Geography

What is Geography?

In very broad terms, Geography teaches students about the Earth’s places, peoples, environments and societies.

At the core of the subject lies the understanding of the relationships and impacts between people and the environment. It recognizes the great differences in cultures, political systems, economies, landscapes and environments across the world and the links between them.

Geography as a National Curriculum subject is taught to all students up to Year 9. After that, students choose whether or not they wish to study Geography further at GCSE.

Staff

Students in Years 7-11 are taught within the N-Block area of the school in one of four specialist teaching rooms on the upper corridor. Each room is equipped with an interactive smart-board and P.C. projector. Currently there are three experienced staff who teach Geography:

Mr. Halewood

Mrs. Hibberd

  • Teaching Staff Governor
  • Teacher of Geography
  • Year 11 tutor
  • Joined the school in 1988
  • Email hbs@rainford.org.uk

Mr. Prentice

Students studying Geography in Years 12 & 13 are currently taught in the North Block in specialist teaching rooms but will move to the new Central Block classrooms in February 2012.

Field Trips

Fieldwork is essential to the teaching of Geography. We believe it to be a vital aid to teaching and learning, particularly for those students who are visual and kinesthetic learners.

Fieldwork is at the core of the subject, it gives students a greater awareness of their environment and their place within it.

It also allows us to take the subject or topic beyond the constraints of the classroom.

Field trips help to develop and improve skills, in particular, data collection, data handling, organisational skills, team building, sketches, annotation and analysis. It provides students with first hand case study material – ammunition for examination answers.

Finally it allows students to visit places which they may not necessarily have the opportunity to normally visit.

Currently all Year 10 students visit The Nant Ffrancon Valley in Snowdonia when studying ‘The topic of Ice on the land’. Students who have opted for the Foundation GCSE course study the alternative topic of ‘The Coastal Zone’ and visit The Sefton Coast.

Year 11 students currently visit the nearby urban area of St.Helens in order to collect primary data for their controlled Assessment.

Field work becomes even more essential at A-level as the OCR exam specification emphasises the expectation of students to study local examples of ecosystems as well as conducting first hand data collection. Year 12 students currently visit the River Roddlesworth, The Sefton Coast and The Mosedale Valley in Cumbria. Year 13 students visit Ruff Woods in Ormskirk and Ainsdale sand dunes.

Comments are closed.