STANDING OUT
Building Outstanding
Geography Departments
A View From King Edward
VI Five Ways School
Things to think about #1….
Having a VISION
What exactly are you doing and why?
What philosophy or rationale informs
everything you do?
What is the point of you and your
Geography department?
What kind of geographer do you want your pupils
to be?
Things to think about #2….
The Importance of Geography
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What is Geography?
Why does it matter?
The distinctiveness of Geography
Do we need to be geographers and
teachers?
Outstanding geography brings the real world, with
all its excitement, complexity and challenges, into
the classroom. It also takes students and teachers
out of the classroom!
www.geography.org/uk
The Importance of Geography
Geography stimulates an interest in and a sense of
wonder about places and….
• helps young people make sense of a complex and
dynamically changing world
• explains where places are, how places and landscapes
are formed, how people and their environment interact,
and how a diverse range of economies, societies and
environments are interconnected ….
• builds on pupils’ own experiences to investigate all
scales, from the personal to the global.
• encourages questioning, investigation and critical
thinking about issues affecting the world and people’s
lives, now and in the future….
• inspires pupils to become global citizens by exploring
their own place in the world, their values and their
responsibilities to other people, to the environment and
to the sustainability of the planet.
Things to think about #3….
Your PUPILS and your PLACE
• The distinctiveness of Geography (again)
• The need to be pupil-centred
• Distinct social, economic, environmental
and political settings
• Available resources
• Plan for and recognise outstanding
performance in geography
Your geography
Your pupil
Things to think about #4….
OfSTED and SMT - ‘From good to outstanding’
• All students make satisfactory progress; most make
good progress.
• Most know what they are doing and why.
• Students behave well - little time is lost to behavioural
issues.
• The classroom is a friendly and safe place - relationships
are good.
• The teacher knows his/her subject and strategies for
teaching it well; the teaching methods used are
appropriate for the content.
• The teaching is well-matched to the learners' needs;
most are stretched by the teaching.
• The teacher encourages and praises frequently.
• Available resources (time, staff etc) are well used.
• Assessment is regular and supports progress - most
pupils know what they need to dohttp://archive.leadermagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=623
to improve.
Things to think about #4….
OfSTED and SMT - ‘From good to outstanding’
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All students are challenged and make good progress, especially those at
the ends of the ability range and those who lack confidence; some make
exceptional progress;
Enthusiasm and enjoyment pervade the classroom.
The teaching is exciting and interesting (for example, through use of
stimulating resources or other adults in the lesson), it may be inspired. All
the students are involved in the lesson and all contribute.
Teaching methods are very well matched to the content and to the
learners - some may be original or innovative
The teacher checks progress throughout the lesson; assessment is
regular and helpful.
Students evaluate their own and others' progress accurately and
constructively.
All students know how to improve as a result of regular and constructive
feedback; where appropriate this is linked to national criteria or examination
requirements.
The teacher develops students' basic and other cross-curricular skills
Students have easy access to, and make use of, additional resources
The classroom is a lively and interesting place
http://archive.leadermagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=623
Things to think about #5….
The Geography
What are you teaching and why?
• Get it right
• Make it current
• Update it
How are you teaching it?
• Challenge
• Pupil or teacher centred?
• Critical
Which country spends the highest
proportion of its income on education
– Lesotho, Botswana or Denmark?
Which country has the highest fertility
rate – Israel, Saudi Arabia or
Bangladesh?
Which country has the highest child
mortality rate?
Sri Lanka
Poland
Malaysia
Pakistan
Thailand
or
or
or
or
or
Turkey
South Korea
Russia
Vietnam
South Africa
Which country spends the highest proportion of its
income on education – Lesotho, Botswana or
Denmark?
Answer: Lesotho spent 13%,
Botswana 8.7%, and Denmark 8.3%
Which country has the highest fertility rate –
Israel, Saudi Arabia or Bangladesh?
Answer: Saudi Arabia – it has a rate of 3,
Israel’s is 2.6 and Bangladesh’s is 2.6
Q5: Which country has the highest child
mortality rate?
