OCR Pilot GCSE Geography

This was originally posted on my LivingGeography blog.

One offshoot of the GeoVisions project which I have previously blogged about seems to have been the development of a new qualification, which I had the great pleasure of being involved in teaching for three years as I moved towards the end of my first period in the classroom. This was developed in association with OCR, and involved a range of groups. This was related to the idea of GEOGRAPHY 21: a Geography for the 21st Century.

The qualification was the OCR Pilot GCSE Geography. It was the best specification I had the pleasure of teaching, and ran it for the last few years of my teaching before I left to join the GA in 2008 as Secondary Curriculum Development Leader.

This was called the OCR Pilot GCSE project.

The GeoVisions sub-group included:

Diane Swift, Chris Durbin, Leslie Warner, Fred Martin, Linda Thompson, Jeremy Krause, John Hopkin, Ian Mack and Lisa Mitchell.

Eleanor Rawling was also involved in the development of the materials, as was Phil Wood from the University of Leicester and also Justin Woolliscroft.

See https://www.geography.org.uk/download/prgcsepilotgcse.doc - a link to the document download from the GA website which has a great deal more information. If you have never heard of this specification before you might be surprised at how it was organised.

The first and second tranches of the Pilot schools were added in 2003 and 2005, and the 3rd tranche was added for teaching in September 2006 - this included my own school: King Edward the Seventh High School in King' Lynn. The GEOGRAPHICAL ASSOCIATION had information on the PILOT GCSE run by OCR. 

In total, around 70 schools were involved in the Pilot for this GCSE Specification. Resources and ideas, many of which have been kindly provided by Paula Cooper from King Edward VI 5 Ways school in Birmingham, were also in this area. 

The course had the code 1949.

Using the Web Archive, visit this archived page here. Most links still work through to more information about the specification.

The OCR Pilot GCSE exam was worth 33% of total grade: with 67% coursework

The course was based around 5 key themes: called FUGIS.

  

Fugis from GeoBlogs

Here is the Specification - take a look:

OCR GCSE Pilot Specification 2005 from GeoBlogs

References

Page on my Geography Pages website from 2008 - via Web Archive

GA Support for the Pilot GCSE - via Web Archive

My KES Pilot GCSE Geography blog

Were you involved in teaching the Pilot GCSE? 

Get in touch. I'd like to take a look back at this over the next few years. Is it time to revisit the specification and consider its approach to assessment, given that with CAGs and TAGs, teachers are now being expected to assess students with less exam input.

Worldwise

Worldwise is a familiar GA 'brand' to many, and has links with many former GA Presidents.

The Worldwise Quiz has been around for decades. A number of quiz books have been published over the years: small format books which I had copies of in my filing cabinet when teaching. Worldwise connects with other GA activity in the same way as the Quality Marks cut across several strands of GA support. It was developed by Rex Walford.

Details of how to enter the competition, and also some sample quiz questions are available to download from here.

Worldwise also feeds in to the International Geographical Olympiad. (See Sue Lomas' entry for more on this, and also Mark Higginbottom)

Jeremy Krause gave me his thoughts on the developments:

2015 Mark Higginbottom who used part his Presidential Address to share his ideas and experiences of the Worldwise programme. This was about students and them learning geography. That has been at the heart of the GA since 1893. Mark with Sue Lomas have been the driving force behind the ‘Worldwise’ programme which focuses on developing school students’ skills and knowledge of Geography. This has been a massive commitment for them in terms of time and energy in the UK and overseas. They have made this highly successful programme one of the GA’s jewels. 

Worldwise also connects with Worldwise Week (WWW)

WWW is linked with the theme of the yearly conference.

You can download the packs from previous years going back to 2007. I recommend doing this.

I will be thinking about possible activities for the 2022 Worldwise Week pack over the year ahead.

Here's the Worldwise Statement of Purpose 

The overarching principle of Worldwise is to engage geography teachers and young people with geography across a range of paradigms to develop a secure understanding of the World. It develops young people’s geographical vocabularies, their geographical imaginations of the World around them at a variety of scales and it stimulates their personal geographies. A key aim is to provide directly to teachers and young people opportunities that stimulate a passion trough their understanding of geographical concepts, constructing meaning, deeper thinking and understanding of interconnectedness, interdependency and processes in a world of change. Worldwise engages young people from EYFS to post 16 across its brand of activities. It has to support the acquisition of geographical vocabulary, stimulate interest in young people in a discipline not just seen as a school subject and encourage them to challenge their own thinking, perceptions and those of others within and beyond the classroom environment. This demands Worldwise to generate resources ranging from those seen as ‘knowledge- based, portraying a simpler view of the world and geography through knowledge recall particularly through its face to face and online quizzes. We view these as developing what we would term, enabling knowledge. Students have a knowledge framework which enables them to explore concepts and develop ‘thinking geographically’ with a firm base of knowledge about the world. Worldwise challenges teachers and young people to identify and reflect on their personal geographies and geographical imaginations. To recognise different approaches to understanding the concepts and processes that holds geography as a subject together. The Geography Awareness Week resources, allied to the current Presidential theme are a key element of this challenge. The themes selected, modern approaches to learning and the application of modern technologies all encourage up to date thinking and learning in geography. The awareness week resources encourage teachers and young people to further their understanding of geographical concepts, construct meaning, deeper thinking and understanding of interconnectedness, interdependency and processes. The focus on investigation and enquiry secures awareness week materials as supporting best approaches to twenty first century learning in geography and provides teachers with additional, free, up to date materials to support their curriculum. The ‘week’ acts a as lever for many schools to raise the profile of geography both within the school and often, within the wider community. The Worldwise team deliver two additional activities to engage teachers and young people in new approaches to geography and making geography real. The Worldwide Challenge weekend, for schools who have engaged in other WW activities most successfully brings young people and teachers out into the field in some of the most iconic areas of the UK. The joint GA / FSC partnership generates fieldwork activities that stimulate and challenge geographical thinking, in ways often not seen in the classroom or possible in the classroom. Worldwise delivers an annual post-16 competition, focussing on a geographical issue that is ‘live’ at the time. It stimulates older students to engage with a current aspect of geography, to research it beyond the text book and provide a reflective, evidenced based view of the issue from different perspectives. The winners represent the UK at an annual International Geography Olympiad.

