Primary geography: the essentials
Primary geography: the essentials
12/11/2025 - 26/11/2025
Online
What should every geography lesson include? Take your first steps in geography pedagogy, and learn how to make geography relatable, relevant and real.
Overview
What should every geography lesson include? Learn how to make geography relatable, relevant, real and therefore… memorable! Throughout the day Jon engages you in a range of inspiring practical activities aimed at provoking you to think, speak and write geographically. The tasks enable you to consider, discuss and plan the essential, ‘sticky’ geographical knowledge and cultural capital pupils require. Explore how to build in opportunities to revisit and consolidate knowledge through identifying and breaking down the core issues. Throughout the course Jon guides you through geography’s ‘tricky’ bits and challenges some of the stereotypes and misconceptions that exist within the subject.
Supporting research / references
Key learning aims
- To consider how to plan and make your geography curriculum so that it motivates pupils to continually recall and build their prior learning.
- To explore a range of practical ideas for teaching high-quality geography, including fieldwork and cross-curricular opportunities.
Expected impact on teachers
- Increased understanding of core geographical knowledge and skills within the context of the national curriculum and the ‘real world.’
- To think and speak like a geographer and be better placed to embed this with your practice.
Expected impact on pupil outcomes
- To embed key knowledge in the long term memory in order to enable connections and new knowledge to be assimilated.
- To raise levels of interest, engagement and therefore knowledge acquisition, through a range of practical, creative and real world pedagogical approaches, where children are supported to lead their own learning.
Course programme
This course consists of three weekly sessions taking place from 16.00 – 17.00.
12 November | Session 1 | How to achieve high quality geography in your classroom |
19 November | Session 2 | Making the most of a classroom without walls |
26 November | Session 3 | In the know: primary geography essentials |
Meet your course lead
Supporting research / references
Simon Catling, in Leading Primary Geography: the essential handbook for all teachers (2019), explores geography’s big ideas and the importance of uniting all forms of geographical knowledge to develop an understanding of the world.
Julia Tanner, in Teaching Geography Creatively (2017), considers the importance of a range of practical approaches to motivate and engage pupils.
Key learning aims
To consider how to plan and make your geography curriculum so that it motivates pupils to continually recall and build their prior learning.
To explore a range of practical ideas for teaching high-quality geography, including fieldwork and cross-curricular opportunities.
Expected impact on teachers
Increased understanding of core geographical knowledge and skills within the context of the national curriculum and the ‘real world.’
To think and speak like a geographer and be better placed to embed this with your practice.
Expected impact on pupil outcomes
To embed key knowledge in the long term memory in order to enable connections and new knowledge to be assimilated.
To raise levels of interest, engagement and therefore knowledge acquisition, through a range of practical, creative and real world pedagogical approaches, where children are supported to lead their own learning.
Fees
Location
Online