My Sunday plan for Year 10–11 IGCSE Geography

Week 4 of autumn term, my Year 10s breezed through a tidy slideshow on coasts, then froze at an 8‑mark “To what extent…” prompt. The content wasn’t wrong; it just wasn’t IGCSE‑shaped. British · IGCSE sits in that awkward space where “on topic” and “curriculum‑fit” aren’t the same thing. Cambridge’s Paper 2 expects rapid data response (trend, anomaly, infer), while Edexcel splits physical and human themes across two papers and pushes fieldwork conclusions differently. Generic packs skate past command words, mix up case‑study depth, and leave students charmingly informed but exam‑shy.

What I’ve learned: build from the assessment back. If a resource doesn’t nudge students to move from AO1 describe to AO2 explain and AO3 evaluate within the same task, it won’t transfer to an 8‑marker. Check there’s a real pair of contrasting case studies at different scales, not just a quick world tour. And always include map‑skills practice in the same lesson as the theme—coasts plus longshore drift sketch plus 6‑figure GR. When I need to see how other teachers are shaping that spine, I take a quick look through the geography community library to spark alternatives without starting from scratch.

Last Friday during a cover period, I spot‑checked a pretty rivers worksheet. It had waterfalls and plunge pools in bold type, but the questions topped out at “state” and “describe.” Before anything hits the photocopier, I run five quick checks: 1) Command verbs—do tasks actually shift from describe → explain → evaluate, and is there an 8‑mark frame somewhere? 2) Case‑study depth—place, dates, stats, processes, impacts, responses; not just “Amazon deforestation is bad.” 3) Map skills—4/6‑figure grid references, scale, bearings, cross‑sections. 4) Data response—a graph or map with trend/anomaly prompts that lead into “why?” 5) Fieldwork—for Cambridge, an Alternative‑to‑Coursework style scenario; for Edexcel, language that mirrors their enquiry cycle.

If two of those are missing, I either tweak or bin it. Fastest path for me now is to generate a rough pack, then graft my own case studies on top. You can spin up a starter skeleton in minutes and tune it to your spec focus here—it’s quicker than wrestling an old PPT with 28 hidden slides.

Monday, Week 6, my Year 11 set had mock fatigue. I needed to teach coastal management and still sneak in Paper 2 skills. I built the lesson around a named worked example: the Holderness Coast at Mappleton (groynes and rock armour) contrasted with a soft‑engineering approach on a mangrove coastline. The power is in asking them to move from process to impact to evaluation in one arc.

Objective: explain and evaluate coastal management strategies in different contexts using evidence. I drafted this as a tidy pack in ClassPods, then swapped in our case studies and images from last year’s field trip; if you want the same starting point, you can sketch a version in a few clicks.

• Starter (6 min): 4‑image reveal of coastal features; students label and add one process each (hydraulic action, abrasion).
• Main (24 min): Mini‑lecture + dual‑coding diagram; then paired card sort: hard vs soft strategies → consequences for stakeholders.
• Formative check (8 min): 6‑figure GR from a coastal OS map excerpt; one sentence on likely longshore drift direction.
• Plenary (7 min): 8‑mark “To what extent are groynes the best option at Mappleton?”—students plan with PEEL bullets, no full write.

Thursday after school, my Year 10s were turning case studies into paragraphs that wandered. I stopped the lesson and handed out a one‑pager that we now use every time.

Case‑Study Template (paste into books):

• Place + Date: Exact location, year(s), scale.
• Core Processes/Drivers: 2–3 causes or processes with terms (e.g., “longshore drift,” “rural–urban migration”).
• Specific Evidence: 3 stats with units (rates, costs, magnitudes).
• Impacts: 2 social, 2 economic, 2 environmental.
• Responses/Management: Named strategies, stakeholder views.
• Evaluate: One “on balance” sentence using “however,” “whereas,” “because.”

Mini‑Rubric (0–3 each, total /18): Accuracy (terms correct), Specificity (stats used), Structure (PEEL), Scale (local/regional/global links), Balance (pros/cons), Command Words (moves past describe). I keep a blank of this inside my usual lesson pack so it’s always to hand; you can generate a clean copy and slot it into your own pack in seconds and re‑use it all term with ClassPods.

Tuesday’s double, I had two new EAL students join mid‑unit. We adjusted the plan without losing the thread. I printed dual‑language key terms (erosion, deposition, prevailing wind) with simple visuals. During the main task, I gave sentence stems—“Groynes are effective because…” vs “However, in [place], they…”—so they could jump to AO2/AO3. For pacing, I chunk map‑skills time and use “my turn, our turn, your turn” on 6‑figure GR before letting them fly solo.

For homework, I set a 10‑minute retrieval quiz (three case‑study stats, one process definition, one mini‑evaluation). I keep both English and home‑language glossaries in ClassPods so students can review without me hunting through folders. If you’re looking at rolling a shared bank like this across a department and need to square it with budgets, it’s worth scanning the pricing first; better than everyone reinventing the same sheet.