various subjects, including Geography.
There is a series which was originally made a few years ago, so the fine detail may have changed in some of them, but the broad issues are the same.

Check out these BBC Bitesize notes too.

What about BANANAS ?
Check out this video, which shows how ECUADOR is affected by the Transnational Companies like Dole or Del Monte who grow bananas in the country.

 And here's someone who does a job which used to be done by UK workers (and in some cases still is....)

Why not take a look at the BBC BOX project too - where did the shipping container go during the year when it was tracked, and which products did it carry ?
Here's a BBC News report.

Thursday, 1 May 2014

Year 7 Food Revision

Use these cards to create connections, or sequence them with connectives to tell food stories...
Remember to link to the key areas we have looked at this term, which you can read about in a previous post.
Use the search function top left to find all the posts related to Year 7 work for example...
Here's some of Julian's connections being made in the classroom...

...and make sure you come to N2 to pick up your revision pack...

Wednesday, 23 April 2014

Food - Year 7 Exam

The Year 7 exam is on the theme of FOOD.
This is summed up in the diagram below.
Everything we've done on food relates to:
a) Bananas  - supply chain / Foncho and Fairtrade
b) Cocoa - food miles / imports etc.
c) Burger - health and malnutrition
d) Egg - animal welfare / intensive battery farms / organic
e) Fish - fish stocks in the oceans, sustainability

Some notes will be with you at the end of the week...