SGQM - some thoughts from a moderator, and also someone who has worked in a school with the SGQM and Centre of Excellence.

1. Secondary Geography Quality
Mark
10 thoughts from a moderator
since the beginning
Alan Parkinson
@GeoBlogs

2. A process of change
• Departmental involvement (staff
development)
• Identifying areas for development and
potentially leveraging funding for those as
part of the process

3. 1. Why do the Quality Mark ?
• Think through your reasons for applying –
what do you want to get out of it…
- Individually / personally
- For the department
- For the school ?

4. 2. Departmental Self Evaluation
• This may be in addition to the requirements
from SLT, or could replace some aspects of
departmental monitoring and quality
assurance with negotiation, as well as
Personal Development targets
• A process which staff should go through over
a period of up to a year – not a quick thing

5. 3. Using pupils as evidence
• Pupil voice part of the process – an essential
part…
• Let them know they are part of raising the
Quality of geography teaching and learning
within the department, and raising the profile
of the department within (and beyond) the
school.

6. 4. Asking (and answering) questions
• Each section of the framework includes a
question to frame the discussions that you will
have as a team over the coming months

7. 5. Audit - honesty
• Targeting areas for improvement – the fact
that you’ve opted to go for SGQM shows you
are serious about this…
“Every teacher needs to improve, not
because they are not good enough, but
because they can be even better.”
Dylan Wiliam

8. 6. Support
• Julie Beattie at the end of an e-mail to GA
• VLE – additional ideas of materials from
previous applicants – examples of previous
applications
• Pebblepad now used – ePortfolio, rather than
bulging lever arch files we had at the start of
the process

9. 7. Evidence
• The quality and quantity of evidence may not be
a problem, but the choice of evidencecan
sometimes let schools down
• We are particularlyinterestedin student work –
don’t include pages and pages of data
• We’re not looking for perfection…but certain
things set our alarm bells ringing e.g.
downloaded documents / resources used without
accreditation to creator (we generally know who
makes and shares stuff online)
• Take LOTS of photos of decent work through the
year

10. ePortfolio
• Tell the story of the department
• Involve everyone – try not to make it look like
one person is leading everything (even if they
are)… if they move on, what will happen ?
• Is Quality Geography ‘embedded’ ?

11. Key Indicators: Geography Teaching
This section asks you to show how you communicate
enthusiasm and passion about geography to your pupils.
Your evidence will show that the department has high
expectations and a high level of confidence and
geographical expertise, both in terms of your specialist and
up-to-date knowledge and your, understanding of effective
learning in geography. Evidence might be in the form of a
mixture of long, mid and short term planning documents
(schemes of work or selected extracts), lesson plans
identifying the effective use of geographical data and ideas
which are located and placed within a wider contextual
knowledge of place, examples of the range of effective
assessment methods you use and how you ensure
progression in geography.

12. Outcomes demonstrating good
geographical knowledge
Remember what Margaret Roberts would think – what makes a geography
lesson good? And don't leave us asking "where's the Geography?"
It would be valuable to show how you take account of pupils’ views
(formally and informally) and examples of your assessment methods with
some ideally showing pupil involvement in a change of some kind.
We would like examples of pupil work which exemplify that the key
indicators have been met. This can be in a variety of forms such as
photographs, scans, video, blogs.

13. Behaviour, attitudes and values
Evidence might include pupil testimony and pupils’ peer-feedback,
photographs of students working with teacher annotations to
illustrate the context, comments from outside speakers, field
centres and parents etc.
You may also provide evidence about how your pupils take an
active part in understanding and managing risk such as those
associated with fieldwork and out of classroom learning.
BlackLivesMatter amongst external contexts you may want to
reflect in your curriculum.

14. Leadership and management in Geography
This section asks for evidence showing
the impact of good leadership on the
geography in your school. A good
leader has the ability to:
develop a clear vision
and strong sense of
purpose for geography,
which leads to
improvements in
outcomes for learners
and is based on shared
values and evaluation of
evidence of current
practice and outcomes.
mobilise, enable and
support others to share
the vision and develop
and follow through on
strategies to raise
standards in geography
Liaise with other
curriculum areas and
local primary schools.

15. 8. Summer moderation process
• Quality of applications getting better all the
time, so a weaker one stands out
• Important to see what is planned next as well
as what has come before (3 year accreditation)
and for resubmissions that targets have been
met and feedback acted on

16. 9. Departmental ‘extras’
• Publicity – internal and external
• Newsletters - internal and external
• CPD – led and attended
• Awards – Eco / Ashden etc. Led by
geographers or student essay / photo
competitions e.g. YGOTY
• FIELDWORK – vital part, and not just the big
trips abroad, but opportunities for all in all age
groups.

17. 10. Good luck if you choose to
apply.
Further questions? Get in touch