The Geography Department

Bedford School

H.o.D:Mr R.J.Walker

The Head of Department...

Mr. Richard Walker has been Head of

Department for 24 years. Previous to this, he

taught in New Zealand at Kings Collage

Auckland.

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.

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.

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.

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.

2011 results...

GCSE...

A-Level.

The students achieved:

7 A*;29A; 35 B; 3 C; 1 D

60% achieved A* and A.

The students achieved:

2 A* 12 A; 7 B; 3 C; 1 D

82% of boys last year achieved A and B

grade.

I.B.

5 gained a grade 7, and 7 gained

a grade 6 and 3 gained a

grade 5 and 1 grade 4.

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.

•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.

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. )

G.C.S.E. Geography

Plate tectonics and

volcanoes.

...

. The Human world:

development of shanty towns.

Wasteful world; Recycling

at Elstow. Trip for some of

the boys.

Issues in

tourism.

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.

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.

A2 Level.

This involves two main papers:

1. 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.

2. 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Top left: Valley in the High Atlas

Above. World Heritage site

Left: erg Chebe..

Zagora Kasbah du

Toubkal

Marrakesh.

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.