Celebrating excellence in subject leadership

Geography - St Edward's College, Liverpool - Winner of the 2024 Bernice McCabe Award

The Geography department at St Edward's College won the award for their programme of activity to promote a geographical identity to students and staff at the College. This has been achieved by a diverse array of activities which contribute to a cumulative geographical ethos, collaborating with a range of external agencies.

The Geography department rolled out an inclusive GCSE revision programme covering concepts and case studies through a series of carousel activities. 65% of the Year 11 cohort attended these inaugural opportunities. There was a direct correlation between attendance and examination results. However, the real magic of these sessions was the downtime between activities where students socialised, ate pizza and discussed everyday geographies. This really helped to create a culture where Geography is a discipline to be celebrated where learning is not restricted to the classroom.

The department then repaired a trail on the school’s grounds that is now a 250m stretch of forest that is now fit for purpose for study. The trail has been road-tested with fieldwork experiences integrated into all year groups at Key Stage 3 and 4. Then, in collaboration with the University of Liverpool’s sustainability department, the woodland facility was developed with some forward-thinking initiatives such as bug boxes, hedgehog friendly spaces and birdwatching.

The School supports and endorses enrolment for postgraduate study; for example the Head of Geography is studying for a PhD in sea level change. Colleagues in the department have used their postgraduate study experiences to enrich students’ coursework on the Isle of Arran using advanced data collection, presentation and analytical techniques and strategies increasing percentages of As / A*s at A-Level.

Finally, the Geography department launched the St Edwards College Mountaineering Society to promote staff well-being across the College. The main objective this academic year is to take on the challenge of the Yorkshire Three Peaks in the summer term to raise money for charity – this will be promoted explicitly to students to improve the respect-rapport relationship between learners and educators opening up the awe and wonder of Geography.

The department’s ultimate objective is to cultivate a community of Geographers who enjoy and engage with the discipline in everyday situations ensuring they are responsible citizens thinking globally, acting locally and living sustainably operating as role models for society through a diverse range of activities both outside of the classroom and outside of the school day.

The Art & Design department at St Edward's School, Poole was nominated for developing their Art curriculum to show how art can be used for social change and to explore moral and political issues. This developed into cross curricular work with the History department and the commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day showing how students have used art to commemorate, to challenge and to reflect.

Further cross-curricular links were developed with the Geography department. The Art department built on climate crisis issues connected with plastic production and waste, by participating in a postcard exchange project involving schools across Ireland and the UK. The postcard exchange enthused all Year 8, Year 10 and sixth form students involved, as it gave their artwork added worth, with some of their work exhibited in the British Embassy in Dublin. 

The art department also developed and delivered an Extended Learning Project on the theme of Cultural Capital, for sixth form students not formally studying Art, which is a six-week course delivered on rotation. The course aims to introduce a range of artists and art institutions and allows students to think and respond creatively to a range of different subject matter, and has been very popular.

The department as a whole has worked together on specialist CPD, either after school and sometimes through participating in online training together with the PTI. These experiences have enriched the subject knowledge of staff and helped develop staff confidence when delivering the Art curriculum.

The Design and Technology department at Leeds West Academy was nominated for developing an exceptional curriculum where students have the opportunity to follow their dreams and achieve their career goals. 

To achieve this the team enhanced the coherence and level of challenge within the curriculum to ensure that all learners regardless of their starting points could achieve and secure progress.

The department recognised that on entry to secondary school, Year 7 pupils' subject knowledge did not meet the minimum expectations of the national curriculum and so to combat this they forged links with primary feeder schools and secured time within the academy curriculum to invite 180 Year 5 students to complete a transition project. This has had a major impact at KS3 as the skills gained on this project were enhanced and stretched and provided a more secure foundation for learning when starting at the academy.

At KS3 and 4 the department strengthened links with the Science and Maths departments. The impact of this is best seen through the Engineering results - the team's focus was to develop their understanding of the implementation of rapid prototyping to support iterative design, developing further opportunity for students to explore the work of different designers and design philosophies. These concepts supported the development of stretch and challenge curriculum wide. To enrich the curriculum further the department embedded more use of CAD which has led to the attainment of higher-grade boundaries whilst gaining the department a new state of the art computer suite.

Learners are provided with regular opportunities to develop cultural capital through educational visits and the delivery of a wide range of after school enrichments. A visit to The Grammar School at Leeds resulted in a student receiving a fully funded scholarship to pursue his ambition in becoming a chemical engineer.

The department has also made many links with industry. 100% of the timber used in the department is now donated to the academy so that students can create high quality products. Local businesses now provide students with ingredients that they would not normally have the opportunity to cook with in their home environments, such as mussels and salmon, for all year groups to use. A link with a local textile factory is providing access to career pathways for KS3 students.