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The Geography Quality Marks

The Geography Quality Marks

20 October 2022

Read time: 3mins

‘Many schools describe the Geography Quality Marks process as ‘transformational’ with significant impacts on both school geography and on subject leaders themselves.’

Rebecca Kitchen

Introducing the Geography Quality Marks

Since their launch over 15 years ago, the Geography Quality Marks have rewarded over 1,500 schools who have reflected on and progressed geography leadership, curriculum development and teaching and learning. I’ve been fortunate to have engaged from both sides of the fence.

As a secondary head of department I worked with my team to go through the process three times and more recently, as Head of Professional Development at the GA, I have had the privilege of leading the award and seeing some of the fantastic work going on in schools both in the UK and internationally.

Working with my team in school, the chance to be recognised by our subject association as a beacon of quality geography inspired and motivated me to go for the award in the first place. However, as we engaged with the process of collecting evidence against key quality indicators and writing a reflective commentary to tell the moderators the story of what we did and why we did it like that, I realised that the benefits of the Geography Quality Mark ran much deeper. It gave us a common purpose, it encouraged collaboration, it supported us to think critically about our curriculum, and the experience of geography that our students had was significantly better and richer for it.

This is a theme that comes across consistently and strongly in the feedback that we receive. Many schools describe the process as ‘transformational’ with significant impacts on both school geography and on subject leaders themselves.

Benefits of the Primary Geography Quality Marks

For example, those engaging with the Primary Geography Quality Mark as part of the 2022 cohort identified the following impacts on school geography:

Raised the profile of geography and allowed recognition, showcasing and celebration
Improved systems of professional development
Strengthened curriculum planning and empowered curriculum review
Created a focus on developing areas of weakness and highlighted development plan priorities
Increased the explicit geographical content
Raised awareness and understanding of broader geographical issues
Improved engagement and enjoyment
Improved resourcing
Increased staff subject knowledge
Triggered increased depth of planning and assessment
Invigorated staff to engage in whole school initiatives
Improved coverage and raised expectations
Stimulated more memorable teaching
Drove a change in perception of what geography is
Increased the confidence of teachers.

Benefits of the Secondary Geography Quality Marks

While the impacts for those engaging with the Secondary Geography Quality Mark were similar, and included:

Increased and effective departmental collaboration and dissemination
Robust and subject-specific process of self-evaluation
Consistent student enjoyment of and motivation in geography usually accompanied by increased uptake at GCSE and A level
‘Shone a light on the important stuff’ and stimulated structured improvement in specific and prioritised areas
More account taken of student experiences in curriculum design
Increased engagement with SLT around outdoor learning experiences and fieldwork in particular
Increased confidence in developing a strong narrative around curriculum choices
Made the department accountable in tackling difficult areas they had previously avoided e.g. GIS
Increased understanding of what high-quality geography looks like
Identification of gaps in knowledge and coverage as a result of the pandemic
Increased opportunities and time given for curriculum discussion and reflection
Encouraged an explicit commitment to improve geography curriculum and wider offer
Made the department more cohesive
Increased connection with wider formal and informal geography networks, including the Royal Geographical Society with IBG and the Geographical Association.

I’d therefore encourage every primary school and secondary geography department to really consider engaging with the GA’s Geography Quality Mark. It doesn’t matter what your context or your starting point – many of the most successful submissions are from those schools who have really been on a journey of development, and of course, it’s fantastic subject-specific professional development for your whole department too.