Designed to help GCSE Students learn and apply the fieldwork skills they need to produce excellent fieldwork enquiry projects.


All Geography GCSE students following AQA, Edexcel and OCR specifications are formally examined on their fieldwork enquiry activities. These awarding bodies’ five specifications include fieldwork-based questions in one of their three examinations. There are some variations in the specifications’ examination arrangements, but this book is generic in approach so as to cater for all Geography students – irrespective of which GCSE specification is selected by their particular schools.


Geography fieldwork can – and should – be a positive and enjoyable experience! Most schools recognise this and include some form of practical outdoor work in the years prior to their examination course. Apart from the enjoyment aspect of this activity, setting aside time for enquiry research and follow-up work during Key Stage 3 is seen as crucial to making students feel secure and confident when undertaking this type of activity at GCSE level. The old adage “Practice makes perfect” most certainly applies in this instance!
It is essential that sufficient time is provided to allow students to complete all the recommended stages of the enquiry write-up as fully as possible.


This book covers every aspect of conducting and completing a GCSE Geography fieldwork enquiry. It assumes that every student will benefit from its two skills toolkits; these assume no prior knowledge of data presentation and evaluation methods which are most likely to feature in both human and physical Geography-based fieldwork enquiries. The methods selected for the Basic Skills Toolkit are considered so important that a set of practice exercises has been provided for them. An answers section later in the book gives users an opportunity for self-assessment and hence the means to assess whether further skills practice is required.