20 January 2026
Read time: 12mins
‘As a geography teacher educator, leading PGCE geography provision at Sheffield Hallam University, I have integrated the ITE webpages into all aspects of planning, teaching and assessment.’
Vicki Pountney
On behalf of the Teacher Education Phase Committee (TEPC), Vicki Pountney and Rachel Hawke reflect on how they use the ITE webpages as geography teacher educators to support novice teachers and their mentors. Vicki also asked PGCE trainees from Sheffield Hallam University to share their own insights into the ways they use the ITE webpages to support their own geographical thinking and professional development.
Introduction to the ITE webpages
The Geographical Association Initial Teacher Education webpages offer novice teachers, their mentors and geography teacher educators a wealth of high quality, research-informed guidance to help steer professional discussions and support novice teachers to develop as confident and knowledgeable subject specialists.
The ITE webpages offer geography specific support and guidance for:
- navigating the ITE and ECT years
- tools to support observation, feedback and professional dialogue
- activities and tasks that build disciplinary thinking and pedagogical skill
- case studies and models of effective geography teaching
- links to trusted GA materials and the wider ITE and geography teaching evidence base.
These webpages have been designed to provide a comprehensive resource for structuring and enhancing subject specific professional development. They provide a coherent suite of resources aligned with curriculum expectations set out in the DfE’s ITTECF (2024) ‘learn that’ and ‘learn how to’ statements and the Teachers’ Standards (2013), and support novice teachers to develop disciplinary thinking, subject-specific pedagogy and their understanding of effective classroom practice.
Primary ITE webpages
Members of TEPC with primary expertise are currently developing materials which are located on the primary ITE webpages to support mentors from a geography perspective. Members of TEPC are continuing to design and develop these webpages and will continue to add resources periodically.
Currently, the sections have content focused on ‘geography mentoring’, with resources covering (1) ‘what makes a good primary mentor?’, (2) ‘co-planning lessons’, (3) ‘subject specific prompts to support planning and observation feedback’ and (4) ‘giving subject-specific feedback’.
While many of the resources have been created for secondary novice teachers and their mentors, colleagues working across the primary phase may also find some of these resources helpful to support professional discussions with novice teachers.
PGCE student teacher perspectives on the ITE webpages
Starting out and self-reflection
Like many university PGCE geography programmes, trainees at Sheffield Hallam University are introduced to the GA ITE webpages before they begin their ITE programme. Ellie used the ‘becoming a geography trainee teacher’ at the very beginning of her ITE journey. ‘I found this page positive, uplifting and inspiring’. She was grateful for its honest and practical guidance as she prepared to enter the teaching profession as a student teacher.
Ellie benefitted from the practical advice offered, to help her establish effective working routines and for using her time efficiently, as she continues to balance time working on planning and teaching in school with time spent engaging in academic and professional practice reading and research in support of seminar discussions and group learning activities as part of her university taught geography curriculum programme.
For James, he is using many of the webpages as a self-assessment tool, to help him reflect on learning and progress as well as help him to identify possible next steps, particularly as he makes his transition from placement A to B. The ‘Post-16 teaching’ pages have been particularly useful for James as he prepares to move to his contrasting school placement – it will provide James with the opportunity to observe, plan and teach lessons in the Post-16 phase. He’s also found the webpages which focus on ‘becoming an ECT’ helpful so he knows what to expect and can plan accordingly as he begins to search for jobs in the later part of the ITE year.
Theory to practice: bridging the divide
Ellie, Jack and James all commented that the ITE webpages provide easily digestible and helpful summaries of key literature with connections to what high-quality geography classroom practice can look like.
Jack suggests the webpages also offer helpful guidance for clarifying educational language to support both university learning and his ongoing experimentation with new approaches to teaching and learning in the classroom while on school placement. Importantly, evidence-based research and its connection to current classroom practice, which can be read minutes, is important for busy student teachers such as Jack.
Assignments
Ellie, Jack and James have found the webpages supportive as they strive to develop disciplinary thinking while exploring seminal literature and research-informed practice guides relevant to the geography classroom. The ITE webpages are helping Ellie, Jack and James to contextualise their understanding of purposeful classroom practice as they engage in classroom based action research to explore themes such as teacher ‘modelling’ and ‘scaffolding’, ‘effective teacher questioning’ and understanding ‘geographical learning and memory’.
