School Geography and Professional Ownership

With the curriculum and assessment review’s recommendations now published, we

are still more than 12 months away from a new curriculum.

Whilst this may seem frustrating, it does give schools a rare breathing space and

offers teachers an invaluable opportunity to use their professional ownership to tailor

what they want their pupils to learn.

In this blog, we look at what professional ownership and school geography mean, to

help schools use this moment to reflect, plan and build something that fits their

community, instead of waiting solely for external guidance to dictate their direction.

What Is Professional Ownership?

Professional ownership is the idea that staff have both the confidence and the

permission to shape the curriculum to best serve their pupils. Whilst delivering the

National Curriculum, teachers also contribute to a curriculum they believe in.

Professional ownership includes four key elements:

1. Accountability:

   Taking responsibility for decisions about the curriculum and the results they want

   for their children.

   
   

2. Initiative:

   Proactively identifying problems, whilst offering solutions to shortfalls of the past.

   
   

3. Commitment to Excellence:

   Seeking growth, improving skills and better outcomes for the children.

   
   

4. Pride:

   Designing a quality curriculum that all children can access.

   
   

In essence, professional ownership helps geography teachers feel their subject is

relevant, achievable and rooted in the school community and its local environment. It

creates a shared understanding of why the subject matters and what pupils should

gain from it.

What Is School Geography?

School Geography is geography designed around your setting, your locality and the

lived experience of your pupils. A subset of geography, which studies the Earth, its

features, environments and peoples, begins with what children can see, explore and

question in their everyday environment, helping them connect what they learn to the

world around them.

The main areas of school geography are:

1. Physical Geography – natural features and processes in the vicinity of the

school:

◦ Landforms (mountains, rivers, valleys, beaches)

◦ Climate and weather

◦ Natural disasters (floods, storms, seismic activity, heatwaves, droughts)

◦ Ecosystems and biomes (farmland, forests, moorlands, wetlands, salt

marshes)

2. Human Geography – how people interact with the environment and with each

other, including:

◦ Population and migration in the area

◦ Urbanisation- how where we are is adapting and changing

◦ Culture and language

◦ Economic activities (agriculture, industry, trade, recreation, tourism, retail)

3. Environmental Geography – how humans impact the environment in the area,

such as:

◦ Deforestation

◦ Pollution

◦ Climate change

◦ Sustainable development

4. Fieldwork Skills – simple, age-appropriate investigations that encourage

curiosity and independent thinking.

◦ Key Stage 1

◦ Key Stage 2

How to Move Forward

To move forward with school geography, we would recommend these first steps as

follows:

• Evaluate your locality and what makes it special

• Review and refine long-term plans

• Strengthen progression across year groups

• Develop clear, manageable documentation

• Support teachers who may feel less confident in geography

By working through each area systematically, you’ll create a curriculum that is

coherent, meaningful and achievable.

Support from B&C Educational

Not sure you have the capacity or knowledge to do the above effectively? B&C

Educational are always at hand to assist and can come into help at any point of the

process. With over 20 years of experience in primary geography teaching, we can

help you shape your entire curriculum, deliver content to fill recognised gaps or

review what you have to ensure progression.

We’re hoping this pause for thought before the new National Curriculum comes into

being, will help reinvigorate geography in schools so that more schools benefit from

a geography curriculum that actually engages pupils, develops the necessary skills

and gives their children a rich understanding of the world around and beyond them.

We’d love to talk to you about your plans for your geography curriculum. If you’re

enthused about the opportunity too, please call us to see how we can help. Call us

on 079663 79621 or email b-cltd@hotmail.co.uk.