Geographical Association

Online booking now available!

The Pilot Geography GSCE has had a successful start, with over 70 schools already involved and many others wishing to join.

This free conference aims to:

• share the goals of the pilot GCSE and its vision for 14-16 geography
  
• highlight innovative approaches to GCSE geography teaching and
  learning
  
• provide support for developing GCSE geography in your own school.

The Autumn 2007 issue of The Pilot, the newsletter for all schools involved in the Pilot GCSE, is now available to download:

Download past issues of The Pilot below:

Over the past two years the OCR Pilot GCSE Geography course has developed rapidly through the commitment and hard work of all those in the Pilot schools and supporting organisations. During this time, a central role has been taken by the Geographical Association in aiding the development of curriculum materials appropriate to the ideas and approaches promoted by the pilot.

Initially this work was funded through the Geography Development Fund, but the Action Plan for Geography has created exciting possibilities for supporting the Pilot Geography GCSE. Download the APG Course and Events Booklet which outlines the many opportunities for getting involved.

Many ideas for teaching the Pilot GCSE are available on these pages - these will be developed and expanded over the next 18 months. Further thinking will be shared via the new Geography Teaching Today website which is due to be launched in October 2006.

The challenge for the Pilot GCSE is to engage teachers and learners with a relevant and stimulating geography that is of value in helping us start to make sense of a complex and interconnected world. In essence, it is a specification that reveals global connections. The Pilot GCSE does this in a way that is both relevant to the learner and extends their thinking, hence the emphasis on the personal perspective. It demonstrates that thinking geographically enables us to appreciate that people and places at great distances from ours are, nevertheless, intimately connected with us.

The Pilot GCSE is about celebrating the diversity and wonder of the natural and human worlds, and stimulating pupils’ curiosity and enjoyment. The GA is a point of exchange for curriculum development thinking in geography: through its varied membership and links with the wider geographical community, the GA can ask and answer questions on teaching and learning methodologies and curriculum content.

Please email Phil Wood with queries or teaching and learning ideas, these will be shared via the Resources page. You can also take part in the online discussion about the specification.

We are grateful to both OCR and QCA for permission to reproduce the papers that can be downloaded from these pages.

Graham Senior put together this PowerPoint presentation to persuade year 9 students to do the Pilot GCSE. It works well with atmospheric music (I used ‘Samwise the Brave' from the 'Two Towers' soundtrack). The presentation is automatic, lasts about four minutes, and can be downloaded below.