At this stage the emphasis is on exploration of the UK and the pupils’ local area. Students begin to understand the fundamental skills of map work by conducting primary fieldwork around our school site and further afield.

The aim at this stage is to develop the students’ enquiry skills, and to begin to extend their understanding of places beyond the local area to include other parts of the UK, Europe and North and South America. They begin to develop their geographical knowledge, understanding and skills to enhance their locational and place knowledge using maps and Geographical Information Systems.

Fieldwork opportunities within the Preps and Pre-Preps:

Fieldwork supports the Geography curriculum by promoting geographical knowledge and understanding. We believe that students learn best about the world by experiencing it.

Students continue to develop their understanding of the UK in comparison to contrasting locations throughout the world. There is a particular emphasis on the physical world and students explore the nature of rivers, coasts, climate and tectonic features. Inseparable from this is the impact that human beings have on the natural world and themes such as population growth, urbanisation, migration and tourism form part of the programme.

The human topics studied at GCSE range from problems facing UK cities to a study of Mumbai as a megacity in an emerging country. The physical topics range from coastal management in the UK to the increase in hurricanes and tropical storms in relation to climate change.

Students attend a physical geography fieldtrip to Brighton and Rottingdean to study coastal management and a human geography fieldtrip to Goring and Streatley border to study rural change. In 2019, Year 11 students based their fieldwork on the river processes operating on the Cuckmere River in East Sussex and the impact of post-Olympic urban regeneration on Stratford, London.

Geography at A Level includes greater emphasis on the UK and coursework, in the form of an independent investigation which is based on a UK field trip. This A Level covers a range of themes including tectonic hazards and their management, coastal landscapes, climate change, water conflicts, globalisation, superpowers, migration, urban regeneration and rural rebranding.

The Geography Department contributes greatly to enrichment and the co-curricular provision of the school including the Eco-Schools Club and a variety of fieldwork opportunities.

The Eco-Schools Club takes responsibility for all of the recycling, reusing of materials and efforts to reduce wastage at St Augustine’s Priory. It successfully coordinates a ‘No Paper’ day, a ‘No Electricity’ day and a ‘Walk to School’ week each year. This year we are joining the WWF campaign to tackle the issue of plastic pollution.

Another way in which Geography contributes to enrichment and co-curricular provision is via field trips. There are many UK based field trips such as the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (Stratford), the River Chess, Brighton, Cuckmere Haven and Aberystwyth.  Biennial overseas field trips also take place; two recent examples of which were visits to New York and Iceland.