At the moment, subsequent year 7 cohorts have arrived with little knowledge of ever studying Geography and if they have, they have all started with the idea that History is the best option of the Humanities. This annoyed me. Fair enough, telling a talented pupil in year 6 to read about a historical event as an extension activity is easier than telling them to go explore a food web in the school grounds but it does meant that some younger pupils see Geographical extension as basically reading a map!
To counter this and subtlety perpetuate traditional notions of Geographers, I have set up a competition on my door.
One A2 piece of card (free from reprographics), a roll of sticky name tags (free from reprographics), a roll of masking tape(3 for £1 in poundland)and as many inflatable globes(5 for £2 from Amazon) as you can find!
Each week ( or until someone gets it right), I create the outline of a country in masking tape on the door, the first person to guess it correctly wins an inflatable globe ( these have superseded badges as the must-have geographical item this year).
Person who got it, their form and the country go on the sticky labels and stuck to the door for the duration of the next country.
4 weeks in, 3 different year groups have won, teachers are getting involved in the game and people are actively spending more time in the Geography department. Most importantly of all, it is encouraging year 7 pupils to think about Geography and look at where places are in the world!