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Putting WCS on the map: WCS Geography department featured in national OS publication

We are proud to share that the Westminster City School Geography curriculum and some of the excellent map work produced by our KS3 and KS4 Geography students in their lessons has recently been showcased in an online publication released by the Ordnance Survey (Great Britain’s national mapping service). Aimed at supporting other teachers with creating a high quality Geography curriculum that supports students with developing map skills, the publication highlights our Geography curriculum as an excellent example of how this can be achieved in the classroom.

Miss Baulcomb, Senior Lead Practitioner at Westminster City School, has worked with the Geography department to develop the curriculum over a number of years. She commented:

“I am so proud to share our curriculum work with the wider Geography teaching community through the Ordnance Survey’s publication. We always strive to offer a broad and challenging Geography curriculum for our students at Westminster City School, which centres on our core belief that our subject is fundamental to helping them understand the world beyond their own doorstep. Ensuring that our Geography students are equipped with map skills is a fundamental part of their journey towards becoming excellent Geographers; explicitly planning for our students to use maps routinely in lessons throughout KS3-5 has really helped to achieve this vision. It is also something that they really enjoy, it brings Geography learning to life!”

She added:

“We are also very pleased that so many of our Year 13 students have been so inspired by their learning that they have chosen to continue studying Geography at university next year. Many of our students currently hold offers with some of the most prestigious institutions (including Cambridge, LSE, UCL and King’s College London) which is testament to the passion and enthusiasm they have shown for learning about the world throughout their time at Westminster City School. We can’t wait to see where their love of Geography will take them in the future.”

Miss Baulcomb also spoke at the Geographical Association’s national teacher conference over the Easter holidays, sharing how the WCS Geography department are developing fieldwork and outdoor learning opportunities for students across KS3-5. Whilst Year 7 have carried out local fieldwork investigating how and why the microclimate varies around the school site as part of their unit of study about weather & climate (see photos), our A-level and GCSE Geographers also have an exciting few weeks ahead. Year 12 students are taking part in a 5-day residential visit to FSC Flatford Mill in Suffolk next week to carry out a range of fieldwork activities in coastal, urban and rural environments, with Year 11 visiting Seaford on the south coast for their physical geography GCSE fieldwork day later on this term. We look forward to sharing updates and photos in due course.

You can download the Ordnance Survey publication here (the sections about WCS are on p65-69, p75 & p93-94):

Designing a coherent geography curriculum for 11-16 year olds: Planning for pupil progress in the use of Ordnance Survey maps (Third Edition): https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/documents/resources/designing-a-geography-curriculum-secondary.pdf