All about us  . . . 

Welcome to the Slemish College Geography Department.  Slemish College is an Integrated Secondary School located in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. The department caters for a wide age range from  11 – 18,  and prepares courses for students of all abilities.  In addition to the Northern Ireland Curriculum requirements to teach Geography to all Key Stage 3 students, we currently have three GCSE Geography classes,  an AS Level Geography and a A2 Geography class and a Travel and Tourism class in Year 13 and Year 14. 

In 2008 Geography was included within the school's designation as a Specialist School for Humanities. In relation to this the ETI (Inspectorate) came out for a few days observation across the department. The inspection report (which can be accessed here) noted the following strengths:

The strengths of the provision for geography also include:
• the high standards attained by the pupils in public examinations;
• the quality of teaching which ranged from very good to outstanding in the lessons observed;
• the use of a wide range of learning and teaching approaches, including the creative use of digital and web-based resources to develop the pupils’ thinking skills and support them in their learning;
• the excellent working relationships between the teachers and the pupils, and the motivation and enjoyment of the pupils in their learning;
• the opportunities for investigative fieldwork at KS3 to develop a range of geographical and cross-curricular skills, and the imaginative approaches used to promote environmental and global awareness throughout the school; and
• the inspirational leadership of the head of department and the dedication of all the teachers in promoting and sharing a culture of innovation and self-evaluation.

There are 3 full time teachers in the department and 1 part time/ temporary teacher

Mr T Manson (Head of Faculty, Environment and Society subjects; ICT Strategy Leader and Exams Officer)

Mr M Bennett (Head of Geography, School Leader)

Mrs G Johnston (Asst Exams Officer)

From Sept 2009 we have been joined by Miss G Cullen

Slemish College opened in 1996 and Ms M Corcoran taught both History and Geography.  In September 1997, T Manson joined the school to set up Geography within the College.  In 1999, M Bennett joined the department.  By 2002 there was an increased need for Geography in the school and G Adams started her teaching career in Slemish in September 2003.  In 2005 Mr Manson became Head of Faculty and Mr Bennett has been Head of Geography from 2005 to the present.

AWARDS

Mr Manson was Specially Commended as NI teacher of the Year, 2002  

Mr Bennett won NI Teacher of the Year, 2005.  

Specialist Humanities department 2008 -