Year 10 GCSE students have been using a practical method to show population structure within a country. After being assigned a country with a particular mix of population (different coloured counters represented different categories of people), the students then had to pick a 'chance' card that would create an event to change the population structure of their country.

The chance cards included events such as;

• "an earthquake affects your country. Three people die"
• "The cost of childcare is very low and encourages the birth rate to rise. Gain 2 children"

Push and pull factors of migration, as well as changes in birth rates and death rates were reasons behind the change in structure.

The students then had to decide who the worthy winner was. Was it the country with the highest population? The country with the most balanced population? The country with the most economically active population? When the students debated this, they were showing some excellent reasoning skills that can be applied to their GCSE revision.

Mrs J Rowley

Head of Humanities