The Worldwise Challenge is an annual fieldwork event organised in association with the Field Studies Council. It is hosted at an FSC centre, and Presidents have previously gone along to get involved and award prizes to the winning team.

References

Walford, Rex. “‘But First the Facts Must Be Familiar..." A Review of the Worldwise Quiz.” Geography, vol. 74, no. 3, 1989, pp. 252–254. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571674. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

https://www.geography.org.uk/WorldWise-Challenge

GA Conference 2022

The details of the 2022 GA Conference are now up on the GA website.

The theme is EVERDAY GEOGRAPHIES. Geographies of the every day, and encouraging thinking about geography every day.

Everyday geographies

‘Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace’ – Elbert Hubbard

My theme for 2022 encourages exploration of everyday geographies. We are all living geography. Our diurnal routines connect us with places, people, environments and cultures. Repeated exposure means we sometimes forget how significant these are in shaping our identity and impacting the planetary emergency we all face.

Our quotidian experiences are both individual and shared. Speakers and delegates will be encouraged to revisit the stories of the commodities, cultures and landscapes that shape all our lives, unpicking the geographical connections behind them. In recent challenging times, some of those connections were temporarily severed or amended, and others deserve reassessment.

The 2022 Conference will be an occasion where we can once again come together and take the time to celebrate what makes us who we are: now and in the future, and explore how revealing the powerful hidden magic in these everyday stories can enrich our personal curriculum journeys.

Alan Parkinson, GA Vice President 2020-21

I hope to see you there, but more importantly for the time being, I hope to see you next week for the GA Conference 2021.

A few days left to book.

2005: Sue Lomas, OBE DL

Sue Lomas is a stalwart of the GA, and is still active supporting Worldwise Challenge (being Chair of the Worldwise Board) and international GeoOlympiad events, along with other contributions to the GA, as well as serving on the GA's Education Group.

Sue was also another GA President with experience of teaching, having been a Head of Geography in two schools.
At the time of taking up the Presidency she was a School Improvement Officer, and in fact she asked me over to Salford to work with colleagues from a school there and introduce them to some GIS ideas when I was working for the Geographical Association back in the day. 

She is also involved in the GA Manchester Branch

She was Head of Geography at Connell Sixth Form College.

Sue has also been awarded an OBE for her services to young people and Scouting.

She is still involved in promoting Outdoor education, and was involved early on in the development of the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC) with its award and accreditation scheme. She also participates in the organisation of the GeoOlympiad competitions, accompanying competitors to their venues.



I am grateful to Sue for sending more information via the Google Form which I set up for this project.

She told me:

"I was born in 1953 in Birmingham

Sue attended the King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls - one of the best known schools in the city.
I have a University of London degree but studied in Derby. I then did my PGCE in Cheltenham for a Bristol University Certificate.
I started out working as a geography teacher in rurban Cheshire, before moving to Macclesfield to become a Head of Department and then Senior teacher. I was also an advisory teacher for geography in Cheshire with Jeremy Krause. I met Mark Higginbottom for the first time here. He was an NQT in a Cheshire school whom we were working with. 

I moved to be the Foundation Subjects Consultant and then Key Stage 3 Strategy Manager for the National Strategies."

These were an important part of teaching development during the 2nd decade of my time as a geography teacher.

"Moving into a school improvement role, I became an inspector for Geography ITE. Taking early retirement in 2010 I started my own company and became a schools' inspector. I also inspected abroad in the UAE. I have joint-authored two sets of Key Stage 3 textbooks, both edited by John Hopkin. One for the UK: "Geography Matters" and another for Pakistan.

My passion has always been for my subject and if people ask me what I do, I always say I'm a geography teacher - as this was my first love.

I have been involved with the GA since the 1980s when Jeremy Krause invited me to join the geography education community. I have always enjoyed working in a collegiate way, and to get together with like-minded professionals, and the GA provided me with lots of high quality CPD in my own role. 

After serving as the President (for the four year cycle introduced by Michael Bradford) I moved on to Worldwise and was lucky enough to have accompanied the UK Team to the Geography World Championships in venues across the world (sadly now defunct) and from 2006 I was one of the chaperones for the UK teams who attend the International Geography Olympiad. 

I am now the Chair of that competition - what a fantastic opportunity that has been - working with colleagues from the iGU. Meeting young people from over fifty countries and working with their leaders (teachers or university staff) to write the three tests has certainly been a privilege.

I am a GA Consultant and that has given me a range of experiences from reviewing the quality of geography in Liverpool to supporting new heads of department across England. 

I am also an assessor for the PGQM."

When she became the GA President, she was the Key Stage 3 Strategy Manager for Salford Local Authority.

Sue's Presidential theme was "Sensational Geography".

Sue told me: 

"I think in those days, the theme was very much influenced by the GA (rather than chosen by the President as they are now), so I think I agreed the theme with David Lambert, who was the CEO at the time. I was always keen to "promote the varied approaches and the rich, diverse resources that we can share" (excerpt from Conference brochure). 

I started in the GA as the volunteer PR Officer and then became Chair of the M & P D Committee. I have been involved in Worldwise since the 1990s at first with Keith Orrell, when we were tasked with updating the whole offer for students. That was when we changed the Worldwise Quiz Final (which tended to happen at the GA Conference itself) to the Worldwise Challenge. 

The latter included the practical experience at an FSC site rather than the (independent) schools' final at Conference. 

