How to prepare for the pre-release for AQA GCSE Geography
Delivery Time
Start by working out how long you will have available to deliver this section of the course, as this may well dictate how you will prepare and resource the lessons. It is very common for GCSE Geography content to be taught up to the Easter break and it is a tough balancing act between the Issue Evaluation verses revision for the whole course.
AQA’s publication ‘Teaching Guide: Two Year Course’ suggests that just one week of two one-hour lessons need to be set aside to teach this section of the specification. In my opinion, that is ludicrous, unless perhaps you a teaching a very able and independent group of students who can complete much of the learning as homework.
Anywhere between four and eight lessons usually works well, the latter would include a mock exam and feedback.
Some schools allow their Geography students a day of timetable to deliver the DME lessons in a day. If it is too late for this year, ask your SLT for next year – you never know!
Resource Creation
As the focus of the issue changes each year and is only made available 12 weeks before the exam, old resources, other than templates, cannot be re-purposed and so new resources must be created. This is particularly time-consuming for departments, especially at such a critical time of the year so it is important to plan who and how this will be completed in advance.
From experience, I would recommend that the workload is shared between the department, with one more experienced teacher (not necessarily the Head of Department) overseeing quality assurance of the resources, making sure they are well aligned and have minimal overlap.
As this will take time, do ask your SLT for some time off timetable to undertake some of the work, or at least to utilise CPD time for the department if you are sharing the workload. Unfortunately, the resource booklet is released just before many schools’ half-term break so for many it means working in the holidays. But..
…don’t despair, there is lots of help out there in the Geography community! Before you start planning from scratch, perhaps you can reach out to a neighbouring school or other schools in your MAT to share the workload. The good people of the ‘AQA GCSE Geography Teachers Group’ often share resources. Other useful places to turn for quality resources are Internet Geography (annual department subscription is £59.99) and Tutor2U (costs vary although many resources are free). And of course, My Geography Department will be sharing resources soon!
Resource Booklet
And finally, check with your exams officer that your school has received the printed resource booklets and is ready to share them with you on the release date, which is Friday 22nd March for 2024. You will also be able to access the digital version, useful for resource creation, on Centre Services on the AQA website. It is worth checking your login details in advance of the date so you have time to complete any troubleshooting.