Geography

OVERVIEW: The Geography department is made up of three specialist Geographers: Mr Riley, Mr Hartley and Miss Wall. The Geography department is currently housed in three specialist classrooms, equipped with a wide range of resources, including teacher computer stations and ceiling-mounted projectors. Access to the school’s computer suites is actively encouraged through the departmental schemes of work and an extensive range of both printed and digital contemporary resources are kept. The department’s focus is on innovative, contemporary teaching through experiential learning.

FIELDWORK: Fieldwork is carried out at all levels. Past fieldwork has included: Year 7 orienteering collaboration with PE, Year 8 urban studies with History and Year 9 ecosystems work. GCSE students carry out local fieldwork to gather data for their coursework. Those completing GCSE Geography in 2012 conducted studies on the quality of life around Rugby. Our AS Geographers spend a day in London at the docklands and 2012 Olympic site, investigating urban regeneration and tourism. 

The A2 Geographers complete a week-long residential trip to North Wales at the start of Year 13 spending days exploring sand dunes on Anglesey, conducting longitudinal river studies on the River Conwy and investigating the role tourism plays in Llandudno. For photographs, please see below.

RESULTS: Our student numbers and exam results excel against both school and national averages, with, for example, 84% of the 57 students who completed A2 in both 2010 and 2011 achieving A*-B grades. A good number of these also went to study the subject at university, including Oxbridge entrants.

EXTRA-CURRICULAR: The department are heavily involved in extra-curricular activities across the school. We have a specialist Geography Library, which is accessible to sixth form Geographers and those in Mr Riley’s ‘Geography Literature’ enrichment. Miss Wall’s ‘Exploring Africa’ enrichment examines contemporary geographical issues within the world’s least well known continent.

Sixth form Geographers also volunteer to become Geography Ambassadors, an innovative scheme that gets them to assist some of our Key Stage 3 classes. 

WORLD CHALLENGE: The department also lead expeditions through the World Challenge organisation. Month-long expeditions have run to Peru, Canada, India, Tanzania and Chile before 2010. In 2010, 45 students in 4 teams took part in the latest expeditions to Nepal - led by Mr Essam, Mr Trevers, Mr Hartley and Mr Riley. 2012 will see two teams and three staff go to Uganda for a month, completing arduous treks (including climbing all 4321m of Mt Elgon) and assisting in some community development projects.

For details on World Challenge Clickhere

 London  Docklands and 2012 Olympic Site

Residential trip to North Wales