I moved to my current school in September 2015 as an new incoming Head of Department. In a school with a new Headmaster, a new Deputy Head (Academic) for the first time, and – surprisingly – the creation of the first “Heads of Department” relative to a looser grouping of Faculties – there was a significant cultural environment for change. 

The appetite for this was particularly strong in my own Department. With an incredibly experienced teacher alongside me, I was effectively pushing at an open door for change. The Department had been led by a strong teacher before retirement, who had bought a series of textbooks some years before, and continued to work through them with little revision or reflection of the curriculum. The Department teachers were hugely experienced and enthusiastic, and I think it collectively took us a couple of hours from our first meeting, to the point where we said “let’s just start again, shall we?”. Ripping up the entire KS3 curriculum was bold, but it felt like it needed to be done. 

We were also at a unique moment in the educational landscape, with the advent of reform in GCSE and A Level specifications ensuring that the whole platform was changing for everyone. We were therefore able to make free choice of what we wanted the whole seven year curriculum and journey to look like – and as an independent school, we had completely free choice of the “best Geography” without any constrictions on type or nature of exam entries and boards that may have constrained some of the state-funded schools. We were free to choose what and how we wanted to deliver. 

Key Principles and Choices:

To begin, we wanted our Geography to be accessible, dynamic and engaging. We sat down and created our Department vision at about the same time as we started with the blank curriculum page, and a number of our key statements hold really true for how we thought about the subject. We created six “strands” to our vision – that talk about our subject, our approach, and our people. 

One of the teachers had done her MA in Education at the IOE, involving a lot of work on curriculum design. She and I had some key ideas that we wanted to ensure formed part of our subject and curriculum approach.

We wanted to have major ‘themes’ in our work. Our intention was to focus on three – the human world, the physical world, and a synoptic challenge/interaction theme. 

Our big decisions were to start at the end – and pick our A Level and GCSE course options. With free choice, we selected the Edexcel IGCSE Geography course, and the Cambridge International A Level. With both, we were impressed by the extensive academic quality of the specification and the confidence we had in the stability of the course. I had taught the A*-E variant of the IGCSE before at my previous school, and examined the course. The proposed change for the 9-1 spec reflected a number of welcome changes that we had been talking to the exam board about for some time – splitting the colossal paper from the 3h45m length, and clearly delineating some of the options for the physical and human units all offered a really positive outlook. 

For A Level, the NEA loomed large, but the bigger concern was really about the stability and confidence we had in some of the proposals from the more established boards. They felt a little artificial in places, and we couldn’t see the logic to how they had constructed segments. However, I had been at a conference with Peter Price, Head of Geography at Charterhouse, who had presented his reflections on the Cambridge International Geography course (9696). He was eloquent and passionate about his desire to see “good Geography” done superbly, and I think all of us in the room were blown away by the quality of the Geography that the course offered. I know many HoDs were swayed that day, and while some were unable to choose the A level for academic and statutory reasons, a huge number moved to Cambridge en masse – pretty much on the strength of the academic thinking he represented. As a Department, we loved the quality of the resources, the stability and academic rigor of the course, and the enormous bank of resources – particularly the vast numbers of past papers reflecting two exam cycles across three different time zones!

We made some tentative thoughts about what units we’d like to teach, and created a set of parameters of what we’d like to do for Key Stage 3. Within these confines, we started with a blank sheet of paper, and sketched out a curriculum. 

Key Stage 3 – Year 7-9

For Key Stage 3, we wanted to ground our students in core principles and key content for their Geography journey. We operate a fortnightly timetable, and have one hour per week for Y7 and 9, and three per fortnight for Y8. 

