Geography
"Geography is the subject which holds the key to our future" - Michael Palin
Geography underpins a lifelong ‘conversation’ about the earth as the home of humankind (The Geographical Association). Geography fascinates and inspires young people: the beauty of the earth, the power of earth-shaping forces. Geographical enquiry both satisfies every student’s curiosity in the world, and deepens their understanding of contemporary challenges – climate change, population growth, biodiversity under threat, development, urbanisation, food security, energy choices, which cannot be understood without geographical perspective. Geography also serves vital educational goals: thinking and decision making within geography helps students to live their lives as knowledgeable citizens, their responsibilities to other people, to the environment and to the sustainability of the planet.
As a department, we are always working hard to create and deliver inspiring and engaging lessons of first-class standard, with our curriculum aiming to reflect recent geographical developments in the news and the wider world. We teach our pupils a ‘Geography of Hope’ - David Hicks where they learn about the biggest challenges facing our time and feel equipped with the knowledge and empowerment to face and find solutions to these global problems.
We offer geography fieldtrips at all key stages, with longer residential trips for the GCSE and A-level courses. These are a very valuable part of the courses, and students gain a lot from being able to connect their classroom learning with the real-life contexts and experiences they have on the fieldtrips.
Students have 3 lessons over 2 weeks:
|
|
Autumn |
Spring |
Summer |
|
Year 7 |
Migration Stories |
Map Skills Climate Change
|
Forests Fantastic Places |
|
Year 8 |
Population Water and Water Scarcity |
Plastics Project Climate Change
|
China Megacities |
|
Year 9 |
Development Coasts |
Restless Earth Globalisation |
Energy and Climate Change Managing Resources and the Anthropocene |
Our key stage 3 curriculum attempts to blend traditional geography topics with more contemporary case studies and themes, as well as creating a strong foundation of geographical skills, knowledge and understating to prepare students for GCSEs and beyond. Key Stage learning episodes are regularly refined and developed to reflect the changing needs of the curriculum and the interests of the teachers and students.
Outside the classroom
The department run several compulsory and enrichment trips throughout the year.
There is also the BERTHA initiative where students reflect on what it means to live sustainably in the modern world. This involves a number of trips.
Useful links
http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/subjects/geography.html
Contact
Mr Ron Spicer Assistant HeadTeacher spicerr@hendonschool.co.uk
Our Twitter account is @HendonSch_Geog