Keith's and Tony Thomas' links to the FSC meant we were able to provide a free weekend to teams from schools across the country. Peter Smith was heavily involved too. Sadly, I think we have seen the last of the Challenge events, given the COVID-19 situation with residential centres. Since 2006, Mark Higginbottom and I have been joint chairs of Worldwise. I will always be grateful for the experiences I had and the people I met at the GA, and I'm sure my career was enhanced by being so heavily involved.

Currently, I work to try and ensure that new teachers are well-prepared for the profession. I run two Appropriate bodies for NQTs and I work as a SCITT geography tutor and an Associate Lecturer in Manchester Metropolitan University.

Of her time as President, Sue told me:
`'It was a privilege to be part of the roll-out of the Action Plan and I recall many interesting meetings with the officers of the RGS, some at their headquarters. There was a real buzz about the recognition that Geography is an important subject and it was great at the conference to promote all the brilliant resources and activities that would see Geography given much greater status, particularly in secondary schools. I also have some great memories of the Conference. It was in Manchester, so it was lovely to be 'on my own patch'. The Exhibition was amazing and in those days we had a couple of good receptions - including a Chinese banquet! I also attended the Scottish Awards event. The best bits were meeting the wide range of colleagues that make up our membership some of whom were almost as passionate as me about the subject."

I have been involved with the GA since the 1980s when Jeremy Krause invited me to join the geography education community. I have always enjoyed working collegiately and to get together with likeminded professionals and it provided me with lots of high quality CPD in my own role. After serving as the President (for four years) I moved to Worldwise and was lucky enough to have accompanied the UK Team to the Geography World Championships in venues across the world (sadly now defunct) and from 2006 I was one of the chaperones for the UK teams who attend the International Geography Olympiad. I am now the Chair of that competition - what a fantastic opportunity that has been - working with colleagues from the iGU. Meeting young people from over fifty countries and working with their leaders (teachers or university staff) to write the three tests has certainly been a privilege.

References
GA News Autumn 2005 - biography and setting out her stall for her conference.



This book was co-written with Linda Thompson, who was serving on the GA's Secondary Phase Committee when I joined in 2004, thanks to the invitation of Rob Lodge. 

I remember using this book as a teacher in Norfolk.

Sue was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester in 2015.

This website has a useful short biography of Sue as well.

Sue was born in Birmingham and moved to the North West for her first teaching job in 1978. She taught Geography for 20 years before moving into school improvement work in Salford. Sue now has her own consulting business working in a variety of educational fields. She is a qualified Ofsted inspector and has worked as an Associate Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. Sue has a passion for her subject, and has been a member of its professional body, the Geographical Association for many years, including being its President in 2006. She works on a voluntary basis to enthuse young people about the subject and is the chair of the association's youth arm 'Worldwise'. Sue has been a member of several school governing bodies and has also worked as an assessor for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

A member of Girlguiding since she was eight years' old, Sue is now a trustee of the national organisation. She is passionate about promoting the opportunities Girlguiding offers to girls and young women and has recently completed her term of office as Region Chief Commissioner for North West England. Sue is also national chair of the charity 'Youth United' which supports the work of the ten largest uniformed organisations across the UK.

Sue is married to Ian and lives in Culcheth, Warrington. She has one daughter who works as a teacher in London. Jen is very much involved with the Geographical Association and its work in Primary.

Images: Copyright Bryan Ledgard and the Geographical Association

As always, memories of Sue Lomas' time as GA President welcome.

Remember these?

 

The Charney Comment 2021

The Charney Manor Primary Conference is an annual event bringing together Primary geographers each year at the venue in Oxfordshire (although it was held online this year). Many GA Presidents have been involved in the event, as I discussed in a previous post. It was founded by Rex Walford and others including Simon Catling. The statement has been pulled together by Stephen Scoffham.

Thanks to Mel Norman, Steve Rawlinson and Sharon Witt for organising the last few years' conferences.

This year's version of the statement that emerges following the conference has now been released and it provides a useful set of thoughts to consider when developing thinking around teaching Primary (and secondary) geography experiences for your students. It has been pulled together by Stephen Scoffham.

Charney Conference Statement 2021 from GeoBlogs

BOLT Education

Who remembers this resource? I think I may have spent some e-learning credits on this.

e-learning credits came in after the cancellation of BBC Jam. Having worked on this, I know what amazing resources were going to be shared with the geography community, and also wrote The Guardian's BETT preview in the year they were going to be released, but the other software and publishing companies complained this would be unfair competition. In return, secondary schools received about £5000 of credits (possibly more, depending on size) to be spent on an approved list of software and technology.

My anecdote here is that our Deputy Head at the time told us that we could bid for a share of this money. We had to provide a document with the details of the software, and an explanation of how we were going to use it, and what particular project or activity it would be helpful for. Curriculum Online provided lists. Suppliers rushed to provide options which were compatible with the scheme.

The Deputy Head in question finished his explanation at a HoDs meeting by saying the bids were 'first come first served' until the money ran out. 

That night, I went through the site, and put together the requested document with a bid for about £2000 worth of items and gave it to him the following morning. I asked him roughly how much of the bid was likely to be approved, and he told me that I would get all the items as it was first-come first-served.... I had deliveries of software and other items regularly for the next few months.

This ad was in 'Teaching Geography' for Spring 2005

GAIN

Came across this document in a folder yesterday while looking for something else... from around 2007 I think.

GAIN: Recognising and Developing Achievement from GeoBlogs

Thought for the Day

‘The geographer, as any other social scientist, cannot avoid being socialized into a specific culture – or more accurately, sub-culture – at a particular period of time.’ 

Pahl (1968)

Pahl, R. (1968). Sociological Models in Geography. In R. Chorley & P. Haggett (Eds.). Socio- Economic Models in Geography. (pp.217-242). London: Methuen. 

2004 - a conference report from Joseph Kerski

This conference was held at the University of Kent in Canterbury.

