Geographical Association

Suggested duration: 2 - 4 hours

The five courses in this family have introduced you to ways of teaching about identity and place. As stated at the outset of the courses, this has not been a 'resource grab', rather the intention has been that you 'adopt and adapt' ideas that appeal to you by choosing and developing relevant activites. You may have used bits from different courses or you may have adapted just one course. Either way, this personalisation of the given materials is very important. The purpose of this plenary is to give you an opportunity for reflection, to show how you might share what you have learnt with others, and to point you towards sources of further information and reference so that you can take your journey further.

If you have been working towards TLA Stage One or Two verification, it should be noted that the dimensions of 'sharing your learning and influencing practice' and 'evaluating your learning and its impact' are very important parts of your learning journey. Indeed, part three of your learning journal must show you have done this (see writing frames below). Note that this part does not nescessarily have to take a written form and you could use other media such as audio or video clips to evaluate your learning.

View TLA Stage One Writing Frame
View TLA Stage Two Writing Frame

Suggested completion time: 1 - 2 hours

We have explored how our identities are linked to significant places and people and how we all have powerful stories to tell about who we are and where we've come from. Sharing these stories and our personal perceptions of place can be very powerful starting points for collaboration and decision making, helping us to develop empathy.

What has been your experience? You may want to consider how this has impacted:

• On the way you teach, e.g. through involving pupils more or using personalised learning

• On the content you choose, e.g. if you have pupils from many different backgrounds how have you used their experiences to make links between your school and the wider world? Or, how have you tackled the idea of UK, European and global communities if your pupils do not have any of these experiences?

In terms of Excellence and Enjoyment, you may want to highlight how teaching strategies and/or content have enabled pupils to

• Feel motivated and engaged
• Enjoy their learning
• Achieve well
• Make links between the local and the global?

In Getting Started, we discussed how pupils could be involved at the start of the learning journey in helping to identify relevant learning. It was suggested that some kind of baseline be used to measure what their prior knowledge and/or values were.

• If you used a baseline with pupils, how will you measure progress?
• Does your learning journal make reference to ongoing pupil learning?
• How can you use pupil's comments to evidence your learning journey?

Also, think about what kind of media you will use, e.g written, digital recording, annotated images etc?

View a unit of work in the Young Geographers project area about Habitats in the School Environment. The PowerPoint presentation uses images and pupil responses collected by teacher Sarah Haynes. Or just read the Word Summary of pupil comments.

Suggested completion time: 1 - 2 hours

One of the most important aspects of taking part in the TLA is the sharing of your learning and the opportunity to influence practice. This could be amongst a group of colleagues within your own school, but you may also wish to share your work with the wider geography education community.

For example you might want to share what you have learnt through the Geographical Association Network (or Ning). You can sign up for your free account at http://geographical.ning.com or contact Alan Parkinson for further information.

In addition to the Geographical Association Ning, we've also set up a Primary Geography Champions Ning for people engaged in the Primary Champions scheme and primary practitioners looking for online and local support. You can find out more about the scheme on the Primary Geography Champions page. Sign up for your free account at http://geographychampions.ning.com.

Alternatively, have you thought about writing an article for Primary Geography? This journal is for teachers at Foundation and Key Stages 1&2, and is designed to inspire primary teachers to incorporate geography into the primary curriculum with better understanding and increased confidence. We are always happy to receive articles written by teachers who have been involved in curriculum making using our resources. Find out how on our Writing for the GA page.

The TLA also offers opportunities to include references to your work in local or national publicity or media coverage, and on their website. The General Teaching Council for England (GTC) also has a number of professional networks which you can explore on their website.

Slideshare, Slideboom and Scribd are other places you might choose to share your work (as long as others know its there!).

Hopefully you are now in a position to complete all of your learning journal and present it to the TLA, and we wish you good luck with this. However, as a teacher you know that learning never really comes to an end, so below we provide you with some ideas for places you can go to continue your learning journey further...

CPD Units

If you have enjoyed using this unit you may be interested in looking out for the follow up that is due to appear in early 2010. There are also a range of other CPD units that will be appearing on the GA website in the coming months including:

Young Geographers go Green
Young Geographers go Local
Young Geographers go to India
Primary Geography Subject Leadership

Projects and resources on the GA website

A Different View - a manifesto from the Geographical Association that is accompanied by stunning free images and teaching ideas to download.

Young Geographers - resources from a three-month pilot project funded by the TDA, which aimed to support teachers in planning for and carrying out a short unit of work with a focus on Living Geography.

Primary Handbook Extension Project - on these pages you will find material created by teachers which builds on the excellent resources and ideas in the Primary Geography Handbook. Each section is arranged by age groups 4 – 7, 6 – 9 and 8 – 11.

Top Ten Ideas: Primary-Secondary Transition – top ten tips for pupils moving from year 6 to year 7.

Community Cohesion Resource Area - not primary specific, but nevertheless this is a useful collection of eight resources that focus on community cohesion and the prevention of violent extremism.

Other useful sites

An introduction to community cohesion on Teachernet 

Information about personalised learning from the DCSF

Sustainable Schools on Teachernet

The new primary curriculum

Teacher Learning Academy - professional support for teacher development 

Geography Teaching Today - this site has been developed as part of the Action Plan for Geography (APG) and is run jointly by the GA and the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG).

Geography Champions Network - a free support network for primary practitioners across the regions of England as part of the most recent phase of the APG 2. It is led by local 'Geography Champions'.

Some useful documents

DCSF (2007) Guidance on the duty to promote community cohesion

Ofsted annual report 2008/9

Sustainable Schools S3 evaluation tool 

Further Reading

Think Piece on Children's Worlds - Simon Catling writes about identity and diversity.

Think Piece on Geography and Happiness - Stephen Scoffham writes about how geography education can help to promote children's happiness.

The Summer 2009 issue of Primary Geographer has a focus on Britain and Britishness. GA members with a subscription to Primary Geography can download these articles for free.

Martin, F. And Owens, P. (2008) Caring for our world: A practical guide to ESD for ages 4-8. Sheffield: Geographical Association. Available from the GA's Online Shop.

Scoffham, S. (Ed) (2005) The Primary Geography Handbook. Sheffield: Geographical Association. Available from the GA's Online Shop.

Tanner, J. (2009) 'Special Places: Place attachment and children's happiness', Primary Geographer, Issue 68, Spring 2009, pp.5-8.

Image: Children in the square by K.W. Made available under a Creative Commons license.