Congratulations to Miss Emma Shannon and the pupils of Walton Priory on achieving the Silver Geographical Association’s Primary Geography Quality Mark.
The Primary Geography Quality Mark is supported by the DfE through the Action Plan for Geography and is seen as a key strategy for raising the quality of geography in primary schools.
At Silver level the award is in recognition of the implementation of whole school approaches that support excellence in geography.
In these schools subject leaders are also leaders of primary geography beyond their own school and influence the development of the subject locally, regionally and nationally through work with Higher Education Institutes of Education, Local Authority networks and The Geographical Association. They ensure policies impact on pupil learning, are not afraid to take risks, and innovate and challenge to achieve progress in geography. Key threads through the curriculum are inter-cultural understanding, local fieldwork, environmental issues and dilemmas connected with sustainability. These are explored in a variety of places across the world from local to global. These schools use creative approaches to stimulate learning and place a high value on using real life issues to promote understanding.
Wendy North, The Geographical Association project leader for the PGQM award says:
“The Geographical Association moderators have been thrilled with the quality of the learning and scale of the work achieved in our award schools. Many schools submitted inspiring examples of ways that geography can help young people to gain a fuller understanding of the complex and interdependent world in which we all live. An important criteria for us, when deciding on the award, is that schools use the subject to promote creativity, ensure active learning within school and in the outdoor classroom and develop links with other subjects both rigorously and imaginatively. We saw many examples of the way geography can make a real difference to pupil learning and to staff understanding and enthusiasm, especially when led by a keen subject leader who is supported by a headteacher who sees the subject’s potential.”
KS2 pupils from Walton Priory Middle headed to Sheffield to celebrate the 5th birthday of the Primary Geography Quality Mark.
On Wednesday 16th February Miss Shannon, four Key Stage 2 pupils and the Geography Link Governor all headed to Sheffield on the train to help the Geographical Association celebrate the 5th birthday of the Primary Geography Quality Mark. We were invited along with 7 other schools for a whole day of fun and exciting geography.
In the morning we took part in two different workshops where we learnt about interdependance and diversity through the geography of chocolate with geographers from Liverpool Hope University. We used photographs to learn about the Ivory Coast and took part in a decision making exercise to decide where a cocoa plantation should be located.
In the afternoon we had a session led by a 'Geography Champion' in which pupils were asked to think about their own personal geography and drew maps of their journey to Sheffield onto t-shirts! We also had a great discussion about what makes geography so special.
The best part of the day was meeting lots of new people and getting our certificates. We also got a piece of birthday cake and a fabulous goodie bag!!
A brilliant day was had by everyone, the pupils were excellent and we were very proud. They dazzled lots of important people with their geographical thinking and knowledge. Well done Walton Priory !!