It was also the first conference that I'd actually attended in person. This was a time when I was involved with the Staffordshire Learning Network, and Chris Durbin was doing a lecture on his creative ideas. It was also a chance to attend a session by my former tutor Professor Tim Burt, who spoke about engagement with landscape and geomorphology, and our own geographical thinking.

There were some social events where I met up with fellow SLNers including David Rayner and others. We also held some field weekends in the Peak District around this time.

The following report is by Joseph Kerski, and used with permission.

2004 GA Conference from GeoBlogs

2004: University of Kent

The Geographical Association's 2004 Annual conference on "Images in Geography" was held at the University of Kent, Canterbury, April 5-7. 

A series of professional development units includes: Thinking geographically: place-based teaching (key stages 2-3); and professional development for PGCEnewly qualified teacher delegates (early years-KS2 and KS3-4).

Attendees receive a GA-endorsed certificate, supporting material and module accreditation with the London University Institute of Education Diploma in Teaching and Learning. 

Fee: from £85 (includes conference admission).
Pre-registration conference fee: £50, pound; £30 members; on the day £70, pound; £50 members. Students free. 

Accommodation is available.

2004: The Geography Development Fund announced at the Canterbury Annual Conference by Schools Minister Stephen Twigg.

This was funding to support Primary Geography.

Read more about it here. (PDF download) in a report on a conference for Primary Schools held at the RGS-IBG

Mike Pearson - Honorary Member

Honorary Membership is the highest honour the GA gives, and Mike Pearson was named an honorary member in 2002. This was for his promotion of the GA in the NW for many years.

 

2004: Professor Bill J Chambers

Updated August 2022

Bill Chambers is another one of those academic Geographers who has done so much for the subject over the years.

He is linked with Liverpool Hope University as Pro Vice Chancellor Emeritus, where he also spent many years in the geography department.

Bill worked in the sphere of Primary Geography a great deal, which is good to see., along with development education. The first entries on this blog were mostly academic geographers, and it is only of late that Primary Geography has been appropriately represented amongst the GA Presidents with people like Wendy Morgan leading the way. 

Jeremy Krause wrote a lot about this during his own entry on the blog from 2001.

Bill turned his Presidential lecture into a public address, hoping to raise awareness of the subject - an interesting idea. 

As it happens, Gill Miller's lecture was also delivered publicly because of the eConference and remains the most viewed at the present time - we will see whether Susan Pike's lecture receives more views.

Bill has a long association with Peru in South America.

He first visited the slums of Lima as a VSO volunteer.
He says his two years there in a squatter settlement were "an experience which had a lifelong impact on me and my teaching" .

The Presidential lecture - "Lima's squatter settlements: slums of hope or despair"- considered changes in the barriadas of the Peruvian capital between 1964 and 2004 and asked whether they are the cause or the solution to the problems of rural Peru. I was present at his Presidential Address, and other aspects of that conference.
Bill cites examples from the families and the communities in which he lived while he analysed the question.
His staff page on his University website flags up a great deal of GA involvement:

• Editor of 'Primary Geographer '1990-2000
• Chambers, B. 2004 Geography and Lifelong Learning in Kent, W.A. Rawling, E. and Robinson, A. 2004. Geographical Education: Expanding Horizons in a Shrinking World. International Geographical Union Commission on Geographical Education and Scottish Association of Geography Teachers.
• Chambers, B. 2005 Lima's Slums: Problems or Solutions Geographical Association Annual Conference, Presidential Address. Pride Park, Derby.
• Chambers, B. 2005. Squatter Settlements in Lima, Peru. Geographical Association Annual Conference, University of Derby.
• Geographical Association Gold Award for publication of year 1991
• Geographical Association Silver Award for publication 1997

A version of Bill's Presidential lecture can be viewed here:

Lima's Barriadas - Slums of Hope or Despair? from hantsga

Another personal link is that Bill published books with Karl Donert, with whom I have worked on a number of ERASMUS projects. 

Here's Bill talking about his journey to being President in the GA News. It also includes some biographical detail:

I share Bill's aims here when it comes to my own Presidential year. His aims were to encourage people to support their local GA branches.
At the 2005 conference, I was there for the GA Publishers awards and evening at Pride Park in Derby and heard Bill's Presidential address.

Bill was kind enough to answer some questions on the Google Form that I produced for all those Presidents who are still around to answer my questions.

On his memories of his education:

I always loved Geography from my first lesson with Mr Geoff Sears at Preston Manor Grammar School in 1957. 

As a trainee geography teacher at Marjons betweem 1966 and 1970 I was encouraged by inspirational lecturers Dr Roland Allison and Dr Vernon Williams to become involved in the GA as a the preeminent professional organisation for geography teachers. 

Once established from 1973 at Notre Dame College Liverpool (now Liverpool Hope University) and being responsible for the training of primary and secondary teachers it was a natural progression to join the local branch of the GA which was largely run by Professor Dick Lawton of Liverpool University. 

After a decade as Programme Secretary and later Chair of the Branch I was encouraged as part of my professional development by my head of department Alan Hammersley to contribute nationally and I joined the Environmental Education Working Group. 

The GA gave me the opportunity to work with the great geographers of the day and become aware of current developments in geography. It also gave me an opportunity to begin to publish both academic and pedagogical papers. I also made many lifelong friends including Tony Thomas the inspirational head of the Field Studies Council.

He said that he hoped his Presidency had raised the profile of the branches.

He also mentioned a great many of the great and the good of the time who had influenced his own involvement and decision to run for President.

I became a member of the GA in 1966 whilst training to be a teacher at the College of St Mark and St John. I became a Committee Member, then Programme Secretary and then Chair of the Liverpool Branch of the GA in 1976. I retired in 2011. 

