We’re all aware of the importance of time management for teaching. The start of a new school year is the perfect time to take stock and ask: are your departmental meetings effective, or are you meeting for meeting’s sake?    When I joined a new school (and thus a new department) I decided to give myself [...] The post Top tips for running effective departmental meetings appeared first on Oxford Education Blog ..read more

When schools shut on 20th March, teachers across the world were thrown into a whole new way of working. Whilst some schools have long used elements of online learning it was, on the whole, limited to the use of platforms to share homework tasks. And so, the learning curve began! What I want to focus [...] The post Lessons Learnt During Lockdown appeared first on Oxford Education Blog ..read more

As the Easter holidays arrived, so too did the annual Geographical Association Conference. This year it was fully virtual and, naturally, many of us were perhaps questioning how this would work: would it have the same community feel? Would there still be opportunities for networking? Would it have the same ‘buzz’? As I write this, [...] The post Takeaways from GA Conference 2021 appeared first on Oxford Education Blog ..read more

Despite optionality this year, the AQA course is lengthy. If you are doing it over 2 years, it needs to be covered at the rate of knots and so therefore retrieval practice (RP) should be a welcome guest in every classroom!  Put simply, RP is the strategy of calling information to mind which enhances and [...] The post Retrieve It! Making retrieval practice a priority for Year 11 appeared first on Oxford Education Blog ..read more

This September, for the first time in many years, I found myself leading a department with non-specialist teachers delivering Year 7 geography. I know from speaking to others that this is a position that many geography departments find themselves in year after year and so I recognise how rare my experience has been if this [...] The post Supporting non-specialists appeared first on Oxford Education Blog ..read more

Malica Scott shares practical steps towards becoming a more inclusive teacher and ideas for creating a more inclusive Geography classroom. The post Inclusive Classrooms: Practical steps towards becoming a more inclusive teacher appeared first on Oxford Education Blog ..read more

As I wrote in a previous blog , being a form tutor is an element of my role that I’ve come to fully appreciate during lockdown. Weekly phonecalls to my Year 8 form have become a highlight of my week and have ensured that I have a stronger relationship than ever with the 30 members of 8.2. I’ve [...] The post Looking ahead: Ideas for being a Form Tutor appeared first on Oxford Education Blog ..read more

In this second blog about the GA Conference 2021 I want to share some of the key points discussed in my session on departmental leadership. Responding to a historic lack of CPD available on effective middle leadership I shared some thoughts, reflections and ‘lessons learnt’ from my first 5 years as a Head of Geography. [...] The post Being Head of Geography: navigating the complexities of departmental leadership appeared first on Oxford Education Blog ..read more

With all the talk of a “catch-up curriculum”, what is my priority upon our return to in-person learning? Keeping great geography at the heart of my lessons. While I don’t want students to dismiss the past two months of learning as ‘irrelevant’, I also want to be mindful that some of the content covered simply [...] The post Keeping great geography at the heart of our return appeared first on Oxford Education Blog ..read more

As September approaches, many prospective and experienced teachers will be thinking about the new school year – thinking about how to ensure they enjoy the last of the holidays whilst getting organised and prepared for the year. With that in mind, I thought I’d share my top tips for anybody getting ready to start a [...] The post Thinking Ahead: Top Tips for your PGCE or NQT year appeared first on Oxford Education Blog ..read more