St Mary's Shaftesbury

Geography

"Geography is a subject that holds the key to our future" - Michael Palin.

"Geography tackles the big issues! Without geography, you're nowhere!"

Field work is an essential part of the course at all levels, varying from River Studies in Upper 3 to data collection days in South Wales for GCSE and to the River Axe and the Dorset Coast for AS.

In the senior school, the geographers have the opportunity to take part in an overseas visit. In April 2012 the students travelled to Morocco staying in a variety of environments including the city of Marrakech,  the Atlas mountains and the desert. The students also stayed in a top ecoutourist hotel, visited local social projects and trekked into the desert on camels before sleeping in traditional tents.  During Easter 2010 geographers from the Senior school and sixth form travelled to Iceland at the time of the epic volcanic eruptions..... They survived the Land of Ice and Fire and saw the nightly fireworks as well gas and steam during the day. As a contrast they also walked on a glacier just below Eyjafjallajoekull.

Geography provokes and answers questions about the natural and human worlds, using different scales of enquiry to view them from different perspectives. It develops knowledge of places and environments throughout the world, an understanding of maps, and a range of investigative and problem-solving skills both inside and outside the classroom. As such, it prepares pupils for adult life and employment.

Geography is a focus within the curriculum for understanding and resolving issues about the environment and sustainable development. It is also an important link between the natural and social sciences. As pupils study geography, they encounter different societies and cultures. This helps them realise how nations rely on each other. It can inspire them to think about their own place in the world, their values, their rights and responsibilities to other people and the environment.

Key Stage 3 

• Upper 3 (Year 7):                                                                                           
  
  • Earthquakes and Volcanoes.
  • Rivers - a field work approach including River Divelish Field Trip
  • Flooding - investigating flooding in Bangladesh.
  • The Geography of Shopping
• Lower 4 (Year 8):
  
  • Weather and Climate.
  • Population Problems, including migration
  • What is Development?
  • Coastal Environments, including Durdle Door Field Trip
• Upper 4 (Year 9)
  • Tourism
  • Globalisation
  • Street children
  • The Threatened planet, including an internet research project on Antarctica

GCSE

We study the AQA Geography A syllabus for GCSE .

We look at apsects of both physical and human Geography. In Phyiscal Geography we look at the rocks and landscpae that are the foundation of some of our scenic areas, the processes and landforms of glaciation and the processes at work on the coasts.  In human Geography we look at the impact toursim has on countries at a variety of stages of development, changing rural environments and  the development gap between the richest and the poorest countries of the world.

In the examination there is one physical paper and one human paper. In the autumn term of Upper Vth there will also be a controlled assessment piece based on fieldwork undertaken in Bournemouth in relation to the impact of tourism.

Advanced level

In the sixth form we follow the AQA specification.

At AS the students follow the following topics:

Paper 1 Physical Geography – The core module is on the processes and landscapes of rivers. A fieldtrip on the River Axe is a focal point of this work. The causes and impacts of flooding are also studied. The optional module is the study of Hot Desert Landscapes and their margins with studies of the south-west USA andSub- Saharan Africa an important element.