We chose to start Year 7 with a globalisation topic – deliberately big and bold, to encourage students to think about the world and their place in it. We wanted them fired up, passionate and excited to know more about how they connected – and to develop that theme. In the second half term, we’d do map skills, and then another skills/data focused unit to build on that in the first half of the Spring term, looking at weather and climate of the UK. With our students able to make some useful data based work, we embarked on a project based activity. Inspired by Ewan McGregor’s documentary, we ask our students to pick a line of longitude, and follow it from north to south – documenting and exploring the changes in countries along the way. We have had some incredible work done on this over the years since we initiated it – it’s a favourite for students and parent questions on Open Days! Finally, we finished with a unit on local area fieldwork – including a contrasting area fieldtrip to the South Coast. 

For Year 8, we originally went bold – and focused on the conflict topic first. This was a unit we designed ourselves – looking at conflict over water in the Middle East, and conflict over runway development at Heathrow – and exploring contentious human issues to try and unpick “no right answer” topics. Students loved it, but in recent years, we’ve moved this on a little. We felt we were missing a bit chunk of UK physical geography, and our “Geomorphology” unit covers a multitude of big physical ideas – geological time, the rock cycle, weathering processes, and then how rivers or ice shape the land. Ultimately, we ask students to evaluate what they think are the biggest influences on the landscape of the UK. Our conflict unit has moved to the Spring Term – the better relationships with classes are now established to allow a more discursive topic, but we have changed the conflicts we focus on. The complexity of war, Afghanistan, Syria, refugees – all made the “water in the River Jordan” feel a bit marginal, and we also felt that the critical climate emergency was more important to teach for our students. We may come back to the Middle East at some stage, but we kept the local debate at Heathrow – ensuring students recognised how local debates and international ones were connected. Our final unit for Yr8 looks at Threatened Ecosystems – and explores that human/physical interaction and tension theme in detail. 

For Year 9, we were mindful of the fact that it was potentially the last year that some students would do Geography, and we wanted big topics. We start with Population/Migration and issues of management – I thought that they’d be a little unconvinced, but for some reason, they really love population pyramids, and the satisfaction of seeing data and understanding it. We have timed our Tectonic Hazards course to line up with GCSE options choice windows, but to be fair, our students don’t need much persuading these days. Numbers are now the highest option in the school, and we have over 55% of the year opting for Geography in a totally free choice (we don’t do Progress 8 or restrict them to one humanity etc…). Finally, we finish with a development/inequality theme that is heavily influenced by Factfulness and the understanding of the Gapminder world created by Hans Rosling. Our Y9 work, standards and assessment are heavily tied to the standards we set at Yr10-11, and we don’t often see much “jump” in difficulty – the curriculum progression ensures they reach GCSE ready to be amazing. 

Key Stage Four: Edexcel IGCSE

Our Key Stage 4 course picks up where Y9 left off. While we don’t deliberately teach a GCSE unit, the majority of our Tectonic Hazards work covers a lot of the Hazardous Environments content. We start with that deliberately – partially to consolidate and confirm the importance of their Y9, partly to ensure they feel confident to begin with, and perhaps most unusually, because it does tend to be Tropical Revolving Storm season, and we can “see it live”. I’ve written elsewhere about my love for earth.nullschool.net – needless to say, my GCSE students quickly learn why I love it. 

We move on to Economic Activity, which includes fieldwork on questionnaires, reflecting on people’s energy understanding and use, before finishing Year 10 with Coasts. While we have ended up alternating between physical/human/physical themes, the coasts was placed there to take advantage of the best weather for fieldwork opportunities, and everything else has worked backwards around that!

In Year 11, we start with urban environments, which is enjoyed by students. In and around their mock exams, we finish that unit. In previous years, we’ve run day trips up to London Docklands and the Docklands museum, which have been excellent. Our final unit is a synoptic unit – designed by the board to be so – focusing on bringing it all together, and interactions between worlds. This reflects our journey in KS3 and key themes, and is a great way to finish the course. We are normally done by Feb half term, giving a term of revision together, effectively.  

This shows in our data – in 2015, we had 38 students, and 24% A*, 51% A*/A. By 2019, that was up to 48 students, and our results were at 48% A* (higher in 2018, but hey!), and 68% A*/A. Our students enjoy the course, do well, and many pick it for A Level – we’re normally at three sets in a year group of about 65 – indeed, we’ve just recorded our highest ever option numbers at over thirty students choosing A Level Geography. 

