Geography

There are currently six full-time members of the department. In the Lower School (Years 7, 8 and 9), Geography is taught to all pupils as a separate subject. In Years 10 and 11 we follow OCR Specification A. The Advanced teaching groups follow the AQA Specification A. The Advanced Extension Award is available to boys in Year 13 who have achieved exceptional marks at AS.

All members of the department teach at all levels. The allocation of teaching groups is determined by the Head of Department who takes into account the wishes of individual teachers and their individual development.

There is a wide range of responsibilities within the department, which are distributed and rotated among the staff, bearing in mind their skills, experience and personal desires. All members of the department are encouraged to take responsibility for a year group or key stage. We expect all members of staff to work as a team, sharing the overall task of achieving the aims of the department. Professional development of all staff is superb.

The teaching of Geography takes place in a suite of specialist classrooms that are conveniently close to the department's office, storeroom, the main School resource centre and ICT facilities. The department is generously resourced and each member of the department has his or her own specialist teaching room. These rooms are well equipped with television, video, overhead projectors and interactive whiteboards. All of the Geography teachers have the use of a laptop computer. The School has five dedicated computer suites and these are used frequently for Geography lessons. Each boy has his own textbook to take home and we are constantly adding new titles to the stock. We have recently invested in AEGIS software so that we can integrate GIS into the curriculum.

Fieldwork is an essential part of the department's work. Residential fieldwork courses are held for all boys studying Geography in Years 10 and 12. At the moment, we run our own GCSE course in Swanage, Dorset. In the Sixth Form, we run the Year 12 course at the Eagle's Nest Centre in the Cévennes National Park, southern France. Locally based fieldwork is embedded in the schemes of work at Key Stage 3. There is an annual overseas Geography tour for Key Stage 3 boys. Destinations in recent years have included Iceland, Italy, Switzerland and Spain.

The provision of enrichment activities in Geography beyond the classroom is also a fundamental part of our work. A large number of our boys produce entries for the Royal Geographical Society's 'Young Geographer of the Year' competition. We run a 'Geography through the Window' competition in Year 7, while GCSE boys take part in an external competition, the GA Worldwise Quiz. 'Geoexplorers', a general interest club for boys in Years 7 and 8, meets on a weekly basis, and there are also extension fieldwork events on Saturdays. The Sixth Form Geography Society welcomes occasional lunchtime speakers. We have an excellent departmental area on the pupil intranet; all of the boys are able to access this at home through the School's website.

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