Good luck to everyone doing exams!

So, your exams are nearly here...
I have revision booklets with past paper questions and case study guidance in my room for GCSE and A Level, so if you have not got all the resources pop in to see me! Make sure you fill any gaps in your understanding.

Last minutes tips for exams and revision

• Keep calm
• Make sure you read the question and follow command words. Be able to tell the difference between describe, explain and suggest.
• Do a set of 'quick case studies' with causes, impacts, management, processes and features. If unsure, just follow the 5 Ws. Put them up around your house...bathroom wall to read when brushing teeth and fridge for everytime you get that snack!
• Time yourself answering questions, be quick, but keep hand writing clear.

Good geographers...

• Use case studies with correct specific detail including location, issues, facts, positives, negatives and management issues
• Show how human actions affect environments eg tourism impact on the landscape
• Use key terms in all circumstances eg replace erosion with actual types of erosion for example attrition, hydraulic power
• Give at least 3 reasons for patterns and distribution changes over time and space
• Evaluate issues using positives and negatives of a situation
• Link the correct case study with  geographical theory to explain issues.

Familiar music changing a familiar public space

Last night 8000 people gathered in Trafalgar Square to watch, listen and experience the London Symphony Orchestra in their first free, open air concert. 


Arriving an hour or so before the baton came down, Trafalgar Square seemed the usual space it always had . The National Portrait Gallery and Nelson's Column framed a hustle and bustle of a typical Saturday afternoon in central London with tourists, families and wanderers. As I sat, I watched the square fill with people. Some were obviously regular outdoor concert go-ers, with cushions, plastic cups and picnic blankets; others seem to haphazardly stumble on the event and decided to stay. 


When I listen to a piece of music I know well, it often evokes different emotions depending on the time, place and sense of affectiveness brought about by other people and sounds. Last night, I was unaware of the emotion I would get from the music and setting, and a clear hope and excitement brewed. As Stravinsky's Firebird began, my listening wandered. The very public space made the music feel different. In between private conversations, ambulances with blue sirens passed, car horns erupted and the church bells of St Martins-in-the-fields cut across the orchestral sounds. However, the piece did not become dwarfed, but intensified. As the music progressed to the finale and the sun started to sink behind Canada House, the Square become more comfortable than ever, the music engulfed my sense of place so it was no longer a transitional setting of tourists and cut-throughs, but space transformed to place though the meaning of music. 


The rawness of the LSO's mission of bringing classic music free to the people of London, was for me, heightened. The public space and sounds made for a welcoming listening experience. There was no etiquette of the Barbican Hall to be felt, with the backdrop of red London buses providing a sense constant and changing sense of reality to many people for whom Stravinsky on a Saturday night would not be a part. Just simple music for a vox pop in a place for the people. Outstanding. By 10pm, the square would be back to a space. 

THINK QUICK!

Quick Questions

Where was this taken?

What features can you identify?

Why have they formed?

How do you think people may use the area?

Quick Questions

What features can you indentify here?

What cloud types are these?

What form of rain is this?

How does it form?

*Where is this place?* (Lots of Yr 8s should know!)