Key Stage 5: A Level Geography

For our A Level curriculum, students have 9 hours per fortnight of teaching in Year 12, and then ten per fortnight in Year 13. This is split between two teachers – our course splits up along traditional Physical/Human lines. The CAIE A Level is still offered internationally along the old AS/A2 model, and so there is clear division between Year 12 content and that in Year 13. While the topics appear to be traditional and divisive, the reality of top quality essays – and the superb Cambridge exam questions – means taht you have to be synoptic and integrative in teaching. Students simply need breadth and depth of explanations, and we have to cross the boundaries a lot more than the course first appears. 

We have a real mixture of students – as ever, Geography crosses the Arts/Science bridge, and our course strengths and choices often reflect that in our students. We find that our Y12 students struggle most with the Year 12 content in Physical Geography – could just be my teaching! – but it’s new and unfamiliar topic material that often challenges them, and the less data confident or science-minded tend to find Atmosphere & Weather a particular struggle. By contrast, the Y12 Human Geography course is familiar ground, and builds and develops some of their Y9/Y11 work. 

For Y13, while Arid Environments is a brand new topic, it’s loved by the students. Here, the balance is typically reversed for most – the Economics students fly on the Y13 Human content, but it’s quite challenging for most, while the Y13 Physical Geography content makes a lot of sense, and picks up on managing some hazards that students are familiar with. 

Although the lack of NEA is a potential concern, because it puts the pressure on the exams, we think our students thrive on the challenge. In 2016, our eight students took 46% A*/A, while by 2019, that had risen to 30% A*, and 54% A*/A. But I’m exceptionally proud of the numbers of students who go off to read Geography at university – and thrive – and we’ve supported joint honours candidates, and even our first Earth Scientist this year. 

Reflections and Reviews: What have we learned, and what would we change? 

Writing this has been a really interesting reflection for me – as I come to the end of nearly five years in the Department, and am able to look back at what we’ve done. I guess my first reflection is just how lucky I was to be in a particular circumstance – to have been in the right place, surrounded by people who really wanted to change, and were thoroughly supportive of our decisions and ambitions. I think having a Head who was a Geographer made explaining a lot of our vision much easier, and I’ve had incredible fortune to be so supported.

I’m also very fortunate to have had wonderful teams to work with, in particular R, whose curriculum design experience was incredible to have on hand when we started with that blank page in September. This has evolved – as staffing does – but we still hold true to the vision that the two of us sketched out way back when!

We’ve made changes, and adapted one or two units at a time, but the vast majority of this is now embedded firmly into the ethos of the Department, and the wider school environment. Working with UN accreditation was the stimulus for getting climate change formally on the curriculum as a discrete unit, for example, rather than part of the narrative of some of our synoptic units. 

I think the vision for Geography has resonated well with students and parents – we have flexibility to respond if something incredible happens, but we stick to our plans and curriculum, and ensure that we keep teaching wonderful Geography as much as possible. What do you think? Would love to hear your thoughts.

In lots of places, many people have written extensively and eloquently about the changing circumstances for remote teaching and learning for our students in this scenario. There is no doubt that as challenging as this is, we are, slowly, starting to get to grips with our new environment and the challenges we face as teachers and as educators, and are starting to do the best we can for our students in terms of their subject education. 

But one of the biggest challenges that remains is that of community. We know, as teachers, that schools are not just places where subjects are taught and learned – it’s about the shared experience. Whether that’s play time, football at break, or simply the social atmosphere of being with your friends, school is a difficult thing to replace. 

While many pastoral leaders are struggling to replicate and come to terms with those experience for our students, it has also been a challenge for all staff to cope in the same circumstances. We miss the camaraderie of the Department Office, the support and conversations of our leadership teams, and the conversations in the staff room that cross ages, experiences, subjects, interests… what can we do to help the mental health and wellbeing of our staff?

Using existing structures to support staff

Many of us have access to online structures now which we’re using to deliver and record lessons for our students. One of the things that we have done is to employ some of these for staff wellbeing and morale, too. Using Microsoft Teams, a visualiser, and a bit of planning, we’ve managed to replicate our staff room habit of tackling the crossword every now and then, and create a virtual Crossword Club. 

There are days when it’s just a handful of people, and the conversations can become a little more personal – but we’ve had times with eight or nine people chipping in to solve it – and all it’s taken is a book of Jumbo Crosswords and the same structures that we’re using to support our students. 

Our Crossword Club goes across all components of the staffroom: and the simple act of getting some tea, turning on the microphones and working through the thing together encourages conversation, laughter and a feeling of lightness. For some of our staff, particularly those who are parents to small children, it’s a bit of a challenge, but offers the potential for adult conversation and human interaction with no pressure – if the kids come in, then it’s fun for us all! We talk about the crossword, but also everything else – just like you would normally. These have been some of the best memories of my colleagues during this time away. 

Being part of a community – changing the location or theme?

Another key development in this time has been the role of the wider community: through Twitter, or even through specific associations. I’m very lucky to be a Geographer, and therefore part of the Royal Geographical Society and the Geographical Association. Both organisations offer a fantastic sense of community – there’s lots of online engagement, plenty of great friendly people on Twitter, and even a willingness to offer training and sessions in different ways.

In the last few months, I’ve been involved with some outreach for the Chartered College of Teaching, and have been involved in the RGS TeachMeet and TeachChat events. Meeting fellow Geographers on Zoom, getting involved in panel discussions, thinking and sharing ideas about my subject – this has all been remotely done, but brought with it a sense of community for my subject, discipline and intellectual development that I wouldn’t normally get. Most of us don’t – our Departments are quite small, and unless we’re fortunate to be in a Trust with an expert subject lead, or a really proactive school with research and engagement work – we tend to be in little subject bubbles a bit. 

But I’ve met, chatted and worked with incredible experts in recent weeks – privileged to share a virtual panel with Catherine Owen, Mark Enser and Kate Stockings on leadership in Geography, and joined a number of experts sharing ideas at the RGS Teach Meet. I’ve been honoured to be part of the early conversations of Dr Cyrus Nayeri’s incredible Routes Journal for Sixth Form Geographers, and meeting so many talented people as part of the Editorial Board has been really invigorating for my subject knowledge and expertise. 

The challenge, I think, is that we often meet the same people on these events – because there is a small, talented, open minded and giant-hearted community of Geography teachers out there. The bigger goal, I feel, is to share these feelings of community across the people who aren’t on Twitter, or who aren’t blogging, writing, or members of these subject communities. That’s a real challenge for the subject associations, and one that I’m happy to be trying to fix within my own Department!

Doing something for yourself: Online Learning

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the number of online courses has really taken off at this time. There are, I think, a number of reasons for that. 

First, this is the time of year where people are thinking about what they’ve achieved, and considering appraisals or reviews or however it’s done. It’s a quieter time of year, too, with students heading off on study leave, and only exam coaching to be done for year groups – so a lot of “traditional” CPD courses get offered about now anyway. 

Second, I think there’s a valuable sense of agency gained here. Once you’ve watched Netflix, or taught your lessons, what are you doing for yourself – particularly if you’re confined in a small space? For many teachers, a lack of agency is one of the biggest challenges we face professionally – and so I’m unsurprised to see so many people offering courses, and them being very popular. 

Finally, I think we’ve opened a Pandora’s Box of asynchronous delivery. While I think there is definitely a place for real-world conference – I don’t think TeachMeets, BrewEds or ResearchEd are going anywhere any time soon – I do think that virtual training offers an enormous opportunity. As we get better at it, we’re able to capture more of the interactivity – breakout rooms, discussions and live ‘chat’, as well as getting cameras on and people to “meet” one another is different from watching a video of someone delivering their talk. 

