Some thoughts on OFSTED's latest Subject Report

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“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.”

Ofsted chief inspector, Amanda Spielman

As mentioned in a previous blog post, OFSTED released a subject report for Geography - the first for over a decade, and the first since Mark Enser took up his post - a few weeks ago.

It is called 'Getting our Bearings'.

Given the recent controversies about OFSTED with the legal action of a local school in Cambridge leading to a change in a report, and the tragedy of Ruth Perry, many will have even less interest in reading the report than usual. Others will feel they need to, in order to prepare for their next visit, or to see what the emphasis might be.

Some details on the key findings are included in the thread here:

Vicki Woolven wrote some thoughts on the report for the Tutor2U website.

Steve Brace weighed in with a piece for the TES.


The report found that fieldwork had been underdeveloped.

It didn't however mention some of the reasons why this is the case in as much detail as it might have done. Anyone who has tried to book a coach for a fieldtrip will know that they can now be approaching £1000, and certainly beyond the budgets of many departments. There are opportunities for local fieldwork, but schools are in a great many different locations, and face additional pressures. Some children do not have wellington boots or clothing fit for the outdoors. These are the realities for many...

Others have zeroed in on the idea of diversity, particularly within the 'voices' that are heard in the report and also the sources mentioned in the bibliography. Does the report adequately reflect the work being undertaken to de/colonise the curriculum and some tremendous changes since the previous subject report, which was in very different times.

There seems to be little recognition of the efforts made by subject associations and the RGS through Shanique Harris' wonderful work on the Geography for All project, for example.

The RGS and the GA are briefly mentioned on the first page - perhaps to ensure that they feel they are part of the thinking and are in OFSTED's thoughts... there are also some mentions for GA Presidents and others working on subject committees in the references at the end of the report.

There is also the issue of teacher recruitment.

The report 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. This is not really something that individual schools can do much about.

This is down to decisions made by politicians and the government which has been in power since the last subject report. Although bursaries have been brought back for this year, the overall lack of coordination (or any expectation that those training will even enter the classroom for a year after taking the money) is going to lead to further shortages. There are a lot of teachers who will also be retiring within the next few years - I know at least one...

One issue I have is that of sample size in the report. The GA has added a useful comparison of previous subject reports in an item written by Alan Kinder and Denise Freeman for the Autumn 2023 issue of GA Magazine. This is part of the Advocacy for Geography column which appears in every issue and is co-written by the Chief Executive and current President of the GA. GA members can read the full piece.

As Alan and Denise say:

"Whatever one makes of  comparing these three Ofsted subject reports, the professional commitment and hard work of geography teachers to achieve the improvements described [above] must surely be one of the key ‘takeaways’."

Of Primary geography:

"The report suggests that non-specialists are not always in a position to identify misconceptions in the classroom or correct errors made by learners, and that this is a particular issue in primary schools, where misconceptions may be missed or sometimes passed on by teachers."

The GeogLive! team are certainly working hard to correct that, and the GA's 'In the Know' series and CPD packs are certainly recommended here.

Alan and Denise conclude that the report:

"paints a recognisable picture of practice today, and its recommendations are consistent with the evidence it presents."

They mention the evidence base of each report, and this one is based on the smallest number of research visits.

There are twenty thousand primary schools for example.So a statement like:

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.”

.. should come with an '8 out of 10 cats' style warning.

So we'll take the positives because they are deserved. 

Many schools have revisited their curriculum, not least because of the influence of many at the GA, and the wider subject community - particularly those who have the courage to share their work openly online on blogs, Facebook groups and other social media.

Here's a few other thoughts that I picked up at the time, shortly after the report came out:

Other teachers have also shared their thoughts, such as Kate Stockings:


In the end, the OFSTED report matters little to me personally... but I know that some will need to be very mindful of what it says, because SLT members may well read it and request a discussion with subject leaders to consider how they feel their department compares with the broad picture the report paints of geography provision in primary and secondary schools.

I hope that perhaps Mark Enser will also be able to make the GA Conference 2024, after he unfortunately pulled out of presenting at the conference in 2023 due to ill health. 

I presume he has been invited.

Here's a rather nice visual summary:

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