Moving on upSuggestions for easing transition

between the Key Stages

Victoria Ellis and Becky KitchenMembers of the Secondary Phase

Committee

“How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be.”

Elizabeth Lesser

Please sit on the table of the transition that you are most familiar with / would like to

know more about.What should a geographer at this stage look like?

What skills do they have?

A focus on transition can act as important evidence for the Secondary

Geography Quality Mark Centre of Excellencehttp://www.geography.org.uk/11-19/secondaryqualitymark/applyingforthe

award

/

KS2 to KS3

Recognise that:

•Students will have very different experiences of geography at primary school.

•Some have had lessons with a subject specialist, others have done geography as part of ‘topic’ work with non specialists.

•Yet their ‘big picture’, their macro-knowledge of geography is defined before they secondary school.

Teaching GeographySpring 2013

Know what the KS2 curriculum is!

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-geography-programmes-of-study

Send a questionnaire to primary colleagues

Visit primary feeders and talk to the geography co-ordinator and some of the pupils.

Host a networking meeting for primary geography colleagues.

Host an INSET session for primary colleagues – Digimap opportunity

Create or teach a transition unit which can be started at the end of Year 6 and continued into Year 7.

http://givegeographyitsplace.blogspot.co.uk/

Start Year 7 with a ‘What is Geography?’ unit

Welcome to our world.Welcome to geography

…and for the pupils?

Give them a label with school address and ask them to send a postcard from their summer holidays.

KS3 to KS4

Embed skills such as photo annotation throughout KS3

Teach structured extended geographical writing at KS3.

For example, in a unit on South Africa pupils write an essay:‘Is South Africa a microcosm of the world?’

Teach GCSE style units at KS3 (but not as a GCSE) and use the GCSE textbooks to structure them.

Teach a ‘Geographical Futures’ unit which looks at the global futures (What will the world be like in 2050?) and their future (What type of geographer are you? How will you use geography in the future?)

Start Year 10 with a couple of lessons from the Geography Teaching Today Glastonbury unit to recap map skills.

http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/Teaching+resources/Key+Stage+3+resources/Mapping+festivals/Glastonbury+Tour.htm

Invite some RGS Geography Ambassadors in to enthuse and inform students.http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Schools/Careers+and+Further+Study/Promoting+and+supporting+geography+in+your+school+or+college/Geography+Ambassador+scheme.htm

KS4 to KS5

Teach your students study skills

Do some fieldwork – even if it is just in the school grounds…

Create a personal study tracking sheet

Set reading tasks in preparation for lessons or extended writing.

Set up a Geography library in your department.

Suggest reading at the end of each lesson.

Put your lesson notes and resources onto Edmodo / extranet

https://www.edmodo.com/

Have a group of Geography Learning Leaders who can buddy student from younger years / help with Open Evening / run Geography Club etc.

KS5 to uni

Create a guide to study geography at university which includes reasons for studying geography, short descriptions of quality geography courses and their typical offers and bios of geography staff about their experience of geography at university.

Organise a library visit and set an assignment requiring independent reading and research.

Encourage your students to do the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).http://www.aqa.org.uk/programmes/aqa-baccalaureate/extended-project/the-aqa-epq

Invite ex-students who have done Geography at university back to give talks and run workshops with Sixth Form students

Now it’s your opportunity to share…

Can we create our own ‘Top tips for transition’?...