But I think there’s a huge appetite for this. I can join a conference taking place anywhere, for free. I don’t have travel time, I can pause, think, rewind, review – I can do as much, or as little as I want. I don’t have to take time out of my working day – I can move it to my convenience. I don’t have childcare or wider issues to contend with – but these online events eliminate those, too. As a potential speaker, I am also much more able to participate – I wouldn’t have had time to finish work, drive home, get up to the RGS for an evening event – but with an online conference, this is not only possible, but pleasant. 

I don’t think we’ll see training providers going out of business, and I don’t think the free conferences will go away – but I hope we’ll see a lot more of this in future – I know I’d attend and get involved in many more. 

I’ve loved hearing so many different voices, thinking about things – and as I start to explore and consider future plans, I’ve got a lot of ideas to take back to work with me when I do.

Part of the #IsolationCollaboration and #TeamTransition series, also posted here, and linked to my Lockdown Diary for Schools Week

For any student, the Sixth Form is a time of significant metamorphosis. They start as “Year 11s in suits” – somehow slightly older, but less comfortable in their new personae. They have finished their GCSEs, a ritualistic summer of trial, of freedom and festivals (usually!), and then of nerves and the tremulous opening of an envelope. And now, they are here.

Embarking on a new world. Less than six months after being in the rigorous disciplined world of Year 11 – where the narrowing of their focus down to exam revision, practice, and permission to do everything was their bubble – we start asking them big questions. Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? Who do you want to be?

And the Sixth Form is a time where they – by and large – try to find that out. There are stages and moments of growth in fits and starts: starting to explore their futures, starting, perhaps, to think about universities. The first forays to Open Days. Starting to think about choices, careers, reading, extensions, work experience… slowly, they transform to young adults before your eyes. Hesitantly, they start to talk about their identities separate to their parents, where they might live, what it might be like to have to cook for yourself, or go for catered halls! They begin to do personal statements, narrow down subject choices, start to become focused on their chosen pathway, and keen to do well.

Then, it starts to get serious. At some point, almost every Year 13 student will get “The Fear” – a crashing realisation that this is all important to them now, and no one else. That their places, their aspirations, all of the things they have done over the last year, now means they have to go and earn it.

And revision begins. Sometimes, it’s frantic flashcards, sometimes beautiful notes uploaded to Instagram, or hours of study groups cramming. It’s earnest conversations with teachers – clarifying, consolidating, checking – making sure they have taken as much as they can, absorbed as much of your thoughts and wisdom…

The exams. You’re equals now, you and them. Fighting alongside each other: aiming for the best result against a nameless, faceless “examiner”. You’re not their teacher now, you’re their coach, their cheerleader, their moral and emotional support. You stand with them, as they enter the exam halls. You whisper good luck, you wait nervously while they finish – your little babies, all growing up. You laugh nervously with them, when they talk about what questions they’ve done.

“That’s good”, you say. “That’s good. You’ve done well. I’m proud of you. Go and rest, now”.

They are adults now. They have grown in this trial. You’ve faced it together, you come out the other side… you have endured, and forged a bond that is unlike any other in the school. 

And it’s felt. At the end of term celebrations, at the Sixth Form Ball that you absolutely, 100% refuse to call a prom, because that’s an Americanism – but you secretly love anyway. Dressed to the nines – inevitably with questionable interpretations of what ‘black tie’ means, they return. 

Conspiratorially, they test the water of this new, murky adulthood – this state of no longer being a student.

“Do I still call you sir?”

“Can I buy you a drink” – or, for the cheekier ones – “Will you buy me a drink, sir?”

It’s a test. Who’ll use your first name first, because “they aren’t your student any more”? Who’ll offer to hug you, or ask shyly whether you’d mind being in a selfie with them.

And you meet them again. On results day, to celebrate joyfully. To shake their hand, to wish them well, to send them off in to the world that they have chosen – young adults, now, somehow confident without you. 

