Thursday morning saw our final virtual Primary Geography Subject Leader Network (PGSLN) meeting of this academic year, which had a focus on quality assurance (QA). Presenting alongside myself was Mark Enser, former National Lead for Geography for Ofsted as well as an HMI and now offering independent support to schools. We were joined by representatives from over 30 schools across England, some familiar faces plus a few newbies, with others accessing the recording at a later date due to staff sickness, lack of cover, etc. Earlier this week, I also delivered an in situ version of today’s session in conjunction with Sandra Parker from GLOSSI, Gloucestershire County Council’s School Improvement team, and Sandy Hayes, Associate Advisor and former Senior HMI, where I engaged with a further 36 schools, so it has been a very busy couple of days! Whilst we were waiting for all to log into the Zoom meeting, I posed a question to delegates via the chat feed to inject some positively from the start: ‘What has been your greatest achievement during Term 5?‘. They were many contributions added to the chat feed at this point, some of which can be viewed below; well done all!
My next book is going to the printers! (Mark Enser)
Leading a residential trip to Malham. Lots of great fieldwork opportunities at Malham Cove, Gordale Scar and Janet’s Foss!
Getting through SATs!
Taking over geography as Subject Leader – only been in charge of geography for 4 days following the previous Subject Leader being off long-term!
Enjoying fieldwork with the students; engaging students with weather and getting a new job where I will be required to teach Key Stage 2 geography, which is a first for me.
Year 5 virtual trip to the Amazon. Year 6 virtual trip to the Arctic and hearing from a real-life explorer. Both were really good sessions and the children got a lot out of them.
Fieldwork organised! Off to Lyme Regis in June with Year 2; a river trip to the River Wey with Year 3; Year 6 are going to Bristol for the week in June, looking at the development of trade around the harbour/docks.
We went on a local walk yesterday with Year 6 children and we are off to Caldecotte Lake for our residential.
After formally introducing and welcoming everyone, I shared the aims and agenda for the morning.
Then, it was time for the usual ‘educational round-up‘. I took a slightly different stance today in order to reduce the number of slides within my overall presentation and, hopefully, make the content more accessible. I concentrated on Ofsted updates, as well as items shared by the leading subject associations, namely the Geographical Association (GA) and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS-IBG). These included the following:
Ofsted
‘Improving the way Ofsted inspects education’ (Ofsted webinar and podcast, March/April 2025) (https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/schoolsnet/noticeboard/schoolsnet-bulletin-board/improving-the-way-ofsted-inspects-education-ofsted-webinar-and-podcast-marchapril-2025/);
Geographical Association (GA)
‘Geography for all our futures’ (https://geography.org.uk/geography-for-all-our-futures/);
‘Subject on a page’;
FREE Earth Day 2025 resources (https://geography.org.uk/resources/earth-day-22-april/);
‘Guidance on progression and assessment in geography’ (https://portal.geography.org.uk/shop/view/P9781899085980);
Online teaching resources (https://geography.org.uk/online-teaching-resources/);
GeogLive! 26 (https://t.co/MTM3ueOR1Q);
Curriculum and Assessment Review: Interim Report (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/curriculum-and-assessment-review-interim-report) and the Geographical Association (GA) response to it (https://geography.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Curriculum-and-Assessment-Review-March-2025.pdf);
‘Geography in the News’ (https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/c15v3707d10o);
The GA Blog (https://ga-blog.org/);
GeogPod (https://geogpod.podbean.com/e/episode-90-robert-swan-and-jenny-cooke-%e2%80%93-save-antarctica/; https://geogpod.podbean.com/e/shared-primary-experiences/; https://geogpod.podbean.com/e/episode-86-jess-hill-%e2%80%93-championing-primary-geography-and-embracing-change/);
GlosGeog
Royal Geographical Society (RGS-IBG)
Award-winning resources (https://www.rgs.org/schools/resources-for-schools);
Ideas and support for fieldwork in your school grounds and local area (https://www.rgs.org/schools/resources-for-schools?filter=key-stage-two-6355&filter=fieldwork-0599&searchTerm=&utm_campaign=c7da4116e8-ptne_members_01_05_2025&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Members&utm_term=0_5beda424ab-c7da4116e8-191017484 );
Events (https://www.rgs.org/schools/school-student-events; https://www.rgs.org/schools/teacher-events);
Recorded talks and lectures (https://www.rgs.org/events/talks-on-demand);
Young Geographer of the Year competition (https://www.rgs.org/schools/competitions/young-geographer-of-the-year/2025-competition ).
I introduced delegates to my Substack e-newsletter, which provides a weekly/fortnightly insight into developments within the realm of education (https://substack.com/@eduemma). It is FREE to subscribe to at present and the feedback from subscribers has been very positive to date, e.g.
Thanks Emma. These are really helpful.
Thank you so much Emma, this is really useful. Thank you so much for sharing.
Fantastic! So interesting and useful – thank you for the mention!
I am loving your educational round ups – they are really useful to generate ideas and provide inspiration.
