Programme overview

There are many visions of geography that are debated, including what should be part of the geography National Curriculum.

You will engage with these debates and develop your own clear vision of geography. This process is an essential element in your professional development and will help you to establish confidence and competence as a geography teacher.

By the end of the programme you will be confident, creative, and able to teach geography to 11-19 year olds. The programme will also prepare you for playing an active and innovative leadership role in a geography department.

What you will learn

Induction phase

You will build confidence in what being a geography teacher involves. University sessions include lesson planning, learning theories, establishing student engagement, and an introduction into what powerful geographical knowledge is, and how this can be developed. You will work closely with other geography student teachers in a subject specialist group. You will identify your subject knowledge strengths and prioritise school geography topics to revise/enhance – including which resources to use.

You will also have supported teaching experiences in school where a specialist mentor will provide you with constructive feedback. A variety of effective classroom practices are modelled by experienced teachers, and you will have the opportunity to work with a variety of different key stages. 

Assimilation phase

The focus of the middle stage of the course is on deepening your understanding of issues of teaching and learning in geography including:

• meeting the needs of different learners
• developing a meaningful geography curriculum.

You will undertake a second, longer, placement which allows you to use and develop the ‘building blocks’ from the first stage. 

Here, you will draw upon experienced teachers’ knowledge,  as well as professional and research literature to widen your understanding of geographical education and curriculum making.  This includes an opportunity to develop a sequence of lessons more independently, enabling you to bring your own teaching ideas to life.

Extension phase

In the final phase there are opportunities for you to develop your independence and confidence as a geography teacher. You are encouraged to draw on inspirational and creative pedagogies in order to gain as much experience as possible before starting as an Early Career Teacher.

You will be supported to maintain positive and consistent practices with a range of students across key stages. This will include ways to embed assessment into your practice, utilising Geographical Information Systems, how to communicate with parents, and the opportunity to experience a residential field trip.  The residential field trip will focus on how to safely and effectively organise and run fieldwork with students.

Opportunities

Opportunities include: 

• a residential field trip dealing with practical aspects of running a school trip
• working with the Royal Geographical Society and ESRI (GIS)
• working with academic researchers experienced in the field of geography education, climate change education, and teacher professionalism
• working collaboratively in subject groups to benefit from a wide range of school practices
• learning from established, experienced, school mentors who are geography specialists
• the opportunity to investigate an area of your own classroom teaching practice as part of masters’ level study

Experiences in school

Primary school experience

There will be a short primary school experience during the PGCE year. This work allows you to understand the child's experience before they go into secondary school. This understanding helps with planning for geographical learning at Key Stage 3.

Induction phase

During the first term, you begin with preliminary visits to a secondary school. These visits will help prepare you for a shorter placement in that school. You will be working closely with a geography mentor.

Assimilation phase

In the spring term, you will be on placement in a different secondary school. This placement will last the duration of the spring term. Here, you will establish yourself as a member of staff, build relationships, autonomy, and confidence. 

Extension phase

You will have another placement in the third term, possibly in a different school again. This flexibility can enable us to respond to your development, prioritising the experiences you need to meet the Teachers’ Standards, gain QTS and the PGCE award.

Benefits

You will benefit greatly from having your placements spread across different schools. They will provide you with the opportunity to:

• compare and contrast your experiences
• face different challenges and achieve in different areas
• see different teaching styles
• learn how you can adapt to different situations

By the end of your third teaching placement, you will have had the opportunity to understand the nature of school geography, experience all key stages (3-5),and to become a confident, creative geography teacher.

You will have university geography tutors to support you throughout your PGCE and you have a mentor in school. These specially trained teachers are committed to developing your practice in the classroom.

Who this course is for

If you are passionate about the world and the people within it and want to inspire young people then this is the course for you. 

If you do not have a degree in geography, we will still consider you if you have a degree that is at least 50% geographical in nature and is backed up by a strong grade in A-level geography.