Geography Archives - Penwortham Girls' High School

Geography News

Posted on December 15, 2025December 15, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Lower School Geography

As we draw towards the end of a long but productive term, I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of the fantastic work completed by our young Geographers this term.

Two particular highlights have been the traditional ‘Bob the Boulder’ assessment – another brilliant round of projects, which manage to have some originality every year! Head’s Commendations have gone out to many.

Likewise, the Year 9 work on the life cycle of a pair of jeans has continued to go from strength to strength, with some excellent work produced this year.

GCSE Geography

A particular well done to our Year 11 GCSE Geographers; it has been a long term with a period of Mock exams at the start of November. The Geography Mock results were pleasing overall and we have done some detailed performance analysis with classes. Year 11 are on their second to last topic from the syllabus content, meaning we will be able to embark on an extended period of revision, exam practise and preparation. Keep your eyes on the prize, Year 11!

Leavers Award Winners

We had a very special evening in school back in November when last year’s Year 11 pupils were in school to collect GCSE certificates and Subject Awards. It was a real pleasure to hand over Geography Prizes to Saskia and Faye, two amazingly dedicated and knowledgeable Geographers. Very well done to both!

Have a great holiday and if you are celebrating Christmas, don’t forget to ask Santa for a new up-to-date atlas of your very own and make sure you recycle all that packaging.

Merry Christmas from Mr Bowles, Mr Ward and Mr Claydon! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Mr Bowles

Curriculum Leader for Geography

Where’s Earthy?

Posted on September 29, 2025September 29, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Come to Geography Club

Posted on September 29, 2025September 29, 2025 by Michelle Murray

This term we will be running the World Guesser League in room 11 each Monday Lunchtime. If you have not heard of it, this is a web based game where you must take your best guess about where in the world a randomly generated Google Street View is. You need to look for clues in the landscape like road signs, the language used, the weather and the famous landmarks. Look at this easy-peasy example below; would you know where to drop your pin on the world map for this place? The closer you guess, the more points you get. We all play the same game and then your score is recorded. There are spot prizes each week and a league table with year group winners being announced at the end of term. Come and join in! Monday lunchtime in Room 11 – games start at 12:45pm sharp; don’t be late!

Mr Bowles, Curriculum Leader for Geography

Lancashire Sustainability Learning Conference

Posted on July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Members of the Year 7 and 8 Geography Club were invited to attend this event at Ewood Park in Blackburn back in June. It was a great experience to meet so many companies and organisations working in the field of sustainability and the students were inspired by the people they met and heard. We entered two teams of six into the Fashion Production Line competition during the morning session of the event, and one team pulled off an amazing second place finish, with only a hairs breadth between them and the winners. The biggest bonus of the day was the money they won and the numerous freebies the students collected form the exhibitors! Thanks to Glynis Goldsborough and her team for hosting, Lorimer Russell-Hayes (PGHS Chair of Governors) for her support on the day and to Mr Davis for accompanying us. We have already signed up for next year!

Mr Bowles, Curriculum Leader for Geography

Year 10 GCSE Geography Fieldwork

Posted on July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Year 10 GCSE Geographers assembled on Fishergate at 9:30am on Wednesday 25^th June, many with Starbucks in hand, ready to test if Preston follows the Burgess Model of Urban Land Use. This involved moving outwards from the city centre to the edge of Preston to perform various test to collect data and try to ascertain if the buildings, traffic and environment quality changed as hypothesised. The students were excellent, really throwing themselves into the investigation and hopefully building clear memories of the process. The findings of the day will be tested on the students’ Paper 3 exam next summer. This is always a real strength for Penwortham Girls’. The attitude and commitment shown by these students on the day suggests that next year will be no different.

Mr Bowles, Curriculum Leader for Geography

Where’s Earthy?

Posted on July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Think you know where this is? Email in your answers to g.bowles@penworthamgirls.lancs.sch.uk.

Remember! Be specific with your guesses. A medal for every entrant and a geo-tastic prize for the first correct answer in my inbox!

Mr Bowles, Curriculum Leader for Geography

Year 9 Volcano Models Project – Prize Winners

Posted on July 17, 2025July 17, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Another bumper year for models with the Humanities corridor rammed full of amazing entries. Staff were asked for their top pick and a couple of highly commended entries. The results are as follows:

Highly Commended:

Georgina C-B – 9P
Bella N – 9G
Aliha A – 9G
Klara B – 9G
Anya L – 9G
Georgia B – 9H
Lilly-Mae F – 9H
Ava T – 9H
Charlotte C – 9H
Fathima M R – 9J
Haalah N – 9J

Highly recommended:

Staff top picks:

Mr Bowles picked Elidih R (9S) – amazing attention to detail like the layers of sedimentary rock below the igneous layers. Brilliant!

Mrs Hall picked Beaux W (9G) – lots of effort to the landscape surrounding the volcano, plus lots of well researched information and accurate vocabulary.

Mr Ward picked Chloe L (9J) – a well-constructed model with light up lava bombs!

Mrs Singleton picked Martha R (9J) & Penny W (9P) (joint entry) – a clever design that allowed a look inside the volcanoes internal structure.

Mr Dean picked Katie K (9S) – a volcano model that actually smokes. Enough said!

From these it was decided that the overall prize would go to Elidih R. Very well done!

Staff picks:

Mr Bowles, Curriculum Leader for Geography

Where’s Earthy?

Posted on June 30, 2025June 30, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Year 9 Volcano Models Project

Posted on June 30, 2025June 30, 2025 by Michelle Murray

Another bumper year for models with the Humanities corridor rammed full of amazing entries. Alongside the traditional papier-mâché, builders’ foam, Lego and cardboard models, this year saw some very original designs and mediums. A number of excellent Minecraft entries caught my eye and the addition of ash clouds shown in a range of ingenious ways to a number of the volcanoes really added a new dimension too. We have volcanoes that rumble, volcanoes that light up, volcanoes that smoke and volcanoes that spin! Both Mr Ward and I have overseen MANY volcano model competitions over the years but we both agree that the standard of skill and Geographical content has never been higher. Well done to everyone that submitted an entry. Prize winners and highly commended entries will be revealed in the end of year newsletter.

Mr Bowles

Curriculum Leader for Geography

A busy end to the term!

Posted on April 2, 2025April 2, 2025 by Michelle Murray

The end of this week sees two of our big departmental events take place.

On Wednesday 2^nd April, 64 Year 11 Geographers will travel to the Forest of Bowland, near Abbeystead village to carry out their GCSE Rivers Investigation. This will help them prepare for Paper 3 in the Summer and is a vital part of the success that we have enjoyed in the past. A report and some pictures to follow in the next edition of Geography news.

40 Geographers from Year 10 and 11 set off for Iceland on Thursday 3^rd April. This is the second time the department has run this trip, and if the last edition in 2023 is anything to go by this should be a fantastic opportunity to experience some incredible natural sights and phenomena. A special edition of Geography news will follow after Easter to share the experience and the images of the trip.

Mr Bowles, Curriculum Leader for Geography