"What should an excellent KS3 offer every young person?" that is the question that the KS3 Alliance is inviting the education community and young people themselves to help answer through a national call for evidence of effective practice and approaches that have not worked, a pupil survey to look at pupil experience of early secondary and regional roadshows. The KS3 Alliance is a sector-led initiative that was formally launched in September 2026 at the House of Lords. It is b

Last night I attended a webinar with Mary Myatt and Catherine Priggs on The Ambitious Years which gave me another opportunity to reflect on just how important KS3 really is. Mary’s description of KS3 as the “intellectual powerhouse of secondary education” is a powerful one. It has stuck with me since I first read her book "KS3 - The Ambitious Years" from cover to cover in a couple of days back in June. As Mary highlights years 7-9 should be far more than a waiting room befor

One of the things I value most about our brilliant geography community is the willingness of teachers to share ideas, ask questions and learn from one another. The new International Geography Network (IGN) aims to make those connections easier for geography educators working in international schools. The network is a collaboration between the Geographical Association, Discover the World Education, GeographyPods and Geographyalltheway. It brings together colleagues who may tea

Today I attended a Royal Geographical Society Geography in Practice webinar introducing the redevelopment of the Office for National Statistics’ Open Geography Portal. The new portal is expected to launch fully in spring or summer 2027. The portal already provides free access to geographical products including boundaries, postcode directories, classifications and lookup tables. The redesigned version promises a clearer interface, improved accessibility and data that is much e

Earlier this evening I watched an InnerDrive and Teacher CPD Academy flash webinar introducing the new book Coaching for Adaptive Expertise: Developing Teachers Who Make Better Decisions, by Sarah Cottinghatt, Haili Hughes and Adam Kohlbeck delivered by the authors themselves. As Haili introduced the book, the underpinning philosophy and reasoning immediately resonated with what I often see. Teachers can be introduced to genuinely useful techniques in CPD and become capable

Geographical concepts enable pupils to connect knowledge and develop increasingly sophisticated ways of thinking about the world. They help geography become more than a sequence of separate topics and help form the narrative and golden threads that flow through our geography curriculum. An excellent recent Substack by Mark Enser (the first of three), 'Concepts in the Geography Curriculum', prompted me to contribute to the discussion of concepts in the curriculum, particularly

If we are not careful, discussion about AI in schools can quickly become reduced to a binary choice between embracing it and banning it. However, neither position addresses the more difficult educational questions its growing use presents. The most important question may not be whether pupils should use AI, but what thinking we need them to do for themselves. Where might AI help, where might it hinder? Schools increasingly need to consider: When might AI support learning, an

Reading Steve Willshaw’s new book prompted me to consider reading aloud as part of pupils’ intellectual entitlement and its place within an ambitious KS3 curriculum.

Why do I keep returning to researchED? I reflect on its sense of community, the challenge of choosing just six sessions from 137 and the ideas that left me with plenty to think about.

The public consultation on the draft National Curriculum programmes of study is expected this autumn. Here are some of the ways subject leaders and teachers can begin preparing to engage, without attempting to rewrite their KS3 curriculum before the proposals are published.

The Geographical Association has published its analysis of the 2026 GCSE Geography results which you can download here. The overall picture is one of relative stability but as departments return for the new academic year there are several findings worth reflecting on as subject leaders look more closely at their own results. Across the UK, there were 299,306 GCSE Geography entries this year and Geography remains the sixth most popular GCSE subject, narrowly behind history. In

The 2026 A-level results and grade boundaries are now available through tutor2u’s free Exam Results Explorer. The interactive tool brings together results data from across subjects and exam boards, allowing teachers to explore national grade distributions, examine changes over time, compare outcomes and grade boundaries, and investigate patterns in subject entries and results by gender. For Heads of Geography, it could provide a useful starting point for departmental results

A-level Geography outcomes improved slightly in 2026. In England, 24.5% of entries were awarded an A* or A, compared with 24.1% in 2025, while the proportion achieving A*–C increased from 79.8% to 80.7%. Across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, 34,128 students received an A-level Geography result. This was only slightly lower than the 34,336 entries recorded in 2025, suggesting that the more substantial decline seen in recent years may be slowing. Geography remained the tw

Results day is, first and foremost, about individual young people. Behind every national percentage is a student opening an envelope or refreshing a screen, hoping that the outcome of two years of work is going to enable them to take their next step. Now that the national data has been published what is the national picture? The overall story from A-level and Level 3 results in 2026 is one of broadly stable outcomes, growing participation and a record number of university acc