The aims and objectives of this qualification are to enable students to build on their Key Stage 3 knowledge and skills to:

• develop and extend their knowledge of locations, places, environments and processes, and of different scales, including global; and of social, political and cultural contexts (know geographical material)
  
  
• gain understanding of the interactions between people and environments, change in places and processes over space and time, and the interrelationship between geographical phenomena at different scales and in different contexts (think like a geographer)
  
  
• develop and extend their competence in a range of skills, including those used in fieldwork, in using maps and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and in researching secondary evidence, including digital sources; and develop their competence in applying sound enquiry and investigative approaches to questions and hypotheses (study like a geographer)
  
  
• apply geographical knowledge, understanding, skills and approaches appropriately and creatively to real-world contexts, including fieldwork, and to contemporary situations and issues; and develop well-evidenced arguments, drawing on their geographical knowledge and understanding (applying geography).