I became a member in 1980(?) and finally Chair of the GA Environmental Education Working Group. I became a member of the GA Council in 1995

I was elected President of the GA in 2004-5 My main presidential concern was to affirm the role of the Branches. During my year as President I lectured at over 30 Branches. That's quite a target to aim for.

I asked Bill why geography mattered to him

I always loved Geography from my first lesson with Mr Geoff Sears at Preston Manor Grammar School in 1957. As a trainee geography teacher at Marjons betweem 1966 and 1970 I was encouraged by inspirational lecturers Dr Roland Allison and Dr Vernon Williams to become involved in the GA as a the preeminent professional organisation for geography teachers. 

Once established from 1973 at Notre Dame College Liverpool (now Liverpool Hope University) and being responsible for the training of primary and secondary teachers it was a natural progression to join the local branch of the GA which was largely run by Professor Dick Lawton of Liverpool University. 

After a decade as Programme Secretary and later Chair of the Branch I was encouraged as part of my professional development by my head of department Alan Hammersley to contribute nationally and I joined the Environmental Education Working Group. The GA gave me the opportunity to work with the great geographers of the day and become aware of current developments in geography. It also gave me an opportunity to begin to publish both academic and pedagogical papers. I also made many lifelong friends including Tony Thomas the inspirational head of the Field Studies Council.

He had memories of encounters with, and inspirationt taken from, a great many other familiar names as well:

WGV (Billy Balchin) was Head of the Department of Geography when I studied for my PhD at Swansea. He worked closely with Alice Coleman. Dick Lawton was Head of the Department of Geography at Liverpool University when I arrived in the city. He was a tough Yorkshireman and utterly committed to geography and to the GA especially on Merseyside. 

Rex Walford was one of the first educational geographers. He was one of the most enthusiastic and creative people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. He drowned tragically in the Thames while in his prime. He was responsible for many initiatives including the Worldwise Quiz. 

Graham Humphrys lectured at Swansea and memorably dedicated one of his many books to Mark (his son?), Marilyn (his wife) and Maesteg (his birthplace). 

Richard Dougherty ran the PGCE Geography course at Swansea.

 

Simon Catling was the year behind me at Marjons. He was always an incredibly ambitious, enthusiastic and prolific advocate of Primary school geography and, along with Wendy Morgan, was largely responsible for the introduction of primary geography to the GA. Apart from this he was well known for his many home made geography pullovers. 

Wendy Morgan was the first Primary School President of the GA. She was responsible for the launch of the journal Primary Geographer and was its first editor. She was an indefatigable and creative person. She was responsible for the St Lucia Resources Pack which was used by many primary schools in the early days of the Geography National Curriculum. 

Jeremy Krause was a local authority geography advisor in Cheshire and was responsible for much of the success of geography in the north west of England. 

Chris Kington was a well loved Cambridge publisher who worked tirelessly for the GA and commissioned many books. 

 

As with many other GA Presidents, Bill has also used his experiences as trustee to work as a trustee for other organisations.

He is a member of, and currently Chair the Board of Trustees of the Brain Charity.

The Brain Charity.

On this website, there was a little more information about him:

Bill has lived in Liverpool since 1973 and has worked at Liverpool Hope University for his entire working life initially as a geography lecturer and finally as Pro Vice Chancellor External Relations and Widening Participation.
He is married to Fiona, a community educator, with 3 children and 6 grandchildren. They both love the Liverpool Philharmonic and Bill is also a season ticket holder at Everton.

References
Slideshare: Presidential Lecture - see above

Book with Karl Donert:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Teaching-Geography-Key-Stage-Learning/dp/1899857273

LinkedIn - I wonder who would have been in the network of previous Presidents from the last century?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-chambers-39a3aa24/?originalSubdomain=uk

Bill's Presidential address

Bill Chambers - Presidential Lecture GA - 2005 from GeoBlogs

GA Conference 2021

There are only a few weeks to go before the virtual GA Conference for 2021. This will be very different to the technology that had to be sorted at very short notice for the 2020 conference. Those who attend will be able to move in and out of sessions they choose, and also access recordings of every session. You can still see some of 2020's sessions on the GA's YouTube channel.

Susan Pike had curated a wonderful range of speakers and guests, and some further new features.

At @The_GA Conference #GAConf21 we will have a chill out space, including a geographical playlist 🌍 100 on it so far, what would you like to add? 🎶https://t.co/9QyyhB2WS5 #geographyteacher #primarygeography pic.twitter.com/BgifOAUbWC

— Dr Susan Pike | GA President 🌍 (@SusanJPike) March 17, 2021

I hope to see you there. 

2002: Professor David Lambert

Any blog that is aiming to tell the story of the GA can't help but mention the huge contribution made by Professor David Lambert.

David was appointed at the start of Peter Fox's term as President, and he also helped appoint David, as he has with all the CEOs and also myself as I mentioned in Peter's blog entry.

For three years, I had the great privilege of having David as my boss, and it was a time when I learned more than at any other time. Here is the announcent of his appointment in GA News.

This German lecture from 2015 gives a flavour for the tremendous scholarship around the subject that embodied David's contribution to the new direction and strength

Along with Rita Gardner of the GA, David was successful in gaining ministerial support and government funding for the Action Plan for Geography - 2006-11 - 2 phases of funding.

David's inaugural Presidential lecture was held at the Institute of Education - more on that to come nearer the time.

David has published widely, and his work continues to be influential and will be for many years to come. He has written handbooks for teachers with other colleagues, as well as books on curriculum thinking, and powerful knowledge. He has also made numerous contributions to GA journals, and to content on the GA website.

He also involved me in the GeoCapabilities project to help shape the teaching resources and training course that were part of the 2nd phase of the project.

David started out as a geography teacher before moving into teacher education and ending up at the Institute of Education. For a while, he shared the job of CEO of the GA with his work at UCL, bringing some synergy between the two roles, and the CPD work of the GA and the development of the manifesto.

