Pupils’ opportunities to develop fieldwork skills are limited, Ofsted has warned in a report outlining its findings on how geography is being taught in schools.
The inspectorate has produced a new report today based on subject visits made by inspectors to a sample of primaries and secondaries.
It says that in almost all of the schools visited, leaders had made changes to the curriculum to ensure that knowledge was better sequenced, so children could build on what they had learned.
Inspectors found that there have been significant improvements in geography education since a subject report published 12 years ago - particularly at primary level and key stage 3.
However, the report also found that children’s opportunities to learn and develop their fieldwork skills “are still lacking at both primary and secondary level”.
The watchdog said that this extends beyond the challenges that were presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report also warned that initial teacher training providers are struggling to attract the number of geography teachers needed to ensure that secondary schools can find specialist teachers for their classes.
It also said that most primary trainees spent limited amounts of time learning how to teach geography during their training.
The report said that “historically, primary schools have dedicated little time to geography”. Adding: “Our report suggests that this is still too often the case.”
Fieldwork concerns
Ofsted found that, in primary schools, “fieldwork is often conflated with field trips”.
It warned that although pupils may go out of school on a visit, “they are rarely learning how to collect, present and analyse geographical fieldwork when they do so”.
The report also states that secondary students rarely carry out fieldwork beyond the requirements of the exam boards.
It warns that most schools simplify this fieldwork so that pupils can give prepared answers in the exam, leaving pupils ill-equipped for the non-examined assessment at A level and in higher education.
The report also identifies the need for better support for non-specialist teachers and more subject-specific CPD for both specialist and non-specialist teachers.
Ofsted chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, said: “Geography is vital to children’s understanding of our physical world. It’s great that both primary and secondary schools have made such strides in their geography teaching. Pupils are now being taught a much more ambitious and challenging curriculum.
“I hope that schools can now focus on ensuring that children get more opportunities to develop their data collection and analysis skills so they can master the fundamentals of geography fieldwork.”
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