Subject Resources – Primary Geography

• Geographical Association
• Royal Geographical Society

Geographical Association

• Guidance on leading geography in a primary school.

Royal Geographical Society

• Guidance and support in developing high quality primary geography.

Ordnance Survey

• Planning for pupil progress (5-11): The national curriculum and Ordnance Survey maps.
• Beginners Guide to Grid References: develop subject knowledge of 4-figure and 6-figure grid references (includes useful videos) 
• Ordnance Survey Map Zone: online games to help children develop map reading skills.

Digimap for schools 

• OS mapping programme by subscription (approx. £100)
• Free primary lesson resources 

BBC 

• EYFS Cbeebies Go Jetters 
• KS1
• KS2
• Video clips to use in lessons 

Other useful websites:

• Connecting Classrooms through global learning
• Geological Society
• Global dimension
• Learning through landscapes
• National Association for outdoor education
• National Geographic
• Our world in data (helpful for the study of population, energy or natural resource use) 
• Seterra Geography – online quizzes for countries and continents 
• The true size: allowing you to compare the size of different countries and to counteract misconceptions that can be caused by the mercator projection.
• Time for geography: Open-access geography educational videos 
• Transform our world: resources to inspire climate action in schools  

Primary geography blogs:

• Teaching About a Place? Stop and Think First! Questions to ask before introducing a new location to children.
• Geography key questions to ask when learning about a place.
• Ideas to help adapt your primary geography curriculum.
• Useful primary geography resources and videos.

Recommended Reading:

• Catling, S. and Willy, T. (2018) Understanding and Teaching Primary Geography. London: Sage.
• Tanner, J. (2021) ‘Progression in geographical fieldwork experiences’, Primary Geography, 104, pp13-17.
• Willy, T. (ed) (2019) Leading Primary Geography: The essential handbook for all teachers. Geographical Association: Sheffield

Additional texts:

• Barlow, A. and Whitehouse, S. (2019) Mastering Primary Geography. London: Bloomsbury.
• Dolan, A. (2019) Powerful Primary Geography: A toolkit for 21st century Learning. Abingdon: Routledge
• Pike, S. (2016) Learning Primary Geography: Ideas and Inspirations from Classrooms. Abingdon: Routledge.
• Scoffham, S. (ed) (2013) Teaching Geography Creatively. Abingdon: Routledge
• Scoffham, S. and Owens, P. (2017) Teaching Primary Geography. London: Bloomsbury

Blogs:

• “Geography in outstanding primary schools” has been published on the Ofsted blog: schools, early years, further education and skills. Iain Freeland HMI, Ofsted’s subject lead for geography, discusses our geography subject inspections.

The Geographical Association’s National Festival of Fieldwork is designed to provide a focal point to encourage teachers to take their classes outside in the month of June, whether in the school grounds, the local area or further afield. This is a great opportunity for trainee teachers to plan and teach some fieldwork supported by their mentor.

Julia Mackintosh, the NASBTT Associate Consultant for primary geography, has created a short (18 min) presentation focused on how planning and teaching fieldwork can help trainees to understand more about the discipline of geography and to support trainees and their mentors to co-plan and teach fieldwork. It also provides links to a range of free online resources.

Resources to help you to plan and teach fieldwork

• GA National Festival of Fieldwork
• RGS Primary fieldwork
• The Island Geographer

GeogLive!  Fieldwork webinars

Focus on fieldwork

Fieldwork 2

GeogLive! Webinars from the Geographical Association to support teachers, subject leads and teacher educators:

GA Primary/Early Years Committee GeogLive! Webinar

GA Primary /Early Years Committee GeogLive! Webinar 2: Focus on Fieldwork

Ideas to support geography and cross-curricular teaching using Digimap for Schools:

Developing subject knowledge of maps skills from the Royal Geographical Society:

https://www.rgs.org/schools/teaching-resources/subject-knowledge-animation-map-skills/  

Subject report series: music – 21^st September 2023

Ofsted: 7 key findings from its geography subject report

Research review series: geography (2021) - A review of research into factors that influence the quality of geography education in schools in England. A PDF Copy is available here.

Ofsted Blog: Geography in outstanding primary schools (2021)

Poster summarising the geography research review

Geography: learning to make a world of difference (2011) - Ofsted survey report evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of geography in schools and assessing the challenges it faces.

• Progression framework for geography- Information to help assess progress in geography devised by the GA and Rising Stars: