Please come back regularly for updates!

Welcome to the Geography Department!

Geography develops pupils as individuals and as contributors to society, the economy and environment. Geography also helps us to view the world in which we live, both locally and globally. By studying issues which have relevance to pupils they can see the importance of geographical knowledge to their lives now and in the future.

Pupils are challenged to think about the type of world they would like to share in years to come and how best to achieve it. They will also have opportunities to explore how the skills developed through Geography might help them in the future.

Key Stage 3

All pupils study Geography for three years.

Year 8

Mapwork, Volcanoes and Earthquakes, Rocks, Weather,Settlement.

Year 9

China, Extreme Climates, Economic Activity, Future Energy Needs, Development, Rivers and Flooding, Tourism.

Year 10

O.S. Mapwork, Population, Fashion and Sport, Natural Disasters, Ecosystems.

Fieldwork plays an integral part of the syllabus e.g. Year 8 carry out a traffic survey in Comber and Year 10 investigate shopping patterns in the local area.

The Department has also developed a close link with a school in Iceland (Alfthanesskoli) through the Brent Geese project in conjunction with Castle Espie Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre. Some of our pupils have visited Iceland and the Icelandic teachers have been to Nendrum College twice. We hope to develop this link further.

For those pupils who decide not to continue with further study of Geography, their experiences during Key Stage 3 should have provided them with the geographical knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to help them engage meaningfully with real and relevant issues in their world.

Key Stage 4 - GCSE

The Department follows the CCEA Revised GCSE syllabus. It is divided into three units.

Unit 1: Understanding Our Natural World

· Dynamic Landscape

· Our Changing Weather and Climate

· The Restless Earth

Unit 2: Living in Our World

· People and Where They Live

· Contrasts in World Development

· Managing Our Resources

Unit 3: Fieldwork Report

This unit is a controlled assessment task. The pupils take part in fieldwork collecting primary data which they then use to write up a report. In previous years we have studied the Enler River and more recently the Shimna River.

Assessment

There are two external assessments, Unit 1 and Unit 2, each is worth 37.5% of the total mark. Unit 3 is a controlled assessment task, worth 25% of the total mark.

Photos - Year 11 field trip to River Shimna