The Geography Department at Belmont School is dedicated to achieving excellence by enabling its students to develop a detailed understanding of the physical and human environments around us and the way in which they are inter-related. We aim to help our students develop an acute awareness of how our lives are intrinsically linked to people and places all around the world, learning from past and present conditions to help predict and prepare for the future.
The aims of the Geography Department
The Geography department aims to promote, encourage and develop an interest and enthusiasm for the study of Geography. We seek to develop pupils as geographers in three key areas:
- Geographical knowledge and understanding: Develop their knowledge and understanding of the characteristics, processes and challenges found in different physical and human environments at a variety of scales and locations.
- Geographical skills: Pupils will learn a range of skills to critically analyse different geographical issues and challenges to draw reasoned conclusions.
- Geographical resourcefulness: Our pupils will become able to confidently draw upon their knowledge, understanding and skills as well as use their initiative and creativity in pursuit of solutions to the various geographical challenges they will study.
Competitions
Every year pupils are given the opportunity to enter a competition run by the Royal Geographical Society. The Young Geographer of the Year is the Society’s annual competition which recognise the outstanding work of the next generation of geographers. The competition encourages thoughtful and creative answers to the competition’s theme which is set each year.
Trips
Geographers across the year groups regularly travel locally, nationally and abroad to enable them to apply their knowledge of the course in the field. In 2016 students travelled to Iceland to study glaciation, tectonics and renewable energy, whilst in 2018 they went to Italy to look at how tectonic features have brought great economic success to the region through tourism. In 2021 pupils will be visiting the Azores, a group of active volcanic islands, and a Portuguese territory in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. Here pupils will have the opportunity to discover tectonics, renewable energies, coastal land-forms and how the islands have traded with other areas of the world over the years.
Extra-Curricular
- 3D Geography club
This is aimed at pupils in Years 7 and 8. At the start of the term, they choose a geographical feature to make and then build it using various resources. Clear annotated labels are added and the feature is then used in Geography lessons to help pupils understand how a geographical feature has been formed and what it looks like.
- Geoggle Box
This club is open to pupils in Years 9 to 11. The aim is for pupils to analyse and discuss recent geographical events from around the world thereby increasing their depth of understanding of key global issues and sparking an interest in current affairs.