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.