GA Cambridge Branch GeogMeet 2025

This June, the GA Branch is running another GeogMeet.

This will be the seventh Geog-Meet; held online in June this year. 

Deadlines for submission proposals are on Friday 28th March. 

Successful submission proposals will be asked to produce their presentations by the end of May.

 The evening event will be held in June. If you are new to the Geog-Meet process and would like some guidance in putting forwards your students for the first time, please get in touch with James Riley (jriley@perse.co.uk) who would be happy to assist.

50 years of Teaching Geography journal

I've previously blogged about the origins of Teaching Geography journal under its first editor Patrick Bailey.

The current editor: Richard Bustin reflects on the 50th anniversary of the journal and how it has changed in the most recent Spring 2025 issue.

It includes a nice summary of the development of the journal by former GA President Richard Daugherty.

We are all Gravesian

 Earlier this week was Norman Graves' 100th birthday, as mentioned in a previous post.

John Morgan has written a piece on the enduring importance of his work for those involved in curriculum design and teacher education for the GERECO blog. This blog has infrequent posts, but they are always worth reading.

GEReCo is the Geography Education Research Collective / UK Commission on Geographical Education of the International Geographical Union

Members are listed here. Some very well known names there, including former GA Presidents.

Primary Geography Journal - Spring 2025

The theme for this issue, edited by Ben Ballin, is the Geography of Togetherness. 

I am very pleased to have an article in this issue on this theme. 

Thanks to Ben for asking me to contribute some time ago. 

Subscribers can now download the digital issue and print copies will be arriving shortly. There are some other excellent pieces in this issue too as always, including a lovely contribution by Sharon Witt and Helen Clarke and also a personal piece from Steve Rawlinson on the loss of the Sycamore Gap tree.

In my article I talk about rural and urban ex/inclusion of certain groups and offer some suggestions of projects that might be of interest to explore this topic with pupils.

RGS / GA Festival of Geography

Do you like festivals? Course you do...

Like geography? Of course - love it!

How about a Festival of Geography! Yes please!

The Festival of Geography brings together colleagues from the Royal Geographical Society and Geographical Association (GA) for a joint celebration of geographical knowledge and understanding.

This special event is an opportunity for teachers at all stages to come together and share their passion for geography. Over a full day, attend sessions on creative and practical ideas for the classroom and get subject updates from experts in the field.

The day is bookended with sessions from the GA and RGS-IBG on the future of geography teaching and its value as a subject for students of all ages.

The festival consists of a full day of talks and workshops held live at the RGS-IBG in London on 16 June 2025.

Programme

• 10.00 - Welcome
• 10.15 - Geography: the Big Picture (Steve Brace, GA Chief Executive)
• 10.45 - Keynote lecture: Mark Maslin (University College London)
• 11.30 - Tea and coffee
• 11.45 - Creative curriculum ideas (Fiona Sheriff)
• 12.45 - Lunch
• 13.30 - Practical fieldwork ideas (Chloë Searl)
• 14.30 - Tea and coffee
• 14.45 - Subject knowledge sessions (Anjana Khatwa and guest)
• 15.45 - Choose Geography: embedding careers education into your teaching (Alan Parkinson, VP Education Royal Geographical Society)
• 16.15 - Close

Full details and a booking link can be found on this link.

I hope to see many of you down at the 'Home of Geography' for this special event...

It's really good to have a joint event again. 

I was part of the Action Plan for Geography team - at a time when we used to work more closely together. 

GA President 2026-27 - an election has been called

An election has been called to elect the GA President who will follow Catherine Owen as GA President, and serve for 2026-7.

Voting will close on Friday 28 February 2025.

Nominations have been received for Kit Marie Rackley and Fiona Sheriff.

The GA President holds a number of key responsibilities, including setting the theme of the GA Annual Conference, chairing the Conference Planning Board and delivering the Presidential Lecture at Conference.

The President serves as Vice President (2025–6) in their first year and as an ex-officio member of Education Group. In the second year, they serve as President (2026–7) and for one further year as Immediate Past President (2027–8). Throughout this time they are a member of the GA’s Board of Trustees. During the period of office, they work with the Chair of Trustees and Chief Executive to help steer the work of the Board of Trustees and the Association.

Please do vote – by taking part in this election you are ensuring that your voice is heard within the GA and you will be helping us to continue to respond to and meet the needs of the GA’s membership.

