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The importance of context in your Primary Geography Quality Mark application

The importance of context in your Primary Geography Quality Mark application

24 January 2025

Read time: 5mins

‘If you are considering applying for the PGQM, don’t forget to start your application by introducing us to your school community wherever that may be.’

Alan Parkinson

After over a decade of involvement, the start of the summer holiday means the arrival of my allocation of applications for the GA’s Primary Geography Quality Mark (PGQM).

Each year schools from around the country submit a portfolio of evidence into a digital tool called PebblePad. The digital files that make up this portfolio are the result of hours of effort from a team of people across each school. There are three levels of awards offered: Bronze, Silver and Gold, each of which require inputs from across the school and student body, as well as the wider community.

One important section in the application is called the Data Dashboard. Alongside a self-review and audit of the school against a checklist of the key PGQM indicators we use, there is a section called ‘Our School’. This section of the application, which we also ask to be illustrated and repeated at the front of the main application document includes the following information about each school:

name and type of school
numbers of teaching and support staff
number of children on roll
local authority / MAT name
% of SEND students
% of Pupil Premium students
the date and result of recent OFSTED/ISI/ESTYN inspections.

These all tell us something about the context of the school we are going to be taking a closer look at in our moderation, but there are also two other final questions which for me are perhaps the most interesting and are the ones I always look at first before I delve into the main application.

Please tell us in a few words about the geographical nature of your school site, grounds and immediate local environment.
Please tell us in a few words about the social, economic and cultural factors affecting your school and your pupils’ experiences.

From this year’s 80+ schools, we had the usual wide variety of contexts emerging in the responses to these questions: from the one form entry primary schools with fewer than one hundred pupils to the schools with over 500; from special schools, to ones serving a community with particular social disadvantages to ones which offer preparatory experiences for fee-paying schools.

Some of the variables in a school’s context we are usually told about include:

Geographical location: ranging from the bustle of London, the peace of the Lake District, or a seaside town with significant levels of deprivation.
Nature of the school site: rural/urban; surrounded with housing, or close to industry and busy roads; high up overlooking surrounding countryside, in a valley or by the sea with a beach for fieldwork.
Parental body: families claiming benefits, or double-income families – this can translate into greater support from ‘friends’/PTA type bodies which may subsidise or fund additional geographical activity or enable practical activities, and be prepared to come into school to offer advice as external experts and additional ‘voices’ in the classroom.
Relative age of the school buildings: some housed in portacabins which leak when it rains, or a purpose built new building with ground source heat pumps and a wind turbine to generate renewable energy which can also be a curriculum focus.
Campus size and type: two asphalt playgrounds and a MUGA (multi-use games area) a bus ride away, or extensive grounds with a lake and woodland and livestock kept on site as well as a kitchen garden where food is grown – these vary widely of course, and each has its potential advantages for use in geography lessons.
The nature of the student body: high EAL, high Pupil Premium or free school meals, use of food banks, young carers, migrants including refugees from Ukraine or Syria.
Opportunities for fieldwork: walking distance to a High Street, or ‘in the middle of nowhere’ and with no money to afford coach travel.
Significant local events: the closure of a major employer within the parental body, new headteacher, change of Multi-Academy Trust, fires or family tragedies.

Sometimes there are religious or cultural aspects that may influence the nature of the geography curriculum. This year, we had schools where the majority of Asian parents tended not to take their children too far within the UK, but would return to family thousands of miles away for important events – offering important cultural experiences. In others with predominantly white-British pupils there was the same issue of minimal travel meaning pupils, in the words of one school ‘have quite narrow views of the world.’

Some schools use this section as an opportunity to tell compelling stories of how this context has provided them with challenges to overcome, or an opportunity to be grasped. We are told about how they score on deprivation indicators, fast pupil turn over or issues with teacher retention. We also find different levels of engagement with local ITE providers, which can bring in fresh eyes and new ideas.

When I read this section, I’m looking for a recognition from the department that the context of a school matters. Many things can be included here and there is no suggestion of word limits. In some cases the application only includes a few bullet points and a swift pen portrait, in others we receive an emotional account of a real ‘journey’ which has drawn in the whole school or been the conclusion of one person’s dream.

The context is also something unique to each school. Every application is submitted without the knowledge of who else might be submitting and what their context might be. The context will never lead us to pre-determine the eventual outcome of an application. This is always done following at least two rounds of moderation after an initial in depth assessment, as well as robust discussions at online meetings.

The PGQM is not judged by comparison between entries, but by how each school meets the criteria, and the evidence that they have provided to be able to do that. In this respect, context is not a factor in determining success, but it is the overture to the larger piece of work.

If you are considering applying for the PGQM, don’t forget to start your application by introducing us to your school community wherever that may be, whether large or small. Set the scene for what is to come, and good luck!

Written by Alan Parkinson, Head of Geography, King’s Ely Prep Vice President: Education – Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). Formerly GA Secondary Curriculum Leader 2008-11.