The educational and environmental landscape is constantly evolving, so the role of a Geography subject leader in primary schools has never been more crucial. One of the main challenges is that expectations have increased around the level of expertise that subject leaders should have on the curriculum, irrespective of their prior experience or knowledge. 

This blog provides a focused guide for Geography subject leaders in primary schools, highlighting the qualities you need to be an effective Geography leader, challenges you may face, recent Ofsted key messages and what these mean for you, and how you can best use a Geography scheme in your role as subject leader.

Skills and qualities

Cultivating the following skills and qualities can contribute to your effectiveness as a Geography subject leader in a UK primary school:

• Awareness: Recognise the needs, backgrounds, experiences and interests of the pupils in your school so that you can tailor your Geography curriculum accordingly.
• Subject knowledge: Understanding the Geography national curriculum and what your school grounds and local area offer regarding fieldwork.
• Teaching experience: Recognising and creating engaging lessons that cater to different learning styles and abilities.
• Subject planning: Adopting a long-term whole-school plan that covers the national curriculum and ensures progression across the school, plus having the ability to organise fieldwork trips and guide teachers in their planning and risk assessment. 
• Leadership: Capability to lead and inspire a team of teachers, providing guidance and constructive feedback regarding Geography in your school.
• Analytical skills: Ability to assess strengths and areas for improvement in Geography based on qualitative and quantitative data, from teachers and pupils, through assessment results and questionnaires. 
• Continuous learning: Willingness to stay updated with educational practices and Geography subject matter through training and professional development.

Challenges

Leading Geography in primary schools can come with challenges, however, such as:

• Resource allocation: Limited resources can make field trips and practical activities difficult.
• Raising the profile: There are many subjects to compete with; it can take a lot of work to prioritise Geography in school.
• Teacher expertise: Not all teachers have a background in Geography.
• Meeting Ofsted’s expectations: Preparing for inspections while ensuring quality teaching can be daunting.
• Curriculum updates: Keeping up to date with changes in the curriculum is often time-consuming.

What is Ofsted looking for?

According to the latest Geography subject report from Ofsted, primary schools usually teach Geography as a discrete subject, with leaders thinking about how to tailor lessons to reflect the interests of the pupils. 

The report found that pupils showed evidence of picking up misconceptions due to weaknesses in teacher knowledge, and schools weren’t always giving enough time for Geography lessons throughout the year. And there is often room to develop knowledge-building skills that interlink topics. Also, fieldwork is still an area for development, and pupils need opportunities to develop data collection and analysis skills. 

In addition, summative assessment does not always accurately reflect pupils’ understanding of geographical skills and knowledge. 

With sustainability becoming more prominent as a Geography topic, staff and children across the school are expected to have knowledge of climate change and understand how positive change can be achieved, according to the Department of Education.

How can Kapow Primary help?

In response, our primary Geography scheme offers three units per year group, each boasting six hour-long lessons, with each unit incorporating a fieldwork enquiry. Teacher videos, offering specialist geographical knowledge or skills, accompany lessons, so you can be sure that teachers will feel prepared and confident to teach each lesson. 

Our scheme provides progression of key geographical concepts to ensure that themes are not stand-alone and that children understand how Geography interconnects. Climate change and sustainability are woven throughout units to ensure children understand global warming, its impacts, and actions they can take to help look after their environment.

Assessment includes end-of-unit quizzes, knowledge and skills catchers, formative assessments (to be used in lessons) and a summative assessment overview to form a broader picture of pupils’ attainment across the school. 

Our resources include:

Planning documents:

• Gain access to comprehensive detailed long-term and mixed-aged planning, individual lesson plans and resources for each year group (including EYFS), as well as progression of geographical concepts and fieldwork opportunities in your school grounds and the local area.
• Utilise further support in the form of our fieldwork planner. Co-ordinate resources, staff, transport and time out of school, use assessment spreadsheets to track pupil progress and identify gaps in learning, and access equipment and vocabulary lists as well as documents that link to the national curriculum, which show a clear progression of both skills and knowledge.

An example of our fieldwork planner for KS1, found in our long-term plan for Geography.

Opportunities for personalisation: 

• Teachers can personalise lessons by uploading sketches and maps of the local area and school grounds, photographs of features familiar to their pupils, and even display their findings in our presentation mode.

Engaging resources: 

• Each unit provides engaging, varied lessons that cater to different learning styles and abilities. Resources include audio files, songs, and knowledge organisers. These can be used to assess learning; be incorporated into lessons; as pre-teaching for SEN, NTE and EAL pupils; as a home-learning aid; or for hands-on activities.

A catchy song about the world’s continents to make Geography knowledge easier to remember for pupils.

Free toolkits: 

• Ace your Ofsted inspection by equipping yourself with our Ofsted deep dive toolkit, which includes potential Ofsted questions; a checklist to ensure you’re ready for an inspection; audit tools for intent, implementation and impact; and sample questions.
• Our Geography subject leader toolkit includes pupil and teacher voice questionnaires and audits to identify strengths and areas for improvement in Geography across the school; a subject audit to aid with Ofsted inspections; and a teacher knowledge audit to identify areas staff don’t feel the most confident.

Professional development and support: 

• We offer teacher videos for CPD; blogs and webinars that provide ongoing training opportunities; and a dedicated Facebook group for subject leaders to share best practices and solutions.

In a world where subject leaders are expected to wear many hats involving curriculum planning, staff support and preparing for Ofsted inspections, Kapow Primary provides robust and tailored support. With detailed resources, professional development opportunities and a supportive community, we can help you lead effectively and confidently. Our resources are designed to make your role as a Geography subject leader manageable and truly rewarding.