Geography

Our aim is to provide pupils with a stimulating and enjoyable route to success in Geography.  We want every girl to achieve their very best whilst encouraging a lifelong passion for learning about the world around them.

KS3

Girls in Year 8 made these Favela style houses as part of their work on Brazil. We have been learning about the differences between the rich and poor areas of Brazil and about solutions to poverty in cities.

In Years 7, 8 and 9, girls enjoy a varied and dynamic selection of both Human and Physical Geography topics. Learning activities favour the use of ICT, role playing, pupil presentations and enquiries. Field trips in each year support the work that is done in the classroom.

Year 7: Ordnance Survey maps,  Japan, rivers, settlement,
Year 8: Deserts, rainforests, weather and climate, Brazil, population
Year 9: Tourism, industry, differences in wealth, ice worlds, volcanoes and earthquakes.

Year 8 visit London Zoo

KS4

Geography is a popular GCSE choice.  We follow the AQA A syllabus, 25 % of which is a single piece of coursework, an investigation that the girls write up in the Autumn term of Year 11.

Year 10: Population, coasts, industry, ecosystems
Year 11: Tectonic plates, coursework, development, glaciers

The Sixth Form at Epping Forest

KS5

In addition to Physical and Human topics, our Sixth Formers are also required to study for a Geographical Skills paper in Year 12. This requires them to undertake two days of field studies outside of the classroom. This currently takes place in Epping Forest and Muswell Hill.

Year 12: Urban and Rural Management, The Energy Issue, Tourism, Hot and Cold Environments, Coastal Management, Rivers

Year 13: Global Issues

Globetrotters

Come along to the Year 8 Globetrotters Club on Fridays in BH10. Ms Bramhall and three Sixth Form helpers turn it into something not to miss. Have fun making rainforest gateaux, sprinkling tropical fruits and decorations on to your cakes... and then eating them.
Show your support and commitment to recycling by designing and making your own costume from recyclable materials. Then take part in a fashion show.
If you prefer a more laid-back lunchtime, you can watch films related to Geography such as Dante's Peak and The Perfect Storm.
There are lots of games and quizzes, often for great prizes. We also learn about Fairtrade and who it affects. There is a chocolate tasting experiment to see what Fairtrade products taste like.

Globetrotters meets every week to enjoy the edible side to Geography

Outside the classroom

To help bring all this Geography to life, girls are taken on a variety of trips and excursions from Year 7 right through to Year 13.

Year 7 study "Urban change" with a day out to the London Docklands.  Our annual excursion to this fantastic part of London is fast becoming a firm favourite with the girls.  Our tour includes visits to St Katharine Dock, Wapping, Canary Wharf and the Cutty Sark to study land use changes.  We enjoy lunch with office workers on the grass outside Canada Square and a fascinating river cruise along the Thames.

Year 12 carry out fieldwork in Epping Forest and Muswell Hill.  They investigate drainage basin changes and shopping patterns and land use.

GCSE and A-level girls are also given the opportunity of an overseas excursion. October 2008 saw a trip to Iceland, when 35 girls had the chance to see at first hand some of the wonderful geographical features they learn about in class, such as glaciers, lava fields, geysers and tectonic plate boundaries. 

Trips

Iceland 2008

Hannah Ashman writes:

Our field trip to Iceland was set to be a fantastic experience from the outset, as it began with a trip to the Blue Lagoon as soon as we stepped off the plane.
A mad dash from the cosy shower room into the freezing open air where we plunged none too elegantly into an unbelievably warm pool with steam whipping across its surface is a sure way to make an impression on a group of Channing girls.

My friends and I exclaimed constantly over the beauty and surreal landscape: the snow surrounding us was highlighted by the rapidly-fading yellow light, yet we were sitting in the middle of it all in bikinis!

The following day we awoke to the kind of pitch blackness you only experience near the Arctic Circle, but quickly dragged ourselves out of bed and on to ‘Monty’, our coach, to visit several waterfalls, such as Seljalandsfoss. They were an extremely impressive sight: torrenting water plunged into a pool that had been carved from the encircling ice, surrounded by huge hanging icicles. If you climbed to the top of the abandoned cliffs and ignored the tourists below, it was easy to believe that you were the only person gazing out on to the plains, and then sea on the horizon.

A trip to the nearby folk museum (Skogar) then ensued, where we were treated to several musical displays, including ‘My Darling Clementine’ accompanied by a traditional Icelandic form of violin, played by the museum’s founder, who was tenderly described by our guide as ‘the museum’s most precious artefact’.
Another display of physical geography followed, as we travelled to the coast to see caves, arches and stacks. I am sure the photos from the beach must seem very bizarre, as we are all posing on black volcanic sand, bundled up, wearing sunglasses due to the bright sunlight streaming behind us! A dodgy ride to the lighthouse afforded views that confirmed my suspicions that we were in the weirdest landscape I have ever visited. On one side lay the North Atlantic Ocean and barren plains stretching into the distance, while on the other was snow-covered farmland occasionally interrupted by seemingly-random peaks of volcanoes.

Finally, we visited Myrdalsjokull, a glacial tongue that is rapidly retreating perhaps 75m in the past year alone! This provided some amusing displays of imbalance, as many girls found walking on a glacier not as easy as previously thought.
The next day began with a lie-in, until 7:15! Then we left Selfoss, and visited a town well known for its greenhouses, which are heated by harnessed steam extruding from the earth’s surface.

Then we really were blown away by our next stop. Gulfoss is the largest waterfall in Iceland at 32m, into a canyon of 70m. Its height explained the impressive amount of spray coming from it, which creates funny-looking nodules of ice and compacted snow around single stems of grass. Nearby lies another impressive physical feature; Strokkur, a 35m Geyser that erupts more regularly (every 10 minutes), than any other in the world. Somehow, despite this regularity, it took four attempts to film this impressive feat of nature.

Despite a long drive to Pinvellir, it was well worth the wait, for here lies the only place where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge cuts across land, and we explored it in an obvious way, with a snowball fight that I’m proud to say the Sixth Form won. Pinvellir is also a place of historical interest, as the first parliament was held here, in 930 AD.

Finally we visited a geothermal power plant, Nesjavellir, which provides 14 % of Iceland’s electricity needs. The environmentalists among us were particularly impressed with this fact, and even more so when we found it was so efficient that it only required eight people to run it. Our wonderful guide Hjelti was amused when we lamented over Britain’s failure to provide more renewable energy, in Iceland that is inconceivable; all electricity is provided by hydro or geothermal power.

We made it to Reykjavik, a bit of a shock to the system after the past two days. We didn’t visit it at perhaps its most buzzing time, considering the current economic situation, but managed to experience at least some typical Icelandic culture.

Despite spending part of our final night moaning that we had to leave, some of us were eventually comforted by the knowledge that we had managed to bring at least a little bit back with us, in the form of Icelandic flag-patterned socks.Thank you to Mr Atkinson, Miss Bramhall and Miss Best for taking us on an amazing trip.

RGS membership

The department's membership of the RGS allows our sixth formers to attend some truly inspiring lectures at the society's headquaters in Kensington.  This year, our geographers have already listened to explorer Ranulph Fiennes and heard a talk by the Red Cross entitled 'Behind the scenes of a disaster zone'.