Geography

Geography has the unique position of addressing the issues that face us right now whilst delivering an understanding of what is happening in the classroom, out the window, across the country and stretching around the globe. In a world of ever-increasing complexity, change, conflict and challenges there is no other subject that delivers such a holistic understanding of the planet we live on.

The aim of the Geography curriculum at MCS is to inspire pupils to think critically on the world around them, to reflect on the pressing issues of the day and the drivers that underpin them, to have a fundamental understanding of how the world works and to be responsible global citizens who can address the challenges of the future with an informed understanding of the complexities of the issues it faces.

Lower School

The Lower School follow an in-house curriculum designed to engage them with some of the myriad of sub-disciplines that underpin Geography and the skills needed to tackle more complex issues. In the Second From they tackle everything from the challenges of feeding the world to the global distribution of resources and the physical systems in place on the coast for which they travel to the Dorset coast for the day. In the Third Form we range from tectonic processes to contemporary patterns of migration and the fundamentals of weather and climate. In the Third form pupils have a field trip to investigate microclimates as part of the weather and climate topic.

Middle School

Pupils in the Lower Fourth complete topics on the polar regions and the threats they face, the global cities; the challenges they face and how they can be regenerated as well as the Geography of the Oceans. As a part of the cities topic Lower Fourth spend a day in London exploring the regeneration centred on King’s Cross, developing their own fieldwork question and data collection.

Geography is a very popular GCSE option and the pupils who chose the subject in the Upper Fourth follow the Edexcel A specification. The syllabus is wide ranging from changing cities and the challenges of resource management to global development issues, biodiversity threats and river and glacial landscapes. The GCSE course is supported by a residential fieldtrip to North Wales to explore the glacial features of Snowdonia, downstream changes on the River Conwy and urban change in Wrexham. In the fifth form there is an ecosystems fieldtrip to a local deciduous woodland.

Sixth Form

The A Level curriculum follows the OCR specification which allows critical engagement with contemporary issues and provides an excellent launching point for those wishing to study Geography at university. Lessons are wide ranging and the content goes far beyond that required in the A Level syllabus, allowing pupils to address the underlying issues and delve into the complexities underpinning the physical systems. Geography lessons in the Sixth Form would be characterised by challenging ideas, problem solving, spirited discussion, team work and an innate desire to understand how the world around us works.

A Level Geographers are an ingredient in a broad church of other options and it is more than likely that between the class they will study every other subject on offer – bringing a diverse range of skills and opinions to the room; you are just as likely to be sitting beside a future medic as you are an architect, engineer or Geographer.

The content of the A Level includes the challenges of Earth’s Life Support Systems and the arid landscape as well as the unashamedly current issues surrounding global migration, disease and the ever popular exploration of power, borders and conflict. More ‘traditional’ topics of plate tectonics are delivered with an engagement in the issues they present alongside the pure science that underpins them.

In the Lower Sixth Geographers travel to the Lake District and Liverpool for four days to investigate upland carbon, tourism in Keswick, carbon stores in a woodland, factors affecting infiltration, regeneration and rebranding in Liverpool. In the U6th there is a trip to London to examine rebranding along the South Bank and Battersea and an A Level study day at the Royal Geographical Society.

Further Inspiration

If you are thinking about studying Geography in the Sixth Form at MCS, you might want to start reading around the subject before you join. Our Study Preparation guides are a useful tool, detailing further reading around key topics. 

GEOGRAPHY Study Preparation Guide

Extra-curricular

The Geography department is a hive of activity, and there are plenty of opportunities for pupils to get involved in extra-curricular activities:

• Extra-curricular clubs run for the Lower and Middle school. The Lower School have a weekly geo-club where quizzes, games and model making all play a part. Recent efforts include volcano models and earthquake proof buildings. The Middle School can join the Race Across the World, planning a route across complex landscapes only using public transport.
• The Middle School and Sixth Form have a wide range of opportunities including representing the school in the WorldWise Quiz, attending lectures at the local Geographical Association or the Royal Geographical Society.
  The Fifth and Sixth Form also benefit from a chance to delve deeper into the issues of the day with a weekly discussion group led by the Waynflete Academic.
• We make annual entries into a range of external competitions including the Office for National Statistics Data Challenge, the Geography Olympiad, Young Geographer of the Year and Hart Humanitarian Essay prize.
• MCS also serves as the host of the WorldWise Quiz for Oxfordshire with around 50 teams competing annual for two trophies from a range of local school in both the independent and maintained sector.

Trips

Alongside the field trip opportunities for every year group in the curriculum, we offer extra-curricular adventurous opportunities to a range of destinations including India, Iceland, Morocco, Cuba and SW USA amongst others from the Middle School and Sixth Form.

Where Geography could take you

Around a third of A Level Geographers go onto study it at university making it a consistently popular subject with pupils heading to Oxbridge and Russell Group Universities. Geography is perhaps unique in the skill set it delivers with Geographers adept at critical thinking and the synthesis of information and ideas. They are excellent communicators, team players and presenters so it is little surprise that Geographers are some of the most employable graduates.

Old Waynfletes have gone on to careers in multi-national companies, think tanks, the civil service, the NHS, teaching, finance and third sector, to name just a few; Geography can take you anywhere….