July 2, 2015
Secondary students at St John’s Lutheran School in Kingaroy have excelled in the 2015 Australian Geography Competition.
Year 7, 8 and 9 Geography classes have incorporated the competition into their class work this year.
The Australian Geography Competition tests students’ skills and knowledge against students from all around Australia and is run each year.
Secondary Geography teacher Jodie Springhall has received the results says she is very pleased with how the students have performed.
“We have a number of students at our school who performed to a very high level in this competition this year with one student gaining a high distinction, (there were also) four distinctions and eight credits,” Mrs Springhall said.
“Over 76,000 students from 770 schools across Australia entered the Australian Geography Competition so the results give us an external benchmark as to how our students are going in certain aspects of geography.”
Competition co-ordinator Bernard Fitzpatrick said the competition played a role in promoting geography to students and also to the wider school community.
“Geography is an important subject which develops a student’s understanding of the spatial and temporal relationships of people and place. It helps students appreciate the complex nature of local, regional and global social, economic and environmental interactions,” he said.
The competition is a joint initiative of the Australian Geography Teachers’ Association and the Royal Geographical Society of Queensland and is sponsored by the University of Queensland.
“It was great to see so many of the secondary students at St John’s from Year 7 to 9 achieve so well. It is going to be an annual event in the first term for our students and I am sure they will look forward to participating each year as they expand their knowledge of their local and global communities,” Mrs Springhall said.
