Mr Stefan Apter | Head of Humanities

Joining DBS

Mr Stefan Apter expressed his feelings that upon joining DBS, he was taken aback by the maturity, friendliness and hard-working attitude of all the students and staff. From day one, he has been made to feel very welcome within the school and Thailand. It is hard to find a school with facilities as fantastic as DBS that also has dedicated, hard-working and passionate teachers in their respective fields. This, in combination with the amazing students here, has created an atmosphere like no other.

My passion for Geography is built upon pillars.

“My passion for geography started in school. I had a very eccentric and passionate geography teacher who told us all about his travels around the world whilst linking them to our exams and the skills we needed. Later on, in college and university, I was allowed to delve deeper into Geography and understand more about how much the subject links to daily life and the challenges the world is facing today. From a young age, I always thought I would be a teacher. I liked to come up with games for myself and my friends to play. I was always the organised friend for day trips and loved learning new information. This, along with my love of Geography, inspired me to become a full-time teacher and try to pass on the passion my Geography teacher gave me. Since then, I have completed my teacher training and travelled as much as I could whilst learning about new cultures and societies and constantly trying to increase my cultural capital and be a better person.”

He mentioned that Barack Obama had summarised his view of geography when he said, “The study of geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It’s about understanding the complexity of our world and appreciating the diversity of cultures that exist across continents. And in the end, it’s about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.” He resonates with this point of view and has always believed that there are key pillars to truly enjoying, understanding and using Geography in later life to become a future global leader. 

Geography gives students the ability to develop interpretations of spaces & places around them and promote tolerance and respect in a diverse world, enabling them to develop deeper knowledge, wider understanding and geographical skills to meet the challenges and take an active role in a dynamic and ever-changing future.

My vision for Geography at DBS.
His idea behind the curriculum for Geography is to allow students, whether they stop studying in year 9 or year 13, to come away with the fundamental skills, cultural capital and knowledge that can be passed on through the subject. He believes geography should be an active subject, with students experiencing it firsthand as well as using technology to secure and stretch students’ understanding. Students will gain a better understanding of space and place. Space being the physical area and place being what that area means to people. Interrelationships are the connections between environments that form a system, such as humans and the natural world. Sustainability and the responsibility that students have in protecting the environment where many of our generations have failed. Then, ultimately, to be a future global leader, they must take action to make a change in the world, either through business, the arts, organisations or just how they interact with the world. All of these pillars will be built upon the core skills that students will use in later work life: Literacy, Enquiry, Geographical skills and understanding of interactions and processes.