Pre Release Questions 1

We had a useful discussion of what I think are the key ideas behind the Pilot exam this Tuesday. You need to be familiar with these by JUNE the 28th....
If we view this as a gradual development of ideas along a theme:

• The population of the UK is going up, and has done steadily for the last 200 years (with a few anomalies along the way) e.g. 1880s, 1940s, 1970s - some of these are down to social trends (need to explain them !)
  
• There has been a steady decline in the natural increase of the population: the difference between birth rate and death rate (why has this happened ?)
  
• There has been a steady rise in migration into the UK, particularly since 1991 (and even more since 2004 and the expansion of the European Union)
• This has counterbalanced some of the falling natural increase
• At the same time, various other social factors have led to a rise in single person households, which creates a demand for starter housing (of which there is a shortage) -why are there plenty of 3 bedroomed houses in the UK housing stock ?
  

Here is a picture clue:

And here is a useful BBC NEWS article

• The growing demand for housing is creating a shortage, and driving up house prices relentlessly so that they are now an average of over 7 times average earnings - so how can people get a house ? more affordable housing needs to be built, so there are 2 choices of location:

BROWNFIELD SITES
or
GREENFIELD SITES

2 locations are shown in Gloucester: the DOCKS, and a location on the northern edge of the city.

Which should be developed ? This is what the Year 10 pupils referred to in the pre-release booklet are going to try to find out...

And what are the connections that we can make with OUR PLACE: King's Lynn (which for the purposes of the exam I would ask you to use, despite the variations that we did have as to where 'your place' was exactly...)

a) We have seen some developments on greenfield sites
b) We have seen some developments on brownfield sites
c) We have some issues with affordable housing for the community
d) We are an area which has very variable values for deprivation

To find out more about the EU, check out the EUROPA website.

You were then given a pre-release preparation booklet, adapted from one produced by Penny Parry at Rosemary Musker School, Thetford, who in 2005 won the Bradfords Award at the GA Conference.

Coming over the next 5 weeks: some suggested answers for the pre-release questions....

Starting with Question 1

Q1) What was the population of the UK in 1801 ?

A1) 8 million (not just '8' - remember the units)

This is very small compared to now. Think about how different and less crowded life would have been...
Read the graph by going up (or across) from the relevant scale to the line, then across (or down) to the other scale line. Use a ruler, and measure, don't make a silly mistake !