 
Go here to read their statements and cast your vote if you are a GA member.

Image: King's Ely Geographers supporting me at my Presidential conference in 2022

Happy 100th birthday to Norman Graves

Norman Graves was GA President in 1978. 

He reaches the milestone age of 100 years old today.

Happy Birthday Norman!

Read all about him here.

There are quite a lot of very long-lived former GA Presidents (I hope that's a good omen) but I think Norman may be the first to have reached the century...

Norman's work on curriculum continues to be referenced in academic work, and many of a certain age (such as me) will remember using his white school textbook written with John Talbot White.

A picture of my personal copy can be seen below:

New WordArt

I hadn't updated the WordArt of all former (and current) Presidents' names for a few years... so made this earlier to ensure everyone is mentioned...

Norman Graves - a special milestone celebration

As part of my GA Presidential journey, I created a blog which features a biography of every President of the Geographical Association.

The GA President in 1978 was Professor Norman Graves.

Norman told me in an e-mail back in 2020 that: "I am conscious that the year of your birth, 1963, was the year I arrived at the Institute of Education to head the Geography Department."

I had a message earlier from his daughter via the blog:

"Norman is celebrating his 100th Birthday on 28th January 2025.

For those that might want to wish him well, please contact me on: 

 helenescott@virginmedia.com.
We are holding a celebratory lunch for him at a local hotel and are expecting quite a crowd. He is an exceptional man, and I am more than proud of him."

I am sure there will be many people who may wish to congratulate him. Please forward this message to those who may have known him or, like me, were influenced by his work or used his books when they were at school.

All your messages will be passed on to Norman.

Ronald Lampitt - 'geographer'

Back in 2020, Brendan Conway responded to a post on this blog which mentioned the wartime work of quite a few former Presidents, often in aerial photography interpretation, although this is not an area that has been researched in any detail. 

It finished with a mention for the artist and illustrator Ronald Lampitt.

It's also known that Ronald Lampitt, much admired by geographers and certainly one of my favourite artists, worked in this area of intelligence. His 'geographical eye' and recurring tendency to view almost everything he illustrated from above seems likely to have been strongly influenced by his wartime work, but perhaps also by working with geographers? 

I'd never been able to find out much about his role during the war until recently when I stumbled across reference to his work by the scientific military intelligence expert RV Jones in his book 'Most Secret War'. It seems that he was very close to the V-weapon investigations as well, so there would be a possibility that he worked with Linton at some point. I summarised the findings in this thread:

https://twitter.com/mildthing99/status/1256611375411073024

Lampitt was recruited by Albert Hugh Smith, who was clearly very close to RV Jones. He later went on to become Professor of English at UCL and acclaimed scholar of Scandinavian Studies and English placenames, so he clearly had geographical interests. Perhaps he had links with Bill Mead at UCL who was also a Scandinavian expert?

There are plenty of examples of Lampitt's illustrations on the Ladyburd Fly Away Home website and social media feeds.

https://ladybirdflyawayhome.com/ronald-lampitt/

During the war he worked in Intelligence and although (perhaps inevitably) the nature of this work is unknown, it is possible that his wartime work helped develop his exceptional topographical accuracy and the ability to animate technical drawings into something visually rich and appealing.

The blog explores the wartime careers of quite a few post-war GA Presidents.

Mike Dempsey's blog post also shares his love of Lampitt and his work.

I can see that there is a potential book in unpicking the contributions made by several post-war Presidents, including Michael Wise, who was also President of the RGS, and an important post-war Geographer that many people will not be familar with.

Illustrations: Ronald Lampitt

R H Kinvig

R H Kinvig is mentioned in a few documents referenced when I was searching for information on Michael Wise. He was connected with the University of Birmingham,. and also other presidents including Percy Roxby.

He served as President of the Institute of British Geographers in 1957.

He wrote a history of the Isle of Man.

The University of Birmingham still has a Kinvig Geographical Society.

https://www.kinvigsociety.co.uk/

Obituary, written by Michael Wise of whom he was a mentor, as he was for Harry Thorpe.

Wise, M. J. “Obituary: Professor R. H. Kinvig.” The Geographical Journal, vol. 135, no. 3, 1969, pp. 485–87. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1797428. Accessed 19 Dec. 2024.

References

https://academic.oup.com/ia/article-abstract/27/4/540/2687639?redirectedFrom=fulltext

GA / IoE seminar

On the 4th of Decemember, the Geographical Association and Institute of Education held a joint seminar exploring the geography curriculum in the light of the Curriculum and Assessment Review.

