Geography
The Geography Department at Davenant is a strong, experienced team with three full time members of teaching staff. The subject is taught in three attractive, well resourced specialist rooms and has good access to the Humanities ICT room with 16 PCs.
At KS3 students are taught according to the National Curriculum guidelines. The focus is on providing a good grounding in Geographical skills as well as studying more contemporary issues such as the Geography of Crime and the influence of the Global Fashion Industry. Students are expected to extend their studies at home according to school homework policy and are encouraged to research and share environmental issues in the media.
Geography is a popular choice at GCSE where students will be studying Edexcel Specification B – Evolving Planet from September 2009. Topics studied include Restless Earth, Extreme Climates, Consuming Resources and Changing Cities.
Again, the subject is popular at Advanced Level where there are two teaching groups in both Year 12 and 13. The Edexcel course is followed which has a keen emphasis on Climate Change, Migration, Globalisation and Population Change. Students do well at A Level and approximately 30% go on to read the subject at University. In the last 3 years we have had three applications to Oxford and Cambridge.
There is a strong emphasis on fieldwork. At KS3 this is carried out as part of the programme of cross-curricular Focus Days. GCSE students participate in a residential field trip to Rhyd-Y-creuau, Snowdonia. At A Level students attend a course at Nettlecombe Court, Somerset to prepare them for the AS Unit 2 examinations.