Well done to our Year 13 on having handed in their NEAs!               Year 9 Options - please do visit our Options page under KS4 "Choosing GCSE Geography" for our booklet and video                             

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     “Geography is the subject which holds the key to our future” - Michael Palin

Head of Department - Mr R Chambers

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GEOGRAPHY NEWS - October 2017

Department Awards

We are delighted to have been awarded the Princes Teaching Institute Mark for the fourth year running and in addition following a successful submission of evidence to the Geographical Association we have been re-designated as a Centre of Excellence and recipient of the Secondary Geography Quality Mark for the next 3 years. Our Centre of Excellence status recognises the work we are doing to disseminate good practice in geography locally and nationally, providing professional support and ideas in a wider context beyond the department. We would like to thank staff and students for all their hard work in helping us to be successful in gaining these awards.  


Year 8 Grafham Trip

138 of our Year 8 students took part in a fun filled trip to support their 'Rivers' topic work back in September run by the Grafham Water Centre providing students with the opportunity to consolidate what they have been learning about in the classroom. The day started at Brampton Mill, canoeing on the Great River Ouse. enabling them to explore a variety of river landforms, including a flood plain, river cliff and slip-off slope and explore the river processes involved in their formation. The afternoon involved developing map skills such as 6 figure grid references through an orienteering activity at Grafham Water, culminating in a team building challenge.


Year 12 Geography Ambassadors
We now have 13 students who have signed up to this year’s Geography Ambassadors programme supporting the work of the department and helping to raise the profile of our subject during the year. Some of our ambassadors have already helped out at the recent Open Evening and over the next half term they will be supporting a number of lower school geography activities.


Open Evening

The department would like to thank this year’s Year 12 and 13 Geography Ambassadors who helped at the successful October Open Evening. The department was buzzing with Year 6 and 11 students and parent/carers. Some of our Geography Ambassadors also supported our Fairtrade initiative by serving Fairtrade tea and coffee. For anyone that missed the evening, our A Level Geography options brochure with full details of the A Level Geography course at St Ivo can be downloaded here http://www.geobytes.org.uk/Geobytes%20Files/ALevel/ALevelGeographyStIvo.pdf


Royal Geographical Society's Geographer of the Year competition
A number of KS4 and KS5 students took part in our Geography House competition. Mahil (Year 12 - Crosier) and Megan (Year 10 - River) won the school house competition, gaining 50 house points and a £10 Amazon voucher each. The top 7 entries from across KS4/5 have also been entered for the RGS's 'Geographer of the Year' competition. The entries consist of posters (KS4) or essays (KS5) exploring the question "Our Favourite Place" giving students an opportunity to research and develop the physical and human processes that have shaped a place and which have determined the characteristics and identify it has today.


Geography at University

Our Year 13 students are currently in the midst of writing personal statements and preparing their UCAS applications. We have several resources on our website to support students through this process. Whilst there is specific support for those wishing to study Geography at University, there are many resources regarding UCAS and writing personal statements which should be useful to all of our students regardless of the course they are applying for. Our supporting resource page can be found here: http://www.geobytes.org.uk/geographyuniversity.html.


Rob Chambers
Head of Geography





Newsletter Archive:

September-October 2015 - Geography Newsletter
October-December 2015 - Geography Newsletter
January-February 2016 - Geography Newsletter
February-March 2016 - Geography Newsletter
May 2016 - Geography Newsletter
July 2016 - Geography Newsletter
September-October 2016 -Geography Newsletter
December 2016 - Geography Newsletter
February 2017 - Geography Newsletter
March 2017  - Geography Newsletter
July 2017 - Geography Newsletter