Answers:
Sri Lanka
Poland
Malaysia
Pakistan
Thailand
or
or
or
or
or
Turkey
South Korea
Russia
Vietnam
South Africa
The Wretched Dollar (up to $1 a day)
Territory size shows the proportion of all people living on
less than or equal to US$1 in purchasing power parity a day.
Development Increase
Territory size shows the proportion of worldwide human development
that occurred there between 1975 and 2002 (calculated by multiplying
human development index by population).
http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=175
Development Decrease
Afghanistan
the DRC,
Iraq
Somalia,
Timor-Leste,
Zambia,
Zimbabwe.
Territory size shows the proportion of worldwide human undevelopment that occurred there between 1975 and 2002 (calculated
as the fall in Human Development Index multiplied by population).
The HDI scores of 7 territories fell between 1975 and 2002
http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=176
Are we still talking about Kobe?
Outstanding resources
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Current
Web-based
Varied, visual, audio and kinaesthetic
ICT, graphs, data
Inside and outside classroom
Literature, film, imagery, newspapers
Visitors
Food and props
Things to think about #6….
The Geography Curriculum
KS3 – is up to you!
KS4 – choose an exam board, best-fit!
KS5 – choose an exam board, best-fit!
Uptake (results!) at KS4 and KS5 depends
on pupil experience of KS3
An ‘outstanding’ curriculum
or
A curriculum that inspires outstanding learning,
ensures progress and has the WOW factor
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Bespoke
Pupil-centred
Resourced, shared, ensures pupil parity
Matches KS3 guidance/exam specification
Plays to strengths
Write
a
Innovative technologies
curriculum
GIS
that suits
Fieldwork
YOU and
Enquiry
Use fieldwork and enquiry
your PUPILS
The Geography Curriculum
At KS3, the Key Concepts are..
•Place
•Space
•Scale
•Interdependence
•Physical and Human Processes
•Environmental Interaction and
Sustainable Development
•Cultural Understanding and Diversity
CURRICULUM
DESIGN
WHAT are we trying to achieve?
HOW do we organise learning?
HOW well are we achieving our aims?
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3 Planning With Concepts
A scheme of work on one page
KEY QUESTION
AIMS TO
UNDERSTAND
LEARNING ACTIVITIES
SKILLS
RESOURCES
What can
we find out
about
population?
Information
sources can be
used to begin
investigating a
topic and
establish
understanding
and familiarity.
Introductory lesson using the
website ‘six billion human beings’
to begin investigating the breadth
of the topic.
Present pupils with questions that
they must find the answers to by
searching the website. Design the
questions to ensure they search
the site.
Interrogating a
website
Locating and
selecting information
Six billion human beings website (use
Google search to find it)
Question sheet
Where do
people live?
Global
population
distribution is
uneven. Some
parts are very
crowded and
some are not.
There are
physical and
human reasons
for the uneven
distribution.
Some areas are
densely
populated and
some areas are
sparsely
populated.
Visit worldmapper site and select
and annotate maps to demonstrate
population features
Map selection and
interpretation
Identification and
description of
pattern
Photos in various texts and internet
World 2000 video ‘Population’ or
similar
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Support
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Join the Geographical Association
Join the RGS (continue to!)
Be a CGeog
Go to the GA conference
Use the APG opportunities (continue to!)
Enable others by supporting CPD
Write and update a departmental
handbook
SO…..
You have a shared vision and a clear understanding of the
meaning and power geography.
You understand your pupils and their geographical context.
You have designed an innovative, bespoke curriculum that
enables pupils to make great progress and involves GIS
and fieldwork and visitors.
Your lessons are hugely interesting – WOW - and your
resources are current and accurate
OUTSTANDING!
SO WHAT?
The big question is…
How do you know?
How do your SMT know?
How does OfSTED know?
How do your pupils (and parents) know?
PRACTICALITIES
ASSESSMENT, MONITORING, RECORD-KEEPING, EVIDENCE, MEETINGS
CPD, SYSTEMS…. IDEAS TO CONSIDER