Geography Teacher

St Helen's is one of the leading indenpendent day schools in the country, eductating over 1100 girls aged 3-18.  

The Department

Geography is taught throughout the School by four members of staff (including the Head of Department). The department is well-resourced for all key stages and continues to be updated to meet the changing geographical world.

It has two dedicated teaching rooms for KS3/4 and one for Sixth Form teaching. These contain teacher PCs and state of the art SMART interactive boards. The department has a proud record of developing the use of ICT to support effective learning and teaching,  and has developed a range of innovative approaches to improve attainment, such as integrating the development of ICT skills within the subject at KS3 to ensure progression to a high level of competence by GCSE. 

The department makes frequent use of the School's IT suites and class sets of laptops to support the students' learning, and enables the students to access a very a wide range of digital resources on the School's VLE and elsewhere, as well as specialist software. Future development plans will include reviewing and refining the new GCSE and A Level programmes of study. In addition, the department is moving to incorporate ArcGIS into all key stages to equip the students with the skills needed for fieldwork investigations at GCSE and A Level. The department is a member of the Geographical Association and the recently established London branch, as well as the Royal Geographical Society. 

The subject is taught in teaching groups from Year 7 to Year 9 following departmental schemes of work. The department subscribes to the ‘Progress in Geography’ textbook. At GCSE the AQA specification is followed. Students are required to study at least one Humanities subject to GCSE from a choice of Geography, History, RS and Classical Civilisation, and there are typically three Geography classes in each of Years 10 and 11. The Sixth Form currently follows the OCR specification to A Level. A Level and AS courses are taught separately and will both be examined at the end of Year 13. The department also prepares students for university entrance including applications to Oxford and Cambridge.

The department has an established fieldwork programme which enables progression in the students’ enquiry skills from Years 7-13: • Year 7 (1 day) Woodland Ecosystem at Epping Forest FSC • Year 8 (1 day) Fieldwork at the River Ching and Lea Valley Country Park • Year 9 (1 day) Fieldwork in East London with FSC London • Year 10 undertake a residential weekend field course at FSC Juniper Hall to meet the requirements of the GCSE specification • Year 12 have a 3 day residential course at the Cranedale field centre in Yorkshire in March where AS students are prepared for the Skills paper and A Level students develop skills which they will apply to the Independent Investigation.

The Department additionally offers a biennial visit to Iceland for students in Years 10-13

Person specification 

The successful candidate will have:

 Essential:

• An Honours degree in Geography or related subject 

• Experience of teaching Geography across the secondary age range to A Level and demonstrable passion for the subject

• Detailed understanding of current developments in the secondary curriculum and assessment

• A clear motivation to work with young people 

• The ability to form and maintain appropriate relationships and boundaries with young people

• Commitment to further professional development

Desirable:

• A teaching qualification such as PGCE or equivalent

• Evidence of further professional development 

• Knowledge and experience of how IT can be used to support learning