This is who we are and what we are about......
THE CHESTERHOUSE GEOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
“Geography is the study of the world in which we live in. Put another way, it is the study of people places and our environment”
The Chesterhouse Geography department aims to, through the course of the various syllabuses, provide pupils with the tools and knowledge to help them make sense of the world in which they live, as well as to understand the processes, both human and physical, which shape the earth.
Geography is a very contemporary, relevant and dynamic subject which addresses issues like ‘Climate Change’, ‘Pollution’, ‘Resource Depletion’ and ‘Sustainable Development’. These issues raise crucial questions about the sort of future society that we wish to create. Therefore it is extremely relevant for today’s society.
We therefore try to engage pupils by making the subject practical and relevant to them, through getting them to apply their learnt knowledge to their life and the world outside the classroom window. Another way we try to do this is by highlighting world events as they occur e.g. Sydney Dust Storm, Tsunami in the Pacific Ocean, the earthquake in Italy and so on, and explain to them how it occurred and why the event occurred as well as show them pictures, maps, satellite images etc. We aim to make lessons fun while helping the pupils to learn at the same time.
Pupils will be expected to apply their knowledge, discuss and debate topics in class as well as be able to read graphs, maps, diagrams and the like. The subject allows for pupils to voice their opinions and work out solutions together to problems in the world which affect them, their city and the world in general. Pupils need to be able to use the data from questions to back up their answer/statement. All things in Geography are a process and one needs to think of the process in terms of 'how' and 'why'! How it happened and why it happend?
The Geography department is a very ‘down to earth’ and friendly department, it currently consists of Mr M. Harlech-Jones (Head of Department) and Miss M. Rees, who very ably teaches Geography to a Grade 8 and 9 class.
