The government’s Curriculum and Assessment Review , including its response , makes it clear that the current system is not working equally well for all young people. As a former Director of Inclusion, this resonates with me. While the review aims for “evolution rather than revolution”, its findings raise important questions for geography as both a subject discipline and a school experience. As geography teachers and leaders, we need to understand both the potential opportunities and the risks hidden within this reform narrative. We need to be hopeful in the belief that our wonderful subject is highly relavant and will adapt, whilst keeping our eyes onthe bigger picture. This is something that the subject associations should be driving. This post will focus on geography. ✅ What the Review Gets Right The report highlights several priorities that should benefit geography: Breadth matters – The review calls for a broad, balanced curriculum that reflects a changing world. Geograp...
I lived and breathed Wales, but I didn’t understand it until I became a geographer. Why students need more than lived experience to truly know their world
We often talk about children coming into the classroom with a rich bank of lived experiences — memories, observations, conversations, journeys, emotions. In geography education, I call this the “geographical rucksack” : everything a child already knows (or thinks they know) and have experienecd about where they live and how the world works. But here’s the truth we hesitate to say out loud: Children don’t automatically see their world through a geographical lens. Yes, they have experience — but experience alone doesn’t equal understanding. Without structured geographical thinking, lived experience can actually trap young people into one narrative, one explanation, one perspective. Misconceptions can become deeply rooted simply because they’ve never been challenged. Living somewhere is not the same as knowing it. 🔍 The danger of a single, unexamined story A child growing up in a seaside town might think tourism = summer jobs and seagulls. A child in a rural vill...