Department Outline

1. The Geography Department Bedford School H.o.D:Mr R.J.Walker

2. The Head of Department... Mr. Richard Walker has been Head of Department for 24 years. Previous to this, he taught in New Zealandat Kings Collage Auckland.

3. Mrs Spyropoulos. Mrs Susie Spyropoulos.: Joined the staff in September 2009 although she had covered for a sabbatical the previous year. Manages the new GCSE course as well as the A2 human courses. She is a tutor in Asburnham and runs the Geographical Society in school and the Debating Society. She also helps run the Duke of Edinburgh. She is Head of General Education.

4. Mr Matt Gracie. Mr Gracie joined the staff in 2010. His degree is from Loughborough and has taught at Sedbergh. He is Assistant housemaster in Talbots. He is a keen sportsman with rugby as his top sport and he is head of conditioning.

5. Mr Matt Strachan; Mr Matt Strachan joined the staff in 2010. He had been teaching in Newhall School in Essex before here and gained his PGCE at Oxford. He is assistant housemaster in Pemberley. He is a very keen sportsman and reached the semi final at Wimbledon as an under 16! He helps coach rugby, hockey and tennis.

6. Mr Tom Rees. Mr Rees joined the staff this year. He has taught in Cornwall for 5 years before coming to Bedford. He is a tutor in Redbourn House. He is also Head of Squash and enjoys tennis and cricket as well.

7. 2011 results... The students achieved: 7 A*;29A; 35 B; 3 C; 1 D 60% achieved A* and A. GCSE... The students achieved: 2 A* 12 A; 7 B; 3 C; 1 D 82% of boys last year achieved A and B grade. A-Level. 5 gained a grade 7, and 7 gained a grade 6 and 3 gained a grade 5and 1 grade 4. I.B.

8. 4th Form Course. • All the boys do geography in the first year. They will cover these areas: • The local geography of Bedford, explaining how the town grew. (see map) • Project work on the Environmental quality in Bedford, • This is followed by work on sustainable cities understanding why these are necessary and how they can be achieved.

9. After Christmas we explore several environment issues such as acid rain , global warming (see insert) rain forest destruction and water pollution. We finish by looking at globalisation.

10. G.C.S.E. Geography We now study the Edexcel course.This has four different sections. 1. Geographical skills and challenges 2.The Natural Environment 3.The Human Environment. 4. Investigation Geography. (Controlled assessment: Project. ) Plate tectonics and volcanoes.

11. The Human world: development of shanty towns. . ... Issues in tourism. Wasteful world; Recycling at Elstow. Trip for some of the boys.

12. Investigation Geography: The Field trips. Hunstanton. The coursework which will now change from year to year . In 2010 the focus was on Hunstanton as a tourist honey pot and the process of long shore drift. This year we went to Cambridge to look at urban environmental quality. Next year 2012 we are going to Swanage for a residential trip.

13. The AS-Level course... We have 24 boys studying As at present. The syllabus broadly covers these two main areas: • Human. • This covers three main topics: Tourism; The Energy question and finally Urban work. • Physical. • This covers Rivers extending what we did in GCSE and then looking at Deserts and Glacial areas. We are interested in the physical processes and also the interaction with man.

14. A2 Level. This involves two main papers: Global issues; this allows us to study Earth hazards and their management as well as Climatic hazards and their management. We also look at Regional Disparities and how they can be reduced. This combines the human and physical aspects. The second part covers Investigations with the students completing two projects on which they will be examined. These include work on the river Kym near Kimbolton and also work on Bedford Town Centre. The exam questions the students about their project.

15. I. B. Geography • This runs parallel to the AS and A2. There are 3 main parts depending on which level the student covers; • For Standard level we cover the core section which has 4 parts: population in transition, disparities in wealth and development; patterns in environmental quality and sustainability., and finally patterns in resource consumption. • Standard also covers two options: Hazards and disasters, and Urban environments.

16. I.B. Higher level. The higher level students cover all that the standard level do but also cover another Option paper entitled Extreme Environments covering desert and glaciated areas. The big difference comes with the extension work which covers Global Interactions with a focus on globalisation with its impacts economically, culturally, politically and environmentally.

17. The Field trips... The 6th form trip to Iceland. (2009 and 2011? ) 1. Approaching a glacier (boy for scale!) 2. Geyser country 3. Glacial outwash producing a spectacular waterfall

18. This year’s field trip: Morocco • 27 boys and seven adults have been to Morocco in late October for a week • 1. we start in Marrakesh and spent he day looking at the central are which is a case study for the As course. • We then drove out through the High Atlas mountains seeing spectacular river scenery with incised meanders and 1000 ft gorges. • We ended up in the spectacular Erg Chebe desert regions with fantastic sand dunes.

19. Top left: Valley in the High Atlas Above. World Heritage site Left: erg Chebe..

20. Zagora • Kasbah du Toubkal Marrakesh.

21. Life After Bedford... Several of our students have gone on to study Geography or related subjects at degree level at a variety of Universities. We had one student Ed Watson going to Worcester College, Oxford gaining the first place in the selection. We have two applying for Oxbridge this year. We have several others choosing Russell Group Universities to reading Geography and related subjects.