I was invited to speak at the event on behalf of the RGS, but was unable to attend as I already had a previous engagement, so Catherine Souch kindly stepped in to give a summary of the work we had done on our submission to the call for evidence.

The seminar was chaired by Dr Alex Standish (IOE) with contributions from:

• Helen Martin (Primary Head)
• Hina Robinson (Head of Geography and GA President)
• Steve Brace (Chief Executive at the GA)
• Dr Catherine Souch (Head of Research and Higher Education RGS)
• Eleanor Rawling (consultant in geographical education)

The discussion explores the current geography curriculum and its GCSE and A level specifications at a time of curriculum review, alongside the progression and set-backs of the geography curriculum since its introduction in the late 1980s. Eleanor Rawling spoke at the event and she has been involved in previous iterations of the National Curriculum and worked on the National Curriculum Framework for the GA.

A recording of the contributions and Q&A is available using this link - you will need to login to Zoom in order to see it. Thanks to the GA for sharing this.

https://ucl.zoom.us/rec/share/_UX_SqYZHp1EqnnyX2DMC2QRFLB4hrsoyEBXcR_It4w1GXOGVBveh-Jkae77HQIf.KnFHjvaxWjZEouf7

Passcode: D37Zw#@+

You can watch Catherine's contribution by fast-forwarding to 34'30". She sums up the work we did in ten key bullet points.

GA Conference 2025 and GEO Live

Preparations are well underway for GA Conference 2025 and Hina Robinson's conference.

The programme is on the GA website.

Good to see what Emma Rawlings-Smith is giving the Rex Walford Lecture, and Anjana Khatwa the Public Lecture - talking about her forthcoming book.

A feature of the GA Conference for some years now is the chance for young people to attend as well. This is called GEO Live.

Details are below. Sign up on this page.

GEO Live: Future Changemakers will take place on Thursday 17 April 2025 at the GA Annual Conference and Exhibition in Oxford.

This programme, designed specially for students aged 14–18, will enthuse them about geography and its wide-ranging applications, enable them to think beyond school toward university and possible careers in geography.

Teachers can bring up to six students each to the GA Annual Conference on Thursday 17 April, where they will take part in their own programme of sessions, including workshops and special talks with young geographers, influencers and academics.

Places are free of charge and available to students of GA members only. One teacher must be booked to attend Conference as a delegate to secure the places.

To book a place for your students, and for any queries, please complete the form.

2024 Programme: Future changemakers

Thursday 17th April 2025

9.30–10.00: Registration

10.10: Attend keynote lecture

11.30–12.30: Introduction to the day housekeeping and introduction to being changemakers

Changemakers Part 1

Exploring our own identity – what personal lenses do we have on our world outlook?

12.30–1.00: Lunch on site (students bring their own lunch) & opportunity to talk to students studying geography at University

13.00–14.00 Changemakers part 2

Issues facing our world and opportunities to take action – focus on climate change

2.00–3.00: Changemakers part 3

Green jobs

3.00–3.30: Question Time – Opportunity for delegates to address questions to our Changemaker Panel

3.30 pm End

New GA Manchester Branch blog

 The GA Manchester Branch has a new blog. I always like to see more people turning to blogging rather than TikTok and the like...

The branch is one of the oldest, and has previously been recognised by the GA for its importance. Manchester also regularly hosts the GA Conference. I've been privileged enough to speak at the branch in the past.

There's a useful calendar of future events and summaries of previous events.

GA response to the Curriculum and Assessment review

You can read the GA's response to the call for evidence as part of the Curriculum for Assessment review by following this link.

They have called for teaching about climate change, sustainability and green skills to be strengthened in geography in the following ways:

• Climate change should be added to the KS2 curriculum and strengthened at KS3.
• Geography’s curriculum and qualifications ‘aims and purpose’ should include reference to the subject contribution to pupils’ green skills.

The GA team have also identified:

• how there is some repetition of content across the primary and secondary geography National Curriculum
• how GCSE geography’s content needs review and reduction, and how the assessment of fieldwork at GCSE needs reform
• the opportunity to achieve greater consistency between geography A level’s NEA and those in other subject areas – especially with reference to teacher guidance and support and word count
• the need to support and strengthen geographical fieldwork at all stages
• and to strengthen pupils use of geospatial data and technologies.