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Geography
The department aims to provide a stimulating and rewarding geographical experience for all and help all students to become thoughtful geographers and independent thinkers. The basic aims and objectives of school geography are:
1) To help students develop geographical knowledge and conceptual understanding.
In studying geography students develop a body of factual knowledge that will support conceptual understanding and stimulate an interest in the world. To achieve this geography teaching at school is based on themes that investigate physical environments, social and economic activities and the relationships that exist between people and places. In the geography scheme of work reference is made to the local area, the United Kingdom, Europe and the wider world with studies at local, national, international and global scale.
2) To introduce students to geographical enquiry and develop problem solving and investigative skills
In order to achieve this aim geography lessons involve strategies for teaching students to ask questions and pursue a ‘route to enquiry’. A range of intellectual and practical skills is taught such as: observation, measurement, information selection, interpretation, synthesis, decision making, and problem solving. Graphical skills are taught including graph selection and presentation, map work, sketching and diagrammatic representation. Fieldwork is used to teach some of these skills.
3) To help students develop a sense of identity through learning about the United Kingdom and other countries and the relationships between them; to help students develop their own informed opinions and attitudes.
The geography scheme of work involves the study of a variety of places local and distant, at a variety of scales and at varying stages of development. Thus students develop a sense of their own identity, of their place in the world and empathy for other life styles, cultures and attitudes. Teaching strategies are in place in geography to help students develop an understanding of global responsibility and interdependence. These strategies also encourage students to develop their own opinions and attitudes.