Here is the actual Manifesto launch at the GA Conference in 2009. David is about to show the film that we made to support the booklet. More on that nearer the time when it was created.

This was the first public screening of the film that I made to go with the manifesto, and which has been viewed thousands of times since on various platforms. You can watch it below. I remember my heart was pounding right about now:

A Different View: Promoting Geography from The Geographical Association on Vimeo.

Ideal to use at open evenings, with parents, governors, your leadership team or at options evenings.

The GA's manifesto for geography A Different View, published in 2009, describes geography as 'one of humanity's big ideas' and makes a compelling case for geography's place in the curriculum. It shows the value of thinking geographically, provides an introduction to 'living geography' and some important reflections on the changing role of fieldwork, demonstrating the practical importance of 'real world' geography. You can use the Manifesto to promote geography and in any context where geography is taught, explained or encouraged. A Different View was produced and funded by the GA, as part of its charitable role to advocate for geography education.

Find out more: https://www.geography.org.uk/GA-Manifesto-for-geography

I helped to create some of the supporting materials for the manifesto, which occupied quite a bit of my time working in Solly Street.

Image: Alan Parkinson

2003 : Geography Pages

GA News in 2003 gave an early mention for the Geography Pages website, which I ran for over ten years, and which was one of the top 5 most visited Geography websites on the web for a while (as shown by statistics collected by the Royal Geographical Society) 

It started out as 'Mr P's Geography Pages', back in the day when I had dial up internet access through Liberty Surf and then Tiscali. I also sold it as a CD for a while. It led on to a number of other early opportunities for me to get involved in the wider geographical community.

Memories of GeographyPages welcome - I've posted a few already and will be posting a few more as we get nearer to the present day. 

Follow the link here to access it via Archive.org. The domain is currently hosted by Richard Allaway.

2003 Conference - thanks to Joseph Kerski

Thanks to Joseph Kerski for offering this illustrated report from the conference held at the University of London. One of several that he kindly sent me the link for.

2003 GA Conference from GeoBlogs

125th Anniversary event

A gathering in 2018 to celebrate the GA's 125th Anniversary. Who can you recognise?

2003: Peter Fox

Peter Fox is one of the contemporary stalwarts of the GA, and has been involved in a wide range of committees, and other activity, including publications for many decades, and continues to work tirelessly to support the association in many ways, serving on Education Group, which is one of the key committees leading thinking and supporting the Chief Executive and trustees.

Peter was born in Derby in 1950, and went to Long Eaton Grammar School (a school I went to for an interview at back in 1988, and was actually offered a job there, but the day previously I'd accepted an offer at a school in King's Lynn, and the rest is... geography). Peter has also written about the history of Derby, and contributed to a number of other books over the years.

From Long Eaton he went on to study at Nottingham Trent University.

When he became President of the Association, he was still involved in teaching, and this makes him a rare thing: a teacher President. He was proud to be one of the first Presidents to be teaching in a state school. I need to just double check but I think all the other teacher Presidents before him were teaching at Independent schools, so he may have been the first, and indeed the only state school teacher President... 

I think I'm only the fifth person to be a teacher President, and have managed to speak to almost all of the others in the process of writing this blog, apart from E C Marchant.

Peter has a strong background in teaching, and has held different roles including Teacher of Geography, Head of Faculty and Assistant Head.

His particular interest has been in educational technology, and he has served on the ICT SIG of the Association for many years. The SIG has been going since the 1970s.

The ICT Special Interest Group is one of many I visited while working for the GA as Secondary Curriculum Leader, and has created a great deal of content for the GA's website in this respect, as well as providing guidance to others.

Peter co-edited the first (more recent) edition of the Secondary Geography Handbook with another former GA President: Patrick Bailey - the cover is shown above.

Review here: https://www.tes.com/news/keep-changes

Peter told me that Patrick Bailey was very much his mentor, and his involvement with this publication led on to other things within the GA.

I am also grateful to Peter for allowing me to interview him on the early days of the use of computing, for a chapter that I wrote in the 'Debates in Geography Education' book. I looked back at my notes on this chat as well and found lots of helpful thoughts - the book is now in a 2nd edition, and people have referenced the chapter recently in other books, which is always good to see.

Along with Andrea Tapsfield, Peter wrote a number of books and guides relating to the early use of ICT, when its true potential was as yet unrealised, and the idea of CAL or Computer Aided Learning was key.

I have a copy of the book, which is pictured below:

Peter told me that his first published work for the GA was a list of computer software which was available at the time. 

He told me: 

"Interesting looking back on this list to see more software available then than now and many gaming and simulation items - missing from more recent apps - but this was before Internet times!"

His Presidential theme was on the Development of the Media and ICT in Geography.

His Presidential Address was on the same topic, and connected to the use of images in particular. It was called 'Images in Geography: Great Expectations'.

It can be read here.

Image: Bryan Ledgard / GA - Derby GA Conference - Association at Work day - Derby was my favourite conference venue.

He was also involved in the creation of the Digital Learning at KS4 project for the GA which went up onto the website some years ago and which I helped with a little. I remember this happening while I was working for the GA and I worked out a way to do a drag and drop style activity in Google Earth.

Here he is being introduced by Chris Kington.

As with other recent Presidents, since Sheila Jones, Peter was also kind enough to answer some questions to me on a Google form.

Why does the GA matter?

Peter told me:
"Geography matters and therefore the teaching and learning of geography matters."

Peter has served on the ICT Working Group, been Honorary Secretary of the GA, and was even the stand-in CEO [part time for a term following the departure of the previous person, as described earlier in the blog], He has also been, for many years, the Honorary Treasurer of the GA (a post now held by Bob Digby), and is currently Chair of the ICT SIG.

Thanks to Peter for replying to my request for help, and completing my questionnaire to help with the creation of this entry.

I have a particular extra link with Peter.