A geography subject mentor perspective on the ITE webpages
As lead subject mentor for geography at a SCITT based in Exeter, Rachel uses the ITE website on a regular basis. When she initially started in role, she inherited a curriculum for geography trainees but needed to identify reliable resources to ensure the reading list was up to date and relevant for incoming student teachers.
The ITE website provides Rachel with a wide range of contemporary and research informed references linked to GA publications. Helpfully, these are also separated into different topics such as ‘what is geographical subject knowledge?’ or ‘feedback and marking’, which link to the DfE ITTECF.
The ITE website pages are updated on a regular basis, which means Rachel can trust they will have the most up to date summaries and references to subject pedagogy and connect to key issues and debates within geography education. Rachel references the ITE webpages in subject sessions for her trainees and links these pages to the knowledge organiser so trainees can refer to these as they plan their PGCE assignments.
A geography teacher educator perspective on the ITE webpages
As a geography teacher educator, leading PGCE geography provision at Sheffield Hallam University, I have integrated the ITE webpages into all aspects of planning, teaching and assessment.
Student teachers are introduced to the ITE webpages prior to beginning their PGCE year, with links shared to support applicants secure and develop their teacher ‘subject knowledge’ and curriculum understanding before the start of the academic year. Early subject specific seminar sessions focus on becoming a geography teacher with specific emphasis on encouraging trainee teachers to begin thinking about their vision for becoming a teacher of geography and their teacher identity as a ‘beginning geography teacher’.
Throughout the year, student teachers are supported to reflect on progress and identify next steps. The ITE webpages that focus on ‘becoming a reflective geography teacher’ are particularly useful here. As student teachers are introduced to their second assignment, they are provided with extensive links to the ITE webpages to help them identify a foci for their assignment with the pages in the ‘using research evidence about practice’ section highlighted. As student teachers come towards the end of their year in ITE, they are asked to reflect on why ‘belonging to the geography community’ is particularly important as they become ECTs.
For each subject session student teachers are signposted to relevant sections of the ITE pages. Whether they are asked to consider how wider academic literature is connected to subject specific research and high quality classroom practice, or if they are asked to research the ways in which a geography classroom can be developed to ensure it is inclusive for all pupils, student teachers are always keen to share their thoughts on the value of the ITE webpages as they deepen their understanding of theory and practice.
Finally, links to the webpages are shared with geography mentors to support their weekly professional discussions with student teachers. I have the privilege of working with new mentors as well as extremely experienced and knowledgeable mentors, who welcome the links shared to support subject focused professional discussions which consider different aspects of classroom practice.
Whether I am sharing links to the ‘inclusion and adaptive teaching’ section of the website to support discussions during the inclusion Intensive Training and Practice (ITaP) week or links to the ‘classroom practice’ section to support ongoing discussions to help develop and reflect on geography specific pedagogy, mentors welcome receiving these links. Not only does it help to shape the professional discussions mentors have with novice teachers, but it also helps mentors to stay connected to the geography teacher community.
Concluding thoughts
If you’ve been inspired to take a look at the ITE webpages, this helpful guide can be accessed here to help you navigate the ITE pages. The webpages have been structured around the ITTECF and Teachers’ Standards. A hyperlinked PDF guide can also be downloaded here.
As I end this blog, I shall leave you with the words of Ellie as she summarises why she values using the GA ITE webpages
‘The GA ITE webpages have already significantly supported my professional development at the start of my teaching career. These webpages have been instrumental in linking university teaching, school experiences and my overall development together to understand the purpose and impact of effective geography teaching. ‘The ITE: Guide to learning to teach secondary geography section’ has been exceptionally useful in chunking the Teachers’ Standards into manageable segments. This has supported me to reflect, evaluate and set targets to develop my own practice.
‘I have found the ITE webpages to be inspiring and motivating therefore igniting my personal curiosity which has positively benefited my overall wellbeing and excitement to be participating in my PGCE year. At this stage, I feel these webpages have had a monumentally positive impact on my teaching practice and professional development and would therefore recommend these webpages to all geography trainee teachers’.
Written by Vicki Pountney, Senior Lecturer in Education at Sheffield Hallam University, with contributions from Rachel Hawke. The author is grateful to Ellie Johnson, James McGregor and Jack Thompson for sharing their insights on how they use the ITE webpages.
©Vicki Pountney, and the Geographical Association, 2026
Leave a Reply