Lesson video

Hello, Mrs. Lomas here.

I am a primary school teacher who loves geography.

So I'm very excited to be with you for today's geography lesson.

So let's have a look, shall we and see what we're going to be learning about today.

Today's lesson, we are looking at settlement features.

So we're learning all about the different features that settlements have as part of our where do people live and why unit.

So let's get today's lesson started.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to name and recognise the key features of villages, towns, and cities and they're three different types of settlement, aren't they? There are some key words in today's lesson, we have settlements, services, facilities, and population.

So let's have a go at my turn, your turn.

Settlements, services, facilities, population.

Well done.

Let's have a look at what those words mean.

So settlements are places where groups of people live and work.

A service is a system that supplies a public need.

For example, waste collection.

A facility is a building, piece of equipment or place that is used for an activity or purpose.

And a population is the total number of people living in a particular area.

So keep an eye out for those words in today's lesson.

Today's lesson on settlement features is split into two parts.

We will start with what are the different types of settlement and then how can we identify different settlement types.

So let's have a go at what are the different types of settlement.

Settlements are places where groups of people live and work.

And they often have a distinct community identity.

Have a look at these two pictures here.

What would it feel like to be in each of these settlements? Would the one on the left of the screen feel busy or quiet? Maybe even peaceful.

What about the image on the right? Do you think that one would be busy or quiet? What can you spot in each of the pictures? Pause the video, have a class discussion, and then come back when you are ready.

So let's have a little check of our understanding.

What are settlements? A, places where people live? B, places where people live and work? or C, places where people work? So again, what are settlements? A, places where people live, B, places where people live and work, or C, places where people work.

Pause the video, collect your answers and come back and check.

How did you get on? If you had said B, settlements are places where people live and work, you would be correct.

Well done.

At night, we can see the location of settlements on earth from space.

And here we can see a photo, a satellite image of Europe.

Settlements come in all different shapes and sizes and are not spread out evenly across the land as we can see here in this satellite image.

Have a think.

Why do some places shine brighter than others? Have a class discussion and then pause the video, come back when you're ready.

Brighter places have more lights from more buildings and more homes all in the same location.

So these must be larger settlements.

Now I want you to have a think about why are some areas totally dark? So pause the video, have a discussion, and then come back when you're ready.

How Did you get on? Areas with no light or dim light have fewer buildings and therefore fewer people living there and these areas might not have any settlements in them at all.

One way of categorising settlements is by the number of people who live there, the population.

And here we can see from this diagram that hamlets have the smallest population and megacities have the largest.

This diagram is shaped like a triangle and the wider the triangle gets the larger the population of the settlement.

So you have your farm or hamlet starting at the top, being the smallest, then village, small town, large town, city and megacity being the largest on the bottom.

A hamlet has a population of less than 5,000 people.

Smelthouses is a hamlet in North Yorkshire, England, and it has a population of less than 100 people.

Hamlets can be a group of houses spread widely apart in the countryside or running alongside a road.

Have you ever seen a hamlet before? The next size up of settlement is a village and a village generally has a population of between 500 and 300 people.

Of course this can can vary and it isn't a strict rule.

Geographers use these estimated populations to try and group settlements into types, but features like facilities and services also decide a settlement type.

And this is the village of Berriew in Powys, Wales.

I think that's how you say it anyway.

And here in this photo you can see one of the facilities you might find in the village, and that's a pub.

The next size up of settlement is a town which usually has a population of between 10,000 and 100,000 people.

Some settlements have a population of between 3000 to 10,000, and these could be classed as a town or a village depending on the services and the facilities that they contain.

This is the town of Antrim in County Antrim, Northern island.

And we can see there already, can't we, in the photo? There are a few more services.

You've got a little high street, haven't you? Different shops and banks and things along it.

So that's making it more of a town than a village.

Okay, let's do a little check for understanding.

Which settlement type usually has a population of between 500 and 3,000 people.

A, a hamlet, B, a village, or C, a town? So one more time, which settlement type usually has a population of between 500 and 3,000 people.

A, a hamlet, B, a village, C, a town, pause the video, collect your answers, and then come back and check.

How did you get on? If you said that B, a village usually has a population of between 500 and 3,000 people, you would be correct.

Well done.

And finally, we have cities.

A city is generally has a population greater than a hundred thousand.

But there are exceptions to this rule.

And this is where I'm going to check my notes just to make sure I don't tell you the wrong information.

So a city in the UK is defined as a town that has been created a city by Royal Charter.

Size is a major factor in this as is the possession of an Anglican cathedral or a town's regional or historical importance.

But none of these automatically means a town is given the Royal Charter.

For example, St.

