The rationale, scope and sequencing of schemes of work

CPD

15 January 2024

Read time: 4mins

‘The GA has a range of useful resources for helping you consider how to best sequence your schemes of work.’

Fiona Sheriff

One of the most challenging decisions made when planning a geography curriculum is how we arrange schemes of work to form a cohesive sequence that is not only ambitious, but builds knowledge across each topic whilst matching the scope and ambition of the National Curriculum.

The recent Ofsted subject report states that “The curriculum in some schools did not match the scope and ambition of the national curriculum. Most often this was because the aims of the national curriculum had been overlooked…” this was the case in both primary and secondary schools, particularly where there was limited geography curriculum time.

Whilst sequencing was seen to be a strength within individual topics, it “was rare for pupils to build on knowledge from previous topics and to use what they had learned in what they were studying next”. Sequencing is complex, and in geography there is no ‘right answer’ for how a curriculum should be sequenced.

But there are ideas we could consider to ensure students receive a rich, ambitious curriculum that enables them to build upon their knowledge so that they can develop their synoptic understanding of geography.

The report states that “Most schools took a combination of thematic and regional approaches to sequencing the curriculum”, however “building knowledge over time was rare”. Thematic and regional approaches to curriculum planning are the most common and are often the most straightforward to plan, but there are other approaches to be considered.

Sequencing a geography curriculum around concepts

The GA’s “A framework for the school geography curriculum” (Rawlings et al, 2023) considers four geographical concepts that should run through our curricula: Place, Space, Earth Processes and Environment. Sequencing a curriculum around these concepts to help build knowledge over time is one approach that could be taken to sequence a curriculum providing sufficient scope and ambition.

Gardner (2021) and Lambert (2010) refer to these concepts as the ‘grammar’ of geography, the big ideas onto which everything else is organised. For example, investigating their local place at KS1 through to how places are changing at KS4 and KS5.

As well as the core organising concepts of Place, Space, Earth Processes and Environment, themes such as sustainability and biodiversity can also run through the curriculum and enable students to build upon their knowledge each year, allowing them to see the links and coherence between units.

For example, in EYFS or KS1 this could start with finding plants and insects on the school site to help them to understand the concept of biodiversity; in their next unit of work they could investigate biodiversity in a contrasting environment such as Antarctica – building upon their knowledge of biodiversity through common vocabulary while making predictions based on what they had learned previously.

The same approach can be taken at KS3, for example starting with a study of our own biome, followed by a unit on weather that links back to reasons for the type of climate we experience in the UK. Future units would build upon knowledge learned in those units — for example, a unit on Indonesia may contain lessons on climate and rainforests, which would build upon the knowledge learned in previous topics but also be scaled up in difficulty to help them move forward in their understanding of biodiversity.

Building on prior knowledge rather than repeating it

Careful sequencing of topics enables students to build on their prior knowledge without simply repeating the content. Whilst there may be retrieval practice around their prior knowledge, it is important that the same knowledge isn’t simply repeated in a different context.

Building upon their prior knowledge may include extending their vocabulary, increasing difficulty within a skill or applying their prior knowledge in a novel context to understand the similarities and differences between two locations or processes. You should also be able to provide clear rationale for the sequencing of those schemes. The rationale around your planning will become much clearer when there’s curriculum coherence.

Helpful resources

The GA has a range of useful resources for helping you consider how to best sequence your schemes of work. David Gardner’s book “Planning Your Coherent 11-16 Geography Curriculum” (2022) is an excellent source of inspiration when planning your curriculum sequence, containing a range of case studies depicting how schools have sequenced their curriculum alongside the rationale for their decisions.

Leading Primary Geography (Willy, 2019) contains a wealth of information to help you to plan a cohesive curriculum and ideas on integrating more geography into the curriculum, which could be especially important if curriculum time is limited.

Finally, as previously mentioned, the GA Framework explores concepts that could be weaved into a more cohesive curriculum sequence, one which meets the ambition and scope of the national curriculum but is also creative, engaging and inspiring for our students.

Gardner, David (2021) Planning your coherent 11-16 geography curriculum: a design toolkit, (Geographical Association).

Lambert, David. and Morgan, John. (2010) Teaching Geography 11–18: A conceptual approach. Maidenhead: the Open University. Rawling, Eleanor. (2022) ‘A framework for the school geography curriculum’ – Geographical Association – available to download as a PDF: https://geography.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/GA-Curriculum-Framework-2022-WEB-RES_final.pdf

The Getting our bearings series

The Getting our bearings blog series is a collection of posts which signpost GA support for some of the themes which were flagged in the recent Ofsted geography subject report and which have also come through strongly in our work with teachers.