The Brave New World – How Can We Cope? 

Of course, this isn’t the summer that we expected. Many of these rituals of change and metamorphosis have been ripped away, and the students have been left bereft. It’s not what I expected – I thought they’d have joy – but I realised later that while they weren’t exactly looking forward to the trial by exam, perhaps they appreciated the chance to earn their passage to the next steps of adulthood. As a Sixth Form tutor, and a UCAS co-ordinator, what have I found has helped in these moments?  

1. Get in touch with them, and continue to talk to them

Some schools are continuing to offer some “enrichment” classes to Year 11 and Year 13 to keep them motivated, engaged and thinking. Some schools are doing ‘Pre-A Level classes’ for their Year 11s, while others are offering wider projects and opportunities for the Year 13s heading off to university. This is brilliant – it reminds the students that you’re there, gives you opportunities to talk in a more adult and scholarly way, and potentially go off the curriculum track that you were on, and explore interesting things for the joy of learning them. For those of you who have online learning portals and “live” functionality, consider hosting discussions and chats with your Year 13s. They know you well, they miss you, too – and they appreciate seeing familiar faces. My students have met my cats, now, via video chats…

Many will have been inspired by the words and ideas of Ben Newmark (Lots of Little Chats and “Dear Year 11”) to write to their students directly. Whether it’s by email, or even sending “postcards home” – students have really appreciated the personal kindness shown to them by teachers, and the sense of “this isn’t fair, this isn’t what we wanted for you either” just reinforces that shared adult status that is so crucial to this transition time. Try and connect with them as people, if you can. 

2. Support them and continue to develop those relationships with the decisions and components that you can.

Many schools will continue to want to support students with key decision making. Universities and the wider issues about UCAS applications, offers, changes – these are all potentially bewildering and scary for the Year 13 students and their parents. Where possible, can you offer support? Seminars, even discussions with the Head of Year, tutor team – what can you do to reassure them, help them, and point them in the right directions.

Some students will – inevitably – have a wobble and want to make huge decisions about their proposed plans. A Gap Year travel agenda no longer seems that attractive, and who can blame them? Students who were deferring entry might want to shift it up to 2020; others who were planning to enter post-results may now want to submit entries for 2020, based on the lack of exams and the lack of gap year opportunities. All of these would have been helpful conversations to have – how can you do that in the current environment? If your school has a live function, what can you do for these students to embrace these complexities, and support them reaching out to universities to ask big questions?

For students on different pathways – Art Foundations, apprenticeships, going in to careers – there are going to be just as many questions, and important conversations to be had. How can you help them – as you would normally?

3. What can you do to develop some of the key events and major components that they might have missed?

Many of the “big rituals” of the summer have gone for Year 13s – and sadly, I’m not just talking about the exodus to festivals around the UK. The shirt-signing of the last day, the collection and discussion of the Year Book and photographs, or the highlight of the Sixth Form Ball. 

Are there any components of that you can replicate? Can you put together a video from their teachers? Can you get the group together, online, somehow? Hold a virtual assembly, pub quiz? Can you make plans to hold a Ball at a period in the future? Are there any components of these rituals that you can do, replicate or hold to? As Ben Newmark said – these things are important to the students, therefore they could be important to you.

For us all, this is a time of transition and metamorphosis, too. Sixth Form hasn’t changed – just the context and the trials that we have to go through.

You’re equals now, you and them. Fighting alongside each other: aiming for the best result against a nameless, faceless enemy – whether it’s coronavirus, or the baffling world of online technology. You’re not their teacher now, you’re a coach, and a source of moral and emotional support. You still want to stand with them, whether we can come back to the world we knew, or not. You’ll hear from them, with emails, perhaps, or fleeting discussions. 

“That’s good”, you say. “That’s good. You’ve done well. I’m proud of you”.

They are adults now. They have grown in this trial. You’ve faced it together, you come out the other side… you have endured, and forged a bond that is unlike any other in the school.