In 2008, I went to Sheffield to have an interview for a job at Solly Street as Secondary Curriculum Leader, and Peter was one of the four people on the interview panel who gave me and the other candidates a real grilling. Other people on that panel have been identified in other blog posts, or will be in due course.

Peter continues to serve on a number of committees, although he is scaling back his involvement a little. I also interviewed him for a chapter for a book I wrote for Routledge, asking him for his memories of the early days of ICT in the school classroom as mentioned earlier in the post. Looking back, Peter said:

"I would hope that the GA has always had a role in the development of technology and learning - Sound, Vision, Media, ICT..." - as I recently completed several consultancy jobs in this very area, this certainly seems to be the case at the moment.

Peter has attended a number of the GA Study Tours and was involved in one tour which was also mentioned by Chris Kington. This was to Poland, and I blogged about it here.

His involvement with the GA continues to this day and he and I are involved in a current project which will be publicised later in the year.

If anyone else has memories of Peter Fox and his work with the GA please get in touch.

References

Fox and Tapsfield (Andrea) - an early book on the use of technology in schools, and published by the GA. I have a copy of this book in my collection.

Presidential adress: FOX, PETER S. “Images in Geography — Great Expectations.” Geography, vol. 90, no. 1, 2005, pp. 3–17. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40574025. Accessed 12 Mar. 2021.

https://www.geography.org.uk/Project-Team - Digital Learning Project

Peter led a team creating resources for GCSE students, funded by BECTa (a sadly missed organisation, which I completed several projects for, before it disappeared)

Coates, Bryan E., et al. “Annual Report of The Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 76, no. 2, 1991, pp. 177–188. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40572070 - one of many similar reports that Peter will have given his name to over the years.

Chronology of the GA: https://www.geography.org.uk/download/ga%20chronology.pdf

International Women's Day

It took from 1893 until 1968 for the first female GA President to be appointed in Alice Garnett. Since then, there have been many more, but still fewer than male Presidents, and we are yet to see the appointment of a person of colour. Keep an eye out for the Trustee elections which are announced towards the end of the year and think about whether you could put yourself forward to follow in the footsteps of previous Presidents. Click to see the full image.

#HappyInternationalWomensDay to all the past and future women @The_GA Presidents! pic.twitter.com/qGdW6rGzWY

— Dr Susan Pike | GA President 🌍 (@SusanJPike) March 8, 2021

Chris Durbin and SLN - 1997

A letter from Chris Durbin was published in the January 1997 issue of 'GA News' (No. 46)

Chris worked for some time with the BBC on a series of programmes in the futuristic sounding 2000 series e.g. Japan 2000 (an excellent series) and Brazil 2000, both of which were on heavy rotation in my classroom around that time. Cue the big telly being wheeled in from the office and the curtains being closed...

Chris was also one of the co-founders of the SLN Geography Forum which was behind a great deal of the innovative practice that started to be shared into the early 2000s. I've mentioned SLN Forum in a previous post. This was the Staffordshire Learning Network. It was co-founded with Kate Russell, and Andy Holt.

I know that there will be many teachers whose practice was influenced by this bulletin board, and will remember the supportive atmosphere it engendered.

I had a chance to meet Chris at the GA Conference in Canterbury, 2004, where he was presenting, and also met up at a later GA conference as well which Chris attended.

From the SLN Wiki:

The SLN Geography Forum began on 7th Sept. 1999 when Chris Durbin posted the first message. A week later he replied to his own message. On 16th Sept. Kate Russell posted her first message - no-one replied! That same day, the first of the local Staffordshire teachers, Richard West, posted a message. Chris Durbin provided the only reply. On the 21st Sept. Kate had a second try - no-one replied!

Chris now lives in the Netherlands, and would normally be travelling in his role inspecting schools around the world.

An article on SLN in TES provides this quote on its evolving nature:

"is a bit like a shanty town - it grows and changes with the people who do things".

References

SLN Wiki Page: http://geolinks.pbworks.com/w/page/11412793/FrontPage

The Forum link now tries to sell you Hemp Oil

https://www.tes.com/news/staffordshires-learning-net-unites-geographers-world-wide-web

Memories of SLN are welcome - I am sure there are many teachers of a certain age who remember being part of this community.

2002: Chris Kington

Many geographers will be familiar with Chris Kington's publishing output.
His Publishing included some classic books for geography teachers including David Leat's 'Thinking through Geography', Liz Taylor's 'Representing Geography', 'Living Geography', and Rex Walford's 'Games in Geography'.

Many of these spiral bound books sit by my desk in my classroom, or on my shelves at home, along with others. Chris worked mostly in educational publishing (school books and books for teachers). He also spent time in magazines, newspapers and broadcasting.

Chris is delightful company and has been a member of many of the GA's overseas Study Tours over the years. 
He was born in Bristol (another President with a link to the city) in 1946. He remembers bombsites still around in the city during his childhood. He told me about his education:

Education:

Speedwell Boys' School, Bristol.

He enjoyed making models, and remembers a geography teacher called Mr. Alves who drew amazing chalk diagrams on the board, and also a neighbour who sent postcards from exotic overseas locations. While at school he won a prize and was able to choose a book, and chose 'Human Geography' by D C Money. 
Failed 11+ (an early bi-lateral later to become comprehensive).
He was in the frst cohort to form a sixth form and the first to go to university (I think 5 of us)
He studied at the University of Exeter, for a BA in Geography.

Here, he came across the teaching of Peter Toyne, who had come under the influence of Haggett and Chorley.

He describes himself as an 'outsider President' in that he was not from a geographical background, although he completed a geography degree at the University of Exeter.
One early previous outsider President was the author Hilaire Belloc, early in the 20th century, who has been previously featured here on the blog.

He started his Presidential address by saying: "I am not an academic. I am not a practising geographer. But I am a geography graduate and I have been involved in aspects of geographical education and with the GA for the best part of 30 years."

