As with other primary school foundation subjects, assessing Geography and understanding progression across the school can be challenging. We’ll explore how to maximise Geography assessment opportunities with examples from Kapow Primary’s Geography scheme. We’ll also delve into how you can use informal assessment methods in Geography lessons and beyond.

Why do we assess progress in Geography?

Assessment is important in order to:

• Check knowledge and understanding
• Inform future planning
• Identify areas of strength and development for classes, cohorts and individual pupils
• Check whole school progression is consistent and developing as planned 
• Ensure coverage of national curriculum standards

What are the challenges of assessment in Geography?

Recalling information 

In many schools, curriculum organisation means that Geography is taught for only half the year. Consequently, children don’t have Geography lessons for substantial periods of time. This affects knowledge retention and highlights the need for pupils to revise their geographical knowledge regularly, not just in Geography lessons.

Teacher knowledge and confidence

It can be difficult for a teacher to assess a concept if they don’t fully understand it. Geography is a subject with specialist vocabulary and complex skills, which includes understanding how socio-economic factors influence trade and natural resources and using six-figure grid references when map reading. Teachers often receive little training in Geography and, unsurprisingly, lack confidence.

At Kapow Primary, we’ve created bite-sized videos to upskill teachers before they teach lessons. In this way, through provision of integrated CPD, teachers can confidently deliver lessons with sufficient understanding to accurately assess children’s learning.

Kapow Primary Geography assessment resources

Recap and recall 

At the beginning of each lesson, children engage in a recall task, from the ‘Recap and recall’ section of the lesson plan. This helps pupils to remember prior knowledge and is particularly important at the beginning of a unit as a way to revisit learning from previous year groups. Each lesson in a unit will recap knowledge learnt in the previous lesson. 

Source: The recap questions from the first lesson of the lower key stage 2 unit ‘Why do people live near volcanoes?’ 

At Kapow Primary, our lesson plans follow a spiral curriculum design, allowing pupils to revisit learning and build on their knowledge continually.

Wrapping up

‘Wrapping up’ happens at the end of every lesson. Children are asked questions to assess their understanding of the lesson content with explicit opportunities for assessment linking back to the learning objective. Teachers can use their answers to inform future lessons.

Source: Wrapping up from the first lesson of the upper key stage 2 unit ‘What is life like in the Alps?’

Spreadsheets

Our assessment spreadsheets are for schools requiring a more formal assessment method to track pupil data. Fully customisable, our Geography assessment spreadsheet enables teachers to assess pupils against the assessment statements from each Geography lesson.

The Geography: National curriculum coverage document explains how Kapow Primary lessons fulfil the statutory requirements for Geography outlined in the national curriculum (2014).

End-of-unit quizzes 

Every Geography unit has a quiz, with five questions for pupils in key stage 1 and ten questions for children in key stage 2. The quizzes feature closed questions and a more in-depth question at the end for children to explain their learning further and to give opportunity for pupils to demonstrate greater in-depth thinking.

A quiz is an enjoyable and interactive way to assess learning. It is not a test. Quizzes are more fun if you get creative with how you use them. Why not organise children into teams and invite them to take turns to be quiz masters? Or ask pupils to create their own quizzes? 

Knowledge catchers and skills catchers 

Knowledge catchers often feature an image relevant to the topic and thought-provoking open-ended questions. The quantity and complexity of the questions are tailored to the specific age group.

Two units are skills-based and feature skills catchers instead of knowledge catchers. They are: 

• The first Geography unit in Year 1, ‘What is it like here?’ when pupils learn the Geography skills of identifying the basic features of an environment
• The Year 6 independent fieldwork enquiry, which brings together all the geographical skills the children have learnt throughout the scheme

Knowledge organisers

Every Geography unit has a ready-made knowledge organiser featuring key facts, informative diagrams and vocabulary. These are often used:

• At the beginning of a unit, to assess existing knowledge
• Throughout lessons, keeping the key concepts at the front of children’s learning 
• At the end of a unit, to evaluate understanding

Informal assessment in Geography

It’s advantageous to find informal assessment opportunities in Geography wherever possible. This helps pupils embed and recall their learning and understand how to apply their Geography skills and knowledge in the real world.  Here are a few suggestions:

Fieldwork

How can you assess fieldwork skills? The Kapow Primary Geography scheme features fieldwork in every unit, enabling children to develop strong fieldwork skills. Although not suited to more traditional forms of assessment, fieldwork lends itself well to informal assessment methods and self-assessment. 

Ways to assess fieldwork: 

• A discussion between adults working with groups both before and after fieldwork takes place. This could be about what the children could do easily and in which areas they needed support
• Assess the quality of data collected during fieldwork
• Pupils use self-assessment against a learning objective 
• Evaluation of how fieldwork has been successful and what the pupil may change, and why, if it were to be repeated

School trips

Although most school trips are for a particular curriculum subject, every school trip is also a Geography trip. Or at least it can be. Simply ask Geography assessment questions either before or after you go to activate geographical thinking. For example:

• How will you get there? 
• What route will the coach/train take? 
• Can you find it on a map? 
• Do you expect any issues, such as driving in a busy place or up steep hills? 
• Which human and physical features might you see? 

Children’s experiences

When children are desperate to tell you where they’ve been on holiday or at the weekend, why not use it to assess their geographical knowledge? 

• Can they locate it in an atlas or on a classroom globe or wall map? 
• How high was the mountain they climbed? 
• Can they compare the country they visited with the UK?

Cross-curricular links 

So much of the primary school curriculum provides the possibility for cross-curricular learning. Making connections across the curriculum enables informal assessment of geographical knowledge in other subjects. 

Teachers can use geographical questioning to assess knowledge recall and skills in different lessons, such as: 

• How have explorers changed the world? in History 
• British songs and sounds or South and West Africa in Music 
• Rocks and soils in Science (explore links with the Geography unit Why do people live near volcanoes?) 

There are many ways to assess primary Geography, which aren’t all immediately apparent. By making the most of discreet opportunities outside of lessons, you can assess children’s knowledge and support them to apply their learning in alternative contexts.