About the sessions

The focus of the GA’s Subject Leader Development Programme is on the department as an evolving ecosystem. 

Each session is structured as a practical workspace: it starts by sharing the prior session’s output, shifts to systems theory and geographical practice, and concludes with a concrete outcome that feeds forward into subsequent sessions and the action research. The EEF implementation framework is central. 

The crux is a shift away from managerial thinking (ticking compliance boxes, checking folders, data entry, etc) with actual subject leadership (shaping culture, refining expectations, and building deep conceptual coherence within the curriculum). 

For example, if students are struggling with physical geography 6-markers at GCSE, it isn’t just a ‘revision problem’ but more likely a systemic issue linked to KS3 curriculum sequencing, literacy instruction, and assessment issues. Rather than a Subject Leader ‘firefighting’ in real-time, these sessions aim to help take a step back to investigate how the system can be changed to effect different outcomes.