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My journey from listening to GeogPod episode #86 and deciding to apply for PGQM

My journey from listening to GeogPod episode #86 and deciding to apply for PGQM

5 September 2025

Read time: 5mins

‘Listening to an episode of GeogPod on a summer holiday walk changed the direction of a whole academic year – in a very good way.’

Angela Mackenzie

I discovered the GA’s GeogPod during lockdown but became a more frequent listener last summer. As a full-time geography teacher at a prep school in Hertfordshire, my holidays, like all other teachers are precious.

With three teenagers and a husband who is also a teacher, the house can often feel full during the summer break. In addition to this, my eldest son had finished his A levels and we were all nervously awaiting his results, which would determine the next stage of his life – hopefully a place at university.

I am lucky enough to have on my doorstep on the Essex / Hertfordshire border a beautiful, undulating, arable landscape, laced with paths and trails. I run or walk daily in the summer holidays, and it was on a walk that I listened to episode #86 and made some decisions.

Everything Jess Hill talked about resonated with me

Working in a prep school as a secondary trained geography teacher is a fantastic opportunity to adapt secondary resources for upper key stage 2 pupils. They thrive on the academic rigour and higher-level content with suitable scaffolding. With the head of department, we have created an exciting, relevant and challenging curricula which I felt proud of.

Jess Hill in podcast #86 said she wanted to get her pupils at Alwoodley Primary school to learn ‘through the soles of their feet’ and I couldn’t agree with her more. She talked with such passion and pleasure about adapting the geography curriculum to the needs of the pupils and the staff who were teaching it. It was clear that she was extremely proud of the school’s Gold Hub status for the Primary Geography Quality Mark and I felt inspired to find out more about this prestigious award.

Where does a prep school belong in the award – are we primary or secondary?

I went onto the GA website Quality Marks page and it soon became clear to me that I would have a problem. Our prep school teaches pupils from year 3 to 8, moving to the senior school in year 9. The pre-prep teaches pupils from reception to year 2. Although we are all on the same site, we teach in our own ‘schools’.

The prep school where I teach straddles both primary and secondary, with KS1 being separate to us and KS3 spread between the prep and senior schools. We get around this by having termly meetings with the senior school and have successfully completed a ’spiralised curriculum’ for all three schools, a unique opportunity to create a pupils’ geography journey – beginning at the age of three and finishing with hopefully an A level in geography.

My head of department was incredibly supportive of my suggestion to pursue the Quality Mark, but it was ‘my’ job to make it happen. I registered in September and Julie Beattie, the GA Administrator confirmed that we should be applying for the Primary Geography Quality Mark (PGQM). We were an anomaly however as I requested if year 7 and 8 could be included in the process – not secondary.

I loved the response from Julie and the GA – saying how it would be interesting for the assessors to see the progression from KS2 to KS3 for our pupils and would give a unique dimension to our application.

CPD everywhere!

I took the time over a weekend in late September (after taking my eldest to university – yes, he did get in!) to familiarise myself with the award framework. It felt reassuringly familiar to me as it is built around the 2019 education framework and was based around self- evaluation and reflection.

The familiarity came from my route to QTS nearly 10 years ago, through the TES ‘Straight to teach’ programme. I loved being able to exemplify how I had achieved the many teaching standards and this felt the same. Yet the self-assessment quickly demonstrated ‘gaps’ or ‘improvements’ needed in some areas, which again I relished.

The PGQM is there to identify these – for future growth and development as a department. However, what I found most satisfying was the ability for the framework to tease out what we were doing brilliantly (in our opinion!) and give it a spotlight to shine in the evidence PowerPoint.

The GA also provided regular webinars to support the application. I loved the session on DigiMaps. We have used this brilliant resource in lessons for three years now, but Darren Bailey from the OS showed us all the features on there, which I immediately felt inspired to include in our ‘Prisoners of Geography’ unit with our year 8 pupils. I also shared this with our department

Year 8 pupil using Digimaps to make a GIS map detailing the physical features and determining if the country is a prisoner of its own geography. They used the various overlays and added photographs and labels.

©Crown copyright and database rights 2021, Geographical Association under licence to OS

Reflecting on the process

The end of June loomed, along with a hectic end of year timetable. Would I be able to pull the PGQM together in time?

This is where the rest of the department and the pre-prep (reception to year 2 ) came to help me. Evidence poured in, I was blown away with the quality of geography being delivered to our youngest pupils and also enjoyed knowing that we had done our best. I am writing this blog almost exactly one year from listening to Podcast #86 and we are delighted to discover that we were awarded a Gold PGQM this week!

To be honest, I didn’t mind what we achieved, as regardless of the colour of the award (bronze, silver or gold) I have started something which I know will continue. I have trawled the whole GA website in the last year, leading to getting the courage to write this blog.

I have started the process of applying to be a Chartered Geographer and will attend the GA Conference in Sheffield next year. I have always been a curious geographer, always looking for an exciting or unusual idea to turn into a lesson but the PGQM and the CPD that I enjoyed gave me a real purpose and renewed love for the art of teaching geography. So if you are looking for something to do next holiday, listen to a GeogPod – you never know where it may take you!

PS. I have just listened to #94 whilst on a walk with son number 2 who wants to study geography…