Geography

Geography is about the world in which we live and on which we depend. It seeks to explain how landscapes, people, places and the fragile environment are all interwoven. Geography aims to foster a curiosity, awareness and understanding of our changing world.

The Geography Department is situated on the top floor of the Clapham Building. It occupies three classrooms, an office and a departmental library, all of which are equipped with PCs linked to the internet. Each classroom has audio-visual aids (television with dvd/video players, overhead projector, digital projector) and blackout. The departmental library contains a large selection of books for pupil reference and borrowing, a good selection of journals, higher education information, digital TV (with Freeview and a dvd recorder) and computer terminals.

Year 7 onwards

The Key Stage 3 course follows a thematic approach within a concentric geographical coverage of: The United Kingdom (Year 7); Europe (Year 8) and The World (Year 9). Year 7 are taken on a day trip to Dunwich on the Suffolk Heritage Coast to study coastal management issues and Year 8 go on a residential field trip to the Brecon Beacons.

At GCSE pupils follow AQA Specification A.Physical geography options (such as glaciation, coasts and tectonic hazards) are studied in Year 10 and human options (such as urban change, globalisation and tourism) in Year 11. Almost a term is devoted to writing up a local field investigation as a controlled assessment at the end of Year 10 and at the beginning of Year 11..

Sixth Form

AQA Specification A is followed, which follows an issues and impacts approach throughout. It explicitly engages with the relationship of human populations to each other over space and time and their relationship with their physical environment at a variety of scales from the local to the global. The AS course includes physical topics (such as rivers and flood management and coastal environments), human topics (such as population change and health issues) and geographical skills. There is a short residential trip to the Norfolk coast to develop fieldwork skills and study landform features and processes. The A2 course looks at contemporary geographical themes such as weather hazards, tectonic hazards, conflicts, and issues relating to poverty and development.

Extra-curricular

There is an active Geographical Society which provides games, model-making and quizzes for lower school pupils as well regular opportunities for sixth formers to attend lectures at the University of Cambridge School of Geography.

Fieldwork is an important aspect of geography and the department provides field days or residential courses as part of the curriculum for most year groups. These include visits to the Suffolk and Norfolk coast as well as opportunities to go further afield such as Iceland.

Staff

David Nye BSc : Head of Department
William Earl BSc
Gerry Stentiford MA
Liam Copley BA, MA, MEd