We are extremely proud that Bloxham’s Geography department has been recognised for their excellence receiving two awards from The GeographiCAL Association.
The Secondary Geography Quality Mark and Centre of Excellence highlight the exceptional level of geography education that students at Bloxham receive. These prestigious and widely recognised awards celebrate and promote excellence and progress in geography leadership, curriculum development, and teaching in schools. Achieving Centre of Excellence status further recognises the department’s outstanding contribution to high-quality geography education.
Over the past academic year, Bloxham’s Geography department has been striving to achieve these awards by implementing an assessment framework to evaluate the geography curriculum. A portfolio of evidence featuring Bloxham’s collaborative efforts was assessed by The GeographiCAL Association against stringent criteria to ensure a rigorous awarding process. Following one of the three possible routes—disseminating quality practice in geography locally or more widely—Bloxham achieved Centre of Excellence status for Networking.
Sustainability Challenge: Dalcour Maclaren, supported by ESRI UK
The Geography department launched a new and exciting initiative in partnership with the award-winning, environmentally responsible national business enterprise, Dalcour Maclaren. Following the six steps of the Bloxham School Sustainability Challenge, the collaboration with Dalcour Maclaren in creating a real-world challenge has provided our students with the opportunity to develop IT skills and work-ready competencies. The twenty-week challenge has not only enhanced the Geography curriculum but has also been fully integrated into the Sixth Form Enrichment Programme and participants this year of the challenge will also include students from The Warriner School and Stratford Grammar School for Girls.
Geography Explorers service activity
As part of a new initiative that runs every Thursday, the Geography department created the Geography Explorers Service Activity. Each week, primary school students in Years Four to Six from Bloxham Primary School and Great Tew Primary School visit the department to engage in a range of fun, hands-on activities. Significantly, these activities are designed by Bloxham students in the Lower Sixth and Fourth Form, making it a student-led programme that provides opportunities for leadership, teamwork, and the development of strong communication skills.
Comments from the moderators
It was a delight to read the feedback from the moderators, particularly their comments that “A strength of your curriculum is how focused it is on the student experience” and “The curriculum takes into account the local context of the school, which includes numerous fieldwork opportunities for students at all key stages. Curriculum resources are high quality and engaging.” They also noted, “The example lesson on globalisation and China illustrated this well and showcased how students are encouraged to think independently and connect new ideas with existing knowledge. In this lesson, the size of the Ever Given container ship was compared to Bloxham and the church; we really enjoyed this and commend you for the level of detail you go into to make learning relatable for your students.”
Dr Claire Evans, Head of Geography, shares:
The Geography Department are delighted and honoured to have been awarded the ‘Secondary Geography Quality Mark’ by The GeographiCAL Association, which is in recognition of excellence in teaching and learning in Geography. Such an achievement would not have been possible without the incredible commitment and motivation shown within Geography by our teachers and young students.
We are also thrilled to have achieved an additional ‘Centre of Excellence’ award from The GeographiCAL Association, in recognition of the exciting partnership we have formed with Dalcour Maclaren through the delivery of our new Bloxham School Sustainability Challenge programme. We are passionate about this education-business partnership as a model for instilling essential skills in our students through the delivery of real-world projects, underpinned by ESRI UK’s amazing online geospatial technologies.
As Head of Geography, I am incredibly proud of these achievements by the department and for the recognition of Bloxham School as being at the forefront of excellence and innovation in teaching and learning.
Our thanks go to Mike Lee and Simon Navin from Dalcour Maclaren, and Katie Hall and Dave Morgan from ESRI UK, for their hard work and collaborative efforts, which made achieving the awards possible.
Congratulations to the Geography department—Claire Evans, Matt Buckland, Sue Russell, Simon Thompson, James Ramm, Adrian Shephard, Nick Pigott—and everyone involved in this remarkable achievement.
