Measures to revitalise geography in schools

Schools Minister, Jim Knight, announced a package of measures designed to revitalise geography in schools and sit alongside a new more flexible curriculum. The move is designed to reverse the declining numbers of students taking the subject.

Knight said he would extend the Action Plan for Geography – which was launched by Lord Adonis in March 2006 to enhance the teaching and learning of geography in primary and secondary schools – with a £1.8 million investment over the next three years. He also announced that the Royal Geographical Society and the Geographical Association had won the contract to deliver the next phase of the Plan.

Knight paid tribute to the work already achieved by the Royal Geographical Society and the Geographical Association in the first phase of the Action Plan. The second phase of the plan will embed and develop the successes so far.

Teachers will be provided with interactive resources to bring to life “hard to teach” topics like fieldwork, and subjects such as climate change, diversity and social cohesion.

Major stands of the second phase of the Action Plan will include:

continued development and enhancement of the Geography Teaching Today website through targeted new resources, tutorials and CPD modules
local networks of support for primary and secondary teachers will be developed in areas with no existing networking opportunities
expansion of the Geography Ambassadors programme to cover the whole country by 2011
continued development and expansion of the two professional recognition schemes – Chartered Geographer Teacher status and the Geography Quality Mark.

The new Key Stage 3 geography curriculum will start from September 2008. It will offer teachers greater freedom to teach topical, contemporary and relevant issues like climate change and globalisation to engage pupils and encourage them to continue studying geography at GCSE and beyond.

Teachers will have more flexibility to teach issues relevant to young people’s lives and make links with other curriculum subjects. However, pupils will continue to learn about the location of places and environments as well as being taught to use atlases, globes and maps to help them develop their geographical skills.

Jim Knight said:

“Geography is a passion of mine, which is why I want to see a seismic shift to reverse the declining numbers studying the subject…Geography is absolutely crucial to all our futures – from global issues like climate change to local issues like planning – geography is at the core.”

Measures to revitalise geography in schools

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