Geography Bridging Course

The main topic for this year's Geography was the 2012 London Olympics.

Girls were given a power-point introduction (done twice for the non and later Biologists) on the location, aims and plans for the games and a package of resources (newspaper and magazine articles, info on 'sustainability' with reference to the Sydney Olympics, census data on social and economic background to boroughs such as Tower Hamlets) with a set of synoptic style questions to answer before the end of term.

Much of the work was designed for individual research and presentation but we had a full day's field trip to the various sites of the London Olympics including the transport hub at Stratford as well as areas of the East End where urban regeneration has already begun (the Excel Centre, Silvertown, City Airport, the Thames Barrier Park for example) and lesson time to prepare for the day and follow up afterwards.

There was no lesson, however, when all or the same group of Year 12 were present as a result of various other trips, open days etc. Teachers were thus present in Room 9 to advise but most of the work was done by individuals without, perhaps, the amount of class discussion, especially after the site visit, that we would have liked to have had.
The Geography Department also took part in the one day conference on Globalisation organised by Politics and History. This was seen as really useful not only for the overlapping content which will be included in the A2 'Development Processes' and the role of China in particular, but for the quality of external speakers and the opportunity to mix and debate with other disciplines and pupils from other schools.