The context
We are teaching and leading learning in constantly changing times. There has been undoubtedly massive change at all levels in our subject – and as a result there have been times colleagues have felt overwhelmed by this constant shift. The pandemic has layered even more complexities and challenges upon us. We, as a geography learning community, need to create ‘subject space’ to support each other, share good practice and explore our wonderful subject together!
With this in mind we feel that the time is ripe for heads of department and interested geography teachers in the local region to begin to work with each other - sharing ideas, perspectives, challenges and dilemmas regarding the changing landscape of school geography.
The plan
Strand 1: GA lectures
We will continue with our fantastic series of lectures run in conjunction with expert colleagues from the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham. The focus of these lectures is outlined to the right hand side of this page and the programme is open to all partnership schools (see forthcoming lectures section for future events).
Strand 2 – ‘geography subject space’
The School of Education will host a series of meetings this year where we can begin to consider how to develop the school geography curriculum and possibly create more of a collective sense of what quality geography can look like in different schools.
Last year (pre-Covid) the Subject Advisory Group was starting to shape an exciting programme of work. From a school-based perspective key areas that colleagues in schools had identified as foci for subject space included:
- Deep dives – sharing experiences and prepping for the ‘new’ inspection framework
- KS3 SoW ‘swapshop’
- NEA support and good practice session
The SAG will review the ideas above, and reflect on the ‘need’ given the current context we face in schools. The aim is to provide an accessible, and free, support structure to support our classroom practice. The meetings will focus on the school subject and will be driven, in part, by what you want to discuss. Tutors will support the meetings in terms of organisation and also providing insights that they may have from their work in the geography education community, articles to read and discuss, policy context and issues that they may have encountered in their work. This strand is open to all schools within the University partnership.