Ning!

You have all heard of myspace, bebo and Facebook, well now become a member of ning! Ning is another 'social network' site that allows people to communicate through the internet. I have recently set up a 'ning' for the Geography department in our school.

It can be found at www.abblanchgeography.ning.com

As pupil safety in my number 1 priority on the internet, this social network is by invitation only membership, therefore allowing me to decide who can and cannot join. So far the 'ning' has mainly been aimed at sixth form students but I would like to roll it out across all years. I have collected some email addresses for Year 9 pupils and will hopefully move towards other years soon. In the meantime, if you would like to join the abblanchgeography ning then send me an email BARLOW@blanch.org.uk with your name on, I will then send an invitation to your email.

Take part in the Geography social network. Dare you miss out!



Visit abblanchgeography

Year 7 - Weather Games

Year 7, as you are working fantastically well through your current topic of weather, I have found a few websites that will help you to learn about weather, but hopefully witha bit of added fun as well! All of the websites below contain games that are based around your weather topic. Enjoy playing the games, and learn about the weather at the same time.

weatherwizkids website
BBC weather website games
web weather for kids
FEMA for kids - links weather with natural disasters

Year 7 - Housing Estate Designs

Here is a picture of the model housing estates produced by Year 7.

Year 7 - The Water Cycle (pictures)

Here are a couple of images of the water cycle posters recently produced by Year 7. Top marks for the 3D model in picture 2!!

Year 7 - Water Cycle Question

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Year 7 - Europe Physical Features

Video from the lesson today.

Listen to the song and write down the geographical words!

An excellent starter activity from our PGCE student Mr Wilkinson.

Year 7 - Woodford Halse

Year 7, you are now coming towards the end of your settlement unit of work. In the next 2 lessons you will be completing a 'levelled' decision making exercise (DME).

So what is a decision making exercise?

As you may have guessed by the title, it is an exercise where you have to make decisions! In this exercise you will have to decide the best location for building a new housing estate in the village of Woodford Halse.

During the 1st lesson you will look into the location of Woodford Halse and some history behind why the village has grown in the past.

Here are some notes from that 1st lesson.

• Woodford Halse is a small village in the south of England.
• It is located 15km north east of Banbury, 20km south west of Northampton, 10km south of Daventry and 15km north west of Milton Keynes.
• The M1 motorway runs to the east of the village, whilst the M40 runs to the west. Both motorways provide a direct road to London.
• There is a main railway station in Milton Keynes that provides a train service to London.
• Birmingham International Airport is to the north west.

• Woodford Halse lies to the east of the A361 main road that links Banbury to Daventry.
• The village is a rural location, surrounded by open fields and farmland.
• The River Cherwell flows through the village.
• Surrounding villages include; Eydon, Hinton, Preston Capes and Byfield

Woodford Halse contains the services that we would expect to find in a village. It has a church (see photo below), a Post Office, a public house and a carniferous woodland area located inbetween Woodford Halse and Hinton.

To the south of the village there is evidence of disused railway lines that are now used as footpaths (see photo below)






Maps courtesy of get-a-map prvided by the Ordnance Survey

Photographs courtesy of www.flickr.com