Curriculum and Assessment Review final report

The Curriculum and Assessment Review has published its final report and made the following recommendations for geography:

‘Geography recommendations. We recommend that the Government:

• Makes minor refinements to the Geography Programmes of Study and GCSE subject content to respond to the issues identified, including by:
  • Refining content to support progression better to further study, deepen children and young people’s understanding of key geographical concepts, make content more relevant and inclusive, and remove unnecessary repetition across topics.
  • Embedding disciplinary knowledge more explicitly at Key Stage 3, such as geographical enquiry, spatial reasoning, use of digital tools, human geography and use of evidence, to ensure all children and young people have access to high-quality geographical education.
  • Clarifying and reinforcing requirements for fieldwork to demonstrate its role more effectively in supporting content and the developing of disciplinary knowledge, ensuring changes remain proportionate and inclusive.
• Embeds climate change and sustainability more explicitly across different key stages, including across the physical geography, geographical applications and human geography sections of the curriculum, ensuring early, coherent and more detailed engagement with climate education. This should be done without risking curriculum overload.’

These recommendations reflect the key issues highlighted in the Geographical Association’s consultation submission and evidence shared by the GA is drawn on in the review’s final report.

The issues previously identified by the GA include the importance of fieldwork, geographical enquiry and use of geo-spatial data; the need to strengthen coverage of climate change and sustainability within geography; and how curriculum content should be reviewed – particularly at GCSE.

The GA thanks the 400+ colleagues who shared their views about the geography curriculum to inform our consultation response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review.

Full report available here: Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report – GOV.UK