Geography
Head of Department - Mr John Snelling
"No place on Earth offers greater security to life and greater freedom from natural disasters than Southern California" Los Angeles Times, 1934
"I've thought about just moving to California and becoming a veg
etarian. No wait ! Talk about a place with ecological mayhem afoot everywhere you turn. If the Golden State isn't being hit by earthquakes, it's being burned to the ground by uncontrollable wildfires. Whatever the fires don't destroy, the mudslides will finish off. If the state isn't experiencing a major drought, then it's being hit with a La Nina, El Nino, or El Loco. The West Coast is a crazy place to drop humans: I'm convinced that nature never intended for our species to settle there" Michael Moore, Stupid White Men 2001
Once you've read the statements above you can't help but wonder what made these people write such things? What changed about the place between 1934 and 2001? What processes brought about such changes? and many more questions, essentially the core of what Geography should be.
At every stage we encourage our students to look with understanding at their environment, but also to take a critical view of the information that they are being given. Geography is all about the earth's diversity, resources and human survival on it, and thus plays an integral part in our understanding of the world in which we live.
All boys study Geography until they make option choices for the Fourth Year. We study the following examination courses:
GCSE: boys study IGCSE Geography
A Level: we study the AQA A level syllabus, incorporating the following modules. At AS, students explore Rivers, Hot Deserts, Health and Population, while at A2, students undertake work in World Cities, Conflict & Challenges, Plate Tectonics, and Weather, Climate & Associated Hazards modules.
The Department runs a number of regular visits and longer trips. Please see the Field Trip information page for more details. If you, or your son, is involved in a Geography trip, this will also be the place to find out all the latest updates and guidance.
We also run regular clubs and societies: the Junior Geography Club is open to all J-2nd formers in the Autumn term, where we build volcanoes (and explode them), play games and investigate lots of Geographical issues. The Geography & Economics Society offers a joint series of lectures in which 6th formers and staff present on a range of personal and contemporary topics. We host a range of external speakers to further our students' understanding and learning, as well as taking advantage of local lectures, including those at the Royal Geographical Society.
