Geography

Geography at Bushloe High School is all about getting involved and trying to understand, make sense of and of course be inspired by our amazing and ever changing planet. We do this by developing a diverse range of skills from map reading and graph interpretation through to analysis and explanation of pictures, statistics and text and using them we explore a range of key issues affecting our world. Throughout the four years the emphasis is upon developing interest across a range of scales and issues and giving our students the freedom to explore these in more depth for themselves.

In Year 6 we have an introduction to the sort of skills we need if we are to make sense of our complex world. Then we progress to learning about using maps to understand the landscape with a term long spying mission where pupils undertake a number of "missions" to build their map skills. We finish the year by looking at our local area and reflecting on why it is so important to us.

Year 7 builds on the skills and knowlege of year 6 as we look at urban settlement. We go on a trip to Bradgate Park early in the term to look at a rural settlement (Newtown Linford) and study the environmental pressures on this urban fringe rural environment. This leads us into the Environmental Issues course where we look at a range of issues at all scales from climate change to litter. At all times the emphasis is on what we can do about it. We finish year 7 with a look at Economic Activities and how money is made and spent.

Year 8 sees us taking a look at the worlds climate zones with the Climate and Environment course. We explore the link between climate and what we find there in depth before spending the rest of the year looking at the Weather. This course sees us looking at how the weather works before exploring some key issues. It also includes the Weather Benefits and Hazards project.

Year 9 Is where we have a chance to look at the tectonic processes that shape our world as we study Earthquakes and Volcanoes. After examining how this works we move on to look in more detail at some examples. In total contrast is our study of world population and development where we ask what is happening to the worlds population, what are the effects and most importantly what can or should we do about it? After a deatiled look at Kenya the year is finshed off by an in depth look at Japan where we explore a number of the themes of the past three years from a regional point of view.

Throughout the course is supported by a number of in depth projects that pupils undertake both in class and for homework. Full details of these will be given both here and in lessons. All the latest news and lesson links are updated on the "geogblog" The latest entries are listed below. You can visit the geogblog by clicking here.

The work of the Eco Club at Bushloe is an important part of the work of the Geography Department and that of several other departments. Below are a selection of photographs from our school pond but full details of the work of Eco Club and the Eco Action Team can be found on the Eco Club at Bushloe blog.