David's with a cathedral is a city despite having only 2000 inhabitants.

While Bournemouth is not a city, despite having a population of nearly 197,000.

In 2023, just over half of the world's population lived in cities.

And we've got an example of a city here.

This is Glasgow in Scotland and you can already see, can't you, the difference in that photo from your village, your town, and your hamlet photos.

You might want to have a little look and see what things you can spot in the video.

In the video, in the photo, I do apologise, please pause the video, have a little look in that photo and then come back when you are ready.

How did you get on? There's much bigger buildings, aren't there, there's much taller buildings? And you can see the steeple of a church or maybe even a cathedral in the background.

And you can see lots of different types of buildings I think aren't you as well? And now we have the biggest settlement type of all.

A megacity is a city with a population of more than 100,000 thousand.

In 1950 there were only two megacities, Tokyo and New York.

By 2023, there were 33 across the world.

And London is expected to be a megacity by 2030.

Today the largest megacity in the world is Tokyo with over 37 million people.

And here you can see a photograph of London, which as we said is expected to be a megacity by 2030.

Okay, let's do a little check for understanding.

Shall we? Can you put the following settlements in order of population size with the smallest at the top, you might want to draw a triangle like the diagram you saw earlier and put them in order or you could just write them in order with the smallest at the top.

So you have megacity, hamlet, city, town, village.

Pause the video, have a go, then come back and check your answers when you are ready.

How did you get on? Hopefully you said that the smallest population size is a hamlet, then a village, then a town, then a city, and finally a megacity.

Well done if you did.

Now that we've looked at the population size of each settlement, let's investigate what services each type might have.

A hamlet usually has no services such as a church or a post office.

If you lived in a hamlet, you'd have to travel to access services of any kind.

Here we can see a map of the hamlet of Smelthouses in North Yorkshire, which has no shops, pubs, or schools.

Land use around hamlets tends to be agricultural or undeveloped, and there are only a few minor roads and footpaths, which you can see clearly, can't you on the map.

And there are only a few buildings along the road and scattered across the countryside, which again, you can see here on the map if you take a closer look.

A village usually has a few services, typically a church, a post office, a school, and a pub, and may have served the farming community at one point.

Now villages often provide housing for many people who work in the nearby towns, though some still serve the local farming community.

Here we can see the village of Berriew in Powys, Wales, which has a primary school, pubs, a village shop, and a post office.

And there are more buildings here and more roads including some car parks.

So you might want to pause the video and have a closer look at the map here.

Remember, towns can vary in size, but their population supports a greater range of services than villages.

Large towns will provide a much greater variety of goods and services and sometimes towns grow into each other and it's hard to see where one town ends and another begins.

These are known as conurbations.

Our map here shows the town of Antrim County, County Antrim in Northern Ireland.

It has more than 10 schools, a hospital restaurants, lots of shops and supermarkets.

Most of the land in a town is residential and you can see lots of housing estates.

There is also a railway line in addition to the A and B roads connecting Antrim to other places.

Antrim has dentists as well as doctors, as well as many other services.

Again, you might want to pause the video and have a little look at the map.

Cities are home to hundreds of thousands of people and therefore they offer a wide range of facilities and they need to have an efficient transport network or transport networks as well.

This is the city of Glasgow in Scotland, cities usually contain facilities such as schools, universities, libraries, museums, shopping centres, and this map shows built up areas as grey.

You can see many more roads including motorways, railway lines, and even an airport.

So again, you might want to pause the video and take a closer look at the map.

Megacities are exceptionally large cities with large transport systems and they have global importance.

London currently has a population of 8.

8 million and is expected to become a megacity by 2030.

If you have a look at the map here, you can see that London has three airports and rail links that connected to other international cities, as well as transport links for getting around London and getting to other places in the UK.

Again, you might want to pause the video and take a closer look at the map.

I so let's do a little check for understanding.

For we, for we? shall we? I do apologise.

So true or false, hospitals, cinemas, and supermarkets are all facilities found in a hamlet.

So I want you to say if that statement is true or false.

And then I want you to justify your answer using either A or B.

So a lots of people live in a hamlet and they all all need access to facilities.

Or B, a hamlet has less than 500 people living there.

So true or false hospitals, cinemas and supermarkets are all facilities found in a hamlet.

And then justify your answer, use using either A, lots of people live in a hamlet and they all need access to facilities or B, a Hamlet has less than 500 people living there.

Pause the video, gather your answers and then come back and check.

How did you get on? If you'd said that it is false that hospital, cinemas, and supermarkets are all facilities found in a hamlet, you would be correct because a hamlet has less than 500 people living there.