I went through this week’s edition and signposted attendees to previous ones; I suggested that they went back through the last couple or so to view my recent recommendations of websites, resources, books, podcasts, apps, TV programmes/movie clips, as well as CPD events, competitions and opportunities for pupils. Many realised what they were missing out on in-between meetings and decided to subscribe immediately!
I paused for ten minutes to allow individuals to bookmark and explore websites and resources that were most relevant to them, their cohort and school at their leisure. I tried to ensure that there was something for everyone. Delegates could also ask any questions that they had by either unmuting themselves or popping a comment into the chat feed.
The main part of the meeting was divided into two sections; the first delivered by myself in order to share the key takeaways from the Geographical Association (GA) Annual Conference and Exhibition (April 2025) and the latter with input from Mark regarding quality assurance (QA). I played a short movie clip to give delegates a flavour of what the Geographical Association (GA) Annual Conference and Exhibition encompasses (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZg-UZXj28Q), before sharing links to lectures and session downloads (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdIpDkAzXTQ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUvI1ckHpGY; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtIS0yhcczA; https://www.youtube.com/live/n9uM7yT9zcM; https://geography.org.uk/events-cpd/ga-annual-conference-and-exhibition/). In addition, I directed teachers towards my reflective blog post (https://create2inspire.co.uk/2025/04/20/geographical-association-ga-annual-conference-and-exhibition-2025/ ); a rather special conference for me as I had been nominated by my peers from the wider geography community for the GA Geography Champion Award, which was presented on the first evening.
I delved into three sessions, namely:
‘Reading like a geographer: Improving geographical literacy‘ by Fiona Sheriff and Jema Kinsman;
‘Let’s connect: A curriculum jigsaw‘ by Jon Carnell;
‘GIS for everyone: Developing GIS across the geography curriculum‘ by Graeme Schofield.
Following a short comfort break, I handed over to Mark for an hour. He looked at quality assurance in primary geography, posing the overall question, ‘How do we know if there is a high quality of geography education?’. Firstly, Mark considered intent and questions, such as ‘Is your curriculum ambitious?‘; ‘Is your curriculum suitably broad?‘; ‘Is your curriculum well sequenced?‘. Implementation contemplated questions like ‘Is geography well taught?‘; ‘Is geography accessible?‘; ‘Is geography well assessed?‘. Finally, Mark focused on impact, drawing our attention to the five different types of impact; QA through lesson visits; QA through work scrutiny; QA through pupil voice and QA through discussions with teachers. He projected a suggested cycle of QA and ideas of where to start. It was interesting to hear first-hand from the author of geography’s latest subject report, ‘Getting our bearings‘ (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/subject-report-series-geography/getting-our-bearings-geography-subject-report), as well as about Mark’s experience as an HMI Inspector. Mark paused at the end to answer any questions that delegates had and respond to comments that had been posted in the meeting’s chat feed.
The meeting concluded with the usual time for reflection. Teachers were asked to complete an online evaluation form to identify the key takeaways and their next steps, as well as providing vital feedback for me (what they enjoyed the most; what they enjoyed the least; what items they would like included in our next meeting/s).
Some of their ‘concluding comments‘ (summing up the meeting in five words or a sentence or two) can be viewed below:
Informative.
Fantastic ideas and resources.
Lots to think about!
Informative; useful; helpful.
Informative and full of helpful information.
Useful and informative.
Inspiring and informative with lots of resources being signposted.
Very informative – lot of ideas.
Really sharpened the mind!
Informative and makes me realise just how far we have come as a school re the teaching and learning in geography.
Really useful. Lots of useful guidance from Mark. Thank you.
Inspiring; informative; educational; engaging; enlightening.
Inspiring range of resources and lots of exciting links to explore. Great advice from Mark Enser for someone looking to take over leading primary geography.
Another incredibly valuable session with a huge amount of information and guidance.
Up-to-date, informative and inspiring.
Brilliant; thought-provoking; informative; current; interesting.
Another great network as always! Very informative.
Informative and inspiring with lots of apps and websites to look into and try.
Relevant; helpful; thought-provoking; reflective; raising standards.
Thank you, Emma, it has been very informative!
We recently had Ofsted and a deep dive in geography. Lots of this would have been very useful for that!
Thank you for such an inspiring and informative session – I feel fired up to take on a primary geography planning role in September in a school that is waiting for an inspection!
Incredibly useful, thank you so much.
This has been really useful, thank you.
Fantastic, Emma. Thank you.
Thank you, Emma. Incredibly useful!
Great updates and always useful information. Thank you, Emma and Mark.
Thank you, really useful information.
Thanks, as always, Emma!
Thank you, very helpful!
Thank you so much!
Thank you, Emma and Mark – very useful and insightful! Lots to take back to school.
Thanks ever so much for today, Emma and Mark. Most informative. All best wishes.
Thanks so much for another super session, lots to think about and get going with!
Thank you, Emma and Mark.
Once again, it appears to have been a worthwhile way to spend a Thursday morning towards the end of a very short Term 5 for most. I look forward to hearing about, and seeing evidence of, your endeavours between now and our next virtual Primary Geography Subject Leader Network (PGSLN) meeting on Friday 26th September 2025. Further details will follow in early July.
Hope the remainder of this academic year is enjoyable and rewarding for all.