We are excited to launch the GA’s Subject Leader Development Programme (SLDP). Aimed at aspiring or existing geography leaders, you’ll engage in 9 online sessions throughout the year, carry out an action research project and be supported throughout by our experienced subject lead, Aidan Hesslewood. 

Benefits

• Subject specific middle leader training and accreditation
• Action research which puts theory into your context and practice
• Opportunities for networking and discussion
• One year’s GA membership included (including access to Teaching Geography).
• ‘Planning your coherent 11-16 geography curriculum: a design toolkit‘.

About the sessions

The focus of the GA’s Subject Leader Development Programme is on the department as an evolving ecosystem. 

Each session is structured as a practical workspace: it starts by sharing the prior session’s output, shifts to systems theory and geographical practice, and concludes with a concrete outcome that feeds forward into subsequent sessions and the action research. The EEF implementation framework is central. 

The crux is a shift away from managerial thinking (ticking compliance boxes, checking folders, data entry, etc) with actual subject leadership (shaping culture, refining expectations, and building deep conceptual coherence within the curriculum). 

For example, if students are struggling with physical geography 6-markers at GCSE, it isn’t just a ‘revision problem’ but more likely a systemic issue linked to KS3 curriculum sequencing, literacy instruction, and assessment issues. Rather than a Subject Leader ‘firefighting’ in real-time, these sessions aim to help take a step back to investigate how the system can be changed to effect different outcomes.

Programme overview

There will be be nine twilight sessions which will each be two hours long and run from 4 – 6pm on Mondays (exact dates TBC).