Published Blogs
Geography: The Art of Comparison
16/2/24
“What I think is so important to developing children who have a secure knowledge of geography, is ensuring that we encourage the art of comparison. Now I’m not just talking about how one geographical feature may be bigger than another (although lower down in Primary schools, these simple comparisons are an important starting point). We have to develop a clear and modelled approach to developing these comparisons as the children move through their learning.”
Geography ‘in the field’
21/11/23
“Fieldwork is the necessary experiential learning that we simply must embed as part of our geography curriculum in order to ensure that the children develop a solid understanding of the knowledge and concepts that we plan within our curriculum mapping. In order to teach geography successfully, we need to make a purposeful decision as subject or curriculum leaders to give children the right experiences at the right times.”
The curriculum jigsaw
10/10/23
“Developing a curriculum in a Primary school is like putting the pieces of a puzzle together, and there are different ways of approaching this, but ultimately, it all has to fit in the right way for the children that you teach.”
Curriculum Development: Substantive Concepts in History
3/10/23
“Substantive concepts are the ‘big ideas’ that we want to ensure that children develop a good understanding of in their learning, so that they can use and apply their knowledge of them in new and unfamiliar contexts. It is by ensuring children have a secure knowledge of these ‘big ideas’ that we can prepare them in becoming life-long learners.”
Developing progression across the curriculum
31/8/23
Developing progression across the Primary curriculum is an absolutely crucial aspect of developing learners who continue to be successful throughout their education. As teachers, what we do matters so much more than just for the day, week or term that we teach something, but in the wider sense of what the children do over the next few years and beyond. Everything children do in Primary school is formative and will set them up to hopefully succeed in all that they want to achieve as they move forward through their education. What we do in Primary schools is so unbelievably important and I cannot stress this highly enough.