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.

GA Shop - Black Friday Deal

 

If #geographyteachers fancy a virtual trip to the @The_GA 'geography shop' this weekend we are offering 25% off (almost) everything for Black Friday.

Use BLACKFRIDAY24 discount code before 30th Nov (& T&Cs apply etc)

Shop link https://t.co/LzQQdw76A9 pic.twitter.com/m9FZ7l4ppM

— Steve Brace (@SteveBraceGeog) November 23, 2024

New resources on the Climate crisis

Some brand new Global Inequalities and the Climate Crisis curriculum resources have been released by the Geographical Association.

This innovative resource package for key stage 3 was developed in partnership with OU Geography Project and academics Parvati Raghuram of the Open University, Melis Cin of Lancaster University and Manu Lekunze of Aberdeen University. 

The resource pack uses testimonies from Cameroonian people to construct a Cameroon country case study.

Our Global Inequalities and the Climate Crisis curriculum resources respond to the APPG for Africa Education Report (2022) by developing a detailed country case study, drawing on lived experiences of African citizens and situating Cameroon in a global context.

Check out the resources here.

The resource responds to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Africa’s Education report (2022), which found an ‘impoverished treatment of Africa in the school curriculum’, replete with misconceptions (APPG, 2022, p. 10). By developing a detailed case study of one country, informed by ethnographic narratives of lived experiences drawn from residents of that country, the resource seeks to support teachers of geography in providing more sensitive, anti-racist representations of Africa in their classrooms.

GICC consists of materials for five lessons, including lesson PowerPoints, worksheets, and suggested lesson plans. We have endeavored to plan the lessons in a way that is mindful of the geography teacher as curriculum maker, so we hope that teachers will take these resources and find their own ways to integrate them into their teaching in dialogue with colleagues in their school settings.

The story told in this unit of work has been assembled from a collaboration between academic researchers, school geography teachers and the GA. It is a subjective representation informed by ethnographic testimonies. There are other stories to be told about the relationship between global inequalities and the climate crisis, and other ways the story we tell here could have been narrated. We look forward to hearing about how these resources are used in the classroom.

The GICC team:

Melis Cin, Lancaster University

Alesha de Fonseka, Raffles World Academy Dubai UAE

Aliyou Haman, Aberdeen University

Manu Lekunze, Aberdeen University

Parvati Raghuram, Open University

Dan Whittall, Geographical Association

Chris Winter, Geographical Association

Primary Geography Editorial Board - two vacancies

There are two vacancies on the Primary Geography journal's editorial board. You have a day left to put in your application.

From the GA Newsletter

The Primary Geography Editorial Board is responsible for planning, commissioning and editing the content for each issue of Primary Geography, and is looking to recruit two new members to join our amazing, creative and supportive team of volunteers.

Are you passionate about geography in the Early Years and Primary phase? Have you got a track record of writing for the GA and a desire to develop your skills to edit future issues of Primary Geography? Can you bring out the best in others? This could be the role for you! Applications must be received by 18 November - read more and apply below.

RGS 150th anniversary - working with the GA.

At the RGS-IBG 150th anniversary event which I have previously blogged about - back in 1980, there were some interesting connections explored between the RGS and the GA.

As it says in the report of the meeting which is available to read on JSTOR:

A comment from the RGS:

For example, we shall shortly have discussions with the Geographical Association, which represents, as you know, those who teach geography in the classroom, and which enjoys an extremely friendly and mutually valuable relationship with the Royal Geographical Society; we shall be discussing with them a number of issues touching on the contribution which geography can make to pupils' education at school, and I am sure that that exchange of views will be very helpful.

I wonder what will be occurring by the time of the 200th anniversary in 6 years' time?

Hopefully 2025 will see more joint activity between the GA and the RGS.

900 posts

I started this blog when it was announced that I was going to become GA President for 2021-22. That was back in 2019 now.

I decided that along with my theme of 'Everyday Geographies' - which continues to be something I use in my work in various ways, I would research every previous President, and then keep it going to profile each President who comes after me.

It expanded into a general history of some key moments as well, and took in readings of all the GA's journals, all the Presidential addresses and several days down in the GA Archive stacks at Solly Street. I shall continue with it, and share important GA news and events, as well as adding biographies of future Presidents.

Thanks for reading....

GeogPod 84 with Steve Brace

Episode 84 of GeogPod features Steve Brace. Listen below, or visit the website.

Robert Steel and the IBG

I've previously mentioned Robert Steel's involvement with the Institute of British Geographers.

While exploring some of the RGS' archive last week, I came across this copy of his book on 'the first fifty years' of the IBG. Sadly there was no time to  pick it up and take a look.

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license