Training and Development

The workshop series will be led by Jackie Zammit, a geography specialist who leads primary geography networks in the West Midlands and London and a consultant with the Geographical Association. Jackie has taught for the Field Studies Council, worked with teachers on development issues and was a regional coordinator for the Global Learning Programme. She is currently an Associate Practitioner with Lifeworlds Learning, supporting outdoor learning and fieldwork at two residential centres and co-producing educational resources for PositiveNegatives, an animation company. 

^{Online workshop, 4pm to 5.30pm}

Explore everything you need to know to be an effective Primary Geography Subject Lead. You will leave with practical tools and strategies to support your colleagues, audit your current curriculum, and develop it further to ensure a high-quality geography offer that meets the needs of all pupils.

We will also examine the role of key geographical concepts and consider how these can be used to structure, sequence, and strengthen your planning. By the end of the session, you will feel more confident in leading the subject, driving improvement, and shaping a curriculum that is coherent, ambitious, and engaging.

^{Online workshop, 4pm to 5.30pm}

Enhance your early geography provision by exploring how young children make sense of the places around them. Together, we’ll look at ways to investigate your locality, introduce a contrasting non-European place, and incorporate simple fieldwork approaches. Free, high-quality resources will also be shared.

^{Online workshop, 4pm to 5.30pm}

In this follow-on session we’ll investigate how pupils develop a richer sense of place through regional studies, drawing inspiration from the East Midlands and the Amazon Basin. Together, we’ll unpack progression from local to regional scale and explore ways of strengthening knowledge, enquiry, and key skills.

^{Online workshop, 4pm to 5.30pm}

Taking an issues-based approach to primary geography can help children develop critical thinking by exploring real-world problems, connecting classroom learning to their lives, and fostering a deeper understanding of complex issues. This session will have a particular focus on climate and sustainability.

^{Online workshop, 4pm to 5.30pm}

We will take a step-by-step approach to the Enquiry Cycle and share ways for enabling pupils to actively participate in all stages, from formulating questions to discussing and debating their findings. We will think about how an enquiry approach can support fieldwork, a sense of place and the exploration of issues.

^{Online workshop, 4pm to 5.30pm}

In this session we will explore the range of techniques available to us for high quality primary fieldwork. All the techniques can be used in the school grounds and local area, as well as further afield. We will also consider how technology, as well as virtual fieldwork, can help us. Progression documents will be shared.

^{Online workshop, 4pm to 5.30pm}

We will look at progression in mapwork including digital mapping. The session will focus on the opportunities for mapwork in primary schools and how to incorporate regular opportunities for children to practice and develop their mapwork skills.

^{Full day, face-to-face workshop at the Teaching School Hub, 9.30am to 3.30pm}

This in-person course gives you the opportunity to put fieldwork techniques, enquiry approaches, and mapwork skills into action. We’ll begin in the classroom by generating questions and planning our exploration of the local area. After completing the fieldwork, we’ll return to analyse and present our data, and discuss how to refine techniques to best meet the needs of your pupils.
Attendance at the previous online sessions is not required, but will help you gain even more from the day.

All workshop places can be booked via our online booking system.

The training will be led by Andrew Wrenn, a knowledgeable history specialist and an honorary fellow of the Historical Association. He is an experienced teacher, trainer and writer, former LA adviser, and author and co-author of educational materials, articles and books.

1. Using rigorous historical enquiry questions in Primary History

This practical webinar will guide teachers on how to devise, rigorous historical enquiry questions, how to spot and weed out weak ones and how to sequence them in an effective way across medium-term plans. It will show how disciplinary concepts can be revisited and  pupils supported in the careful accumulation of substantive knowledge, adding to their schema progressively over time.

2. Using core literacy texts chosen on a history theme

There are many fine core texts that can enhance primary history and magnify its curricular impact. This practical webinar will show how to plan carefully when using these texts, exploring some of the advantages this can bring while avoiding corresponding pitfalls and showing how to link them effectively to discrete primary history teaching.

3. Using stories and storytelling in the Primary History classroom

This practical webinar will explore the different ways stories and storytelling can be used in Primary History, both as an evocative way of conveying substantive knowledge for retrieval, and as a stimulus to hook pupils’ initial interest and curiosity. It will also show how pupils can be helped to test the reliability of stories as historical interpretations, by comparing them with the original evidence on which they are based.

4. Using the work of historians in the Primary History classroom

This practical webinar will show how the writing and insights of real historians can be used across medium-term plans in Primary History. It will give examples of how;

• historian`s ideas can be simplified for presentation in different ways
• how their methods can be echoed for pupils in tasking
• pupils can explore the original evidence historians use to support their conclusions,

 including how pupils can test the validity of these conclusions as historical interpretations.

5. Supporting Speaking and Listening in Primary History

This practical webinar will look at the vital role speaking and listening plays in helping pupils to think, read and write in historical ways as well as developing general oracy skills. It will explore a range of strategies and tasking that can help pupils deepen their historical understanding, gain a better grasp of complex ideas, and learn how to articulate these so that they can reach (and justify) independent conclusions of their own.

6. Developing Formative Writing in Primary History

This practical webinar will demonstrate how giving pupils opportunities to write formatively can capture their understanding at given points in a learning episode, helping them to structure their developing thinking, and supporting teachers in spotting and correcting misconceptions in good time.

7. Developing Extended Writing in Primary History

This practical webinar will consider effective ways of challenging pupils to write at length, including various forms of writing frames linked to the development of disciplinary concepts, and supporting pupils in reaching independent conclusions of their own.

8. Invisible assessment in Primary History

This practical webinar will look at how substantive concepts in Primary History can be assessed in formative ways so that pupils can make good progress and teachers are not overburdened by elaborate assessment systems.  

Please click here for details of when each workshop will be taking place and visit our online booking system to reserve a place.

 

Additional KS2 Workshop

Boosting subject knowledge - The Romans and their impact on Britain

This practical webinar will provide an academic overview of the KS2 NC study unit `The Romans and their impact on Britain` boosting subject knowledge and giving teachers more confidence in their delivery. It will include an outline medium term plan for the content, including rigorous historical enquiry questions linked to disciplinary concepts, with suggested activities for immediate use in the classroom.

Please click here for further details and visit our online booking system to reserve a place.

Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA) status is a recognised progression route for school support staff that can make a real difference to schools and pupils.

It provides confidence, capability, and credibility to carry out advanced roles in teaching and learning.

Details of what’s included can be found on the BPN website:

 https://www.bestpracticenet.co.uk/hlta

Applicants are asked to state whether they have been recommended to the programme and should select ‘Leicester and Leicestershire Teaching School Hub’ from the drop-down list as well as inputting the partner code ‘LLTSH’ (in order to gain a place on the Leicester cohort).

*Applicants using the 'LLTSH' code will receive a £50 discount.