Therefore hospital, cinemas, and supermarkets wouldn't be that much use to just 500 people.

Okay, so now we have task A.

You are going to cut out and match the information for each settlement type.

So you have three settlement types, three descriptions of their services and facilities and three descriptions of their size.

So you have for settlement types, city, village and town for services and facilities provide a much greater variety of goods and services including schools and shops, a wide range of facilities including hospitals, supermarkets and efficient transport, a few services typically a church, a post office, a school and a pub.

And your size options are 10,000 to 100,000 people, a 100,000 to 10 million people and 500 to 3,000 people.

So again, you're going to cut out and match the information for each settlement type, pause the video, have a go and then come back for some feedback.

How did you get on? Hopefully you told me that a village has a few services, typically a church, a post office, a school, and a pub.

And it has 500 to 3000 people.

A town provides a much greater variety of goods and services including schools and shops and has between 10,000 to 100,000 people.

And finally, a city has a wide range of facilities including hospitals, supermarkets, and efficient transport and has from 100,000 up to 10 million people.

Well done if you managed to do that.

If not, you might want to pause the video now and make any changes that you need to make.

Okay, so we've had a look at what are the different types of settlement.

Now we're going to have a look at how can we identify different settlement types.

We should be able to identify the types of settlement from information about its size and the services and facilities it offers.

What can we identify using this map, an aerial photograph of a settlement in Scotland.

I want you to pause the video and have a look.

What can you identify using this map and aerial photograph of a settlement in Scotland.

And if you look carefully, you can see where different shapes on the map match up to the different shapes on the aerial photographs.

So you can see which bit is which.

And obviously you can see the water quite clearly there as well.

So pause the video, gather some ideas, and then come back and we'll have a look.

How did you get on? If we have a look at the map, we can see that the land around the settlement is undeveloped.

The buildings run along the side of the main road.

There is a place of worship, there is a school, there is only one main road.

And the scale also tells us that this is a small settlement.

So what type of settlement do you think Plockton is? A, a megacity, B, A village or C, a town.

So again, what type of settlement do you think Plockton is? A, a megacity, B, a village or C, a town? Pause the video, collect your answers and then come back and check.

How did you get on? If you said that Plockton is B, a village you would be correct.

Well done.

Let's have a look at a different settlement in Scotland.

You can see on the map, can't you, that this is Glasgow.

So again, I want you to pause the video and see what you can identify using the map and the aerial photograph of Glasgow.

How did you get on? You can see that the grey areas are developed and built up on this map.

There is an airport, there is a railway line, there are many motorways and a rows.

And the scale tells us that this is a large settlement.

So what type of settlement is Glasgow? A, a city B, a village, or C, a town.

One more time what type of settlement is Glasgow? A, city, B, Village or C, town? Pause the video, collect your answers and then come back and check.

How did you get on? If you said that Glasgow was A, a city you would be correct.

Well done.

So we can use map and aerial photographs to identify the type of settlement.

This map has two different settlement types highlighted.

There's Edinburgh and there is Samuelston.

You are going to take a closer look at each place to try and decide what type of settlement they are.

And this is your second task.

So using the maps and aerial photographs, you're going to identify the type of settlement for each place and writing sentences to explain your choice.

So you can see there can't use settlement one Samuelston, you've got a map and an aerial view photograph.

So you need to say, I think this settlement is A, because duh, duh.

Okay, so have a go at task B.

You've got Samuelston and Edinburgh, okay to have a look at.

And then when you've finished, come back and I'll give you a bit of feedback.

How did you get on? If you said that Samuelston is a hamlet because it has very few buildings or homes and has no facilities or services, you would be correct.

You might have also mentioned about the undeveloped land in the surrounding area as well.

And Edinburgh is a city because it contains thousands of buildings including cathedrals, art galleries, leisure facilities, and a stadium.

It has a large road and rail network to connect all of the residential areas.

If you didn't quite get that down, that's okay, but if you want to add in anything from the feedback, you can do that now if you pause the video.

So here's a little summary of settlement features.

Settlements are places where groups of people live and work.

Smaller settlements like hamlets and villages have small populations and few facilities and services and larger settlements like cities and megacities have big populations and a wide range of facilities and services.

And we also looked at that diagram, didn't we? That showed us the population size of the different settlements with the far more hamlet being the smallest at the top.

And as the population gets bigger, it gets wider.

And finally at the base of the triangle, you have the megacity.

Well done today everybody.

I think you did really, really, really well in learning all about the different features of settlements.

I hope you spotted some of our keywords there in the lesson.

And don't forget to have a go at the exit quiz just to see if there's anything you need to have a little recap of before the next lesson.

I'll see you again soon.

Bye.