Chris's Presidential theme was "Valuing Geography", although he said it could just as easily be "Valuing Geographers". 

His Presidential address was entitled:
"You can't judge a book by looking at the cover."

It is very well worth reading, as it goes through some of the changes in textbook publishing which those of us who have been teaching for a while will remember. 

Chris himself says that it is about:
"...the wow factor in the classroom, the sparks that lit the fire in the young mind and the desire for concerned teachers (in particular) to win back control of the curriculum and the control of their professional lives in order they could realise the ambitions that took them into the classroom in the first place."

He mentions early texts such as Preece and Wood, and Rex Walford's book on School geography, before talking about his own publishing career and various encounters with geographers. He mentions a Bill Marsden book which he also loaned me: 'The School Textbook" (2001)

He also looked ahead to the future for publishing, which 19 years on has been proved to be quite prescient:

"the future knowledge economy will rapidly change our perception of how learning takes place as content is increasingly commoditised and contextualised and print and broadcast media merge together. This is the challenge for the government and for the Geographical Association too."

His Presidential address ends as follows:

"I am concerned that the children we teach better become not just better geographers, but better people as a result of studying geography".

He has worked with some famous geography authors, including Harry Robinson, who was Head of the Geography Department at Huddersfield Polytechnic just before I started my degree there in the early 1980s, D C Money - who I have mentioned in previous posts and Vincent Tidswell - my PGCE tutor at Hull University and someone else who I have blogged about previously. He also mentions Bill Chambers and Karl Donert working on a book together, and the involvement of Mary Biddulph: another former GA President.

Chris told me about his various roles within the GA, many of which I had been unaware of.

"I have kept my hand in throughout my working life with geography - Trustee of Field Studies Council, a Non Executive Director of the Ordnance Survey (both of whom subsequently became major supporters/strategic partners of the GA), and three stints of six years each on the GA Council."

In 1987(ish?) Bryan Coates (who was then Honorary Treasurer, but later to be President himself) asked me to conduct the Strategic Review of the GA which took three years to develop then two years to get through Council and a further five years to implement (a decade of work in total) - including the appointment of the new roles of Chief Executive, Finance Director, setting up a proper publishing and marketing arm to the business and a re-focus on (Continuing) Professional Development.

This moved the GA from being an organisation with many volunteers in key voluntary positions to a professional Association with salaried officers, and also brought Richard Gill and others into the GA story,

Thanks partly to the work of Chris Kington before his Presidency we have the GA as it currently stands, and which I helped all aspects of while working at Solly Street. Something that, looking back, I hadn't fully appreciated. Chris is also still active in the GA Cambridge Branch, and was chair for 5 years. He hosts events, and leads guided walks for members each year and also supports ITE students. This work will continue once we are able to move more freely again I am sure.

Chris is also one of the founding member of the Worldwise Quiz (along with Rex Walford, Mike Morrish, Ellie Rawling etc) - plenty more on those Presidents in their own blog entries of course as Former Presidents.

Chris still lives in Cambridge and I have met up with him several times in recent years. One of the great things that Chris did to help me with the blog project was to unearth a range of letters from former Presidents which he collected for his own Presidential years.

These explore the 'spark' which led to their initial interest in geography, and have been mentioned in the posts of a lot of recent Presidents.

Of his achievements he said:

I convened the Strategic Review which took 5 years to work through and to implement and a further 5 years to work throughout the system. Broadly this advocated: 

1) the move from an organisation run and managed by good hearted amateurs to one run by appropriately qualified professionals. Appoint a full time Chief Executive and a qualified Business Manager. 

2) a focus on the increasing professional requirements of teachers as the nature of the subject, schools and exams changed. 

3) the provision of high quality CPD and publications through all phases of schooling and teacher training. 

4) the re-organisation of the entire GA to reflect these new demands whilst re-committing to a Branch structure. 

5) asserting professionalism at all levels and the primacy of the Annual conference and its professional journals - something that remains very important.

6) anticipating technological innovation (mostly unspecified) and need to equip both teachers and students for a changed brave new dynamic world.

I last saw Chris at the FSC 75th Anniversary event at the Linnean Society in London just a few months ahead of the lockdown. Since the lockdown in March 2020, Chris has been treating his followers on Facebook to a daily poem. I'm looking forward to being able to return the letters and books that Chris loaned me in due course.

References
See Chris Kington publications - for sale by resellers and from other bookshops.

'Thinking through Geography 1 and 2' - David Leat, Adam Nichol et al

https://www.geography.org.uk/write/mediauploads/teacher%20education/ga_ite_sft_why_thinking_through_is_important.pdf

Also books with Fran Martin (former GA President) and Jeff Battersby

'Representing Geography' - Liz Taylor - still an important book and one I got a 2nd hand copy of recently so that I could reread a section for a project I was writing.

A photography pack with Harry Cory Wright, with Primary and Secondary handbooks was also excellent. It is reviewed here for TES by former GA President Keith Grimwade.

'Contemporary Approaches to Geography' - 2 volumes written by Charles Rawding

'Living Geography' - a number of authors with GA connections, including several GA Presidents - edited by David Mitchell

I also have a copy of 'Reading our Landscapes' by Charles Rawding which won a GA Silver Award

https://www.teachingexpertise.com/articles/silver-ga-award-for-reading-our-landscapes-geography-resource/

Image copyright:Bryan Ledgard and the GA (from Flickr account) at the 125th Anniversary event.

2nd image courtesy of Joseph Kerski

MyHeritage Deep Nostalgia

MyHeritage has released a free tool which takes an image from a photo and animates it. The main target market is for those researching family trees and genealogy as it 'brings relatives to life' in a spooky sort of way. In fact My Heritage themselves say that some people don't like it. The term 'Deep Nostalgia' is used, which is close to 'deep fake'. They say:

Some people love the Deep Nostalgia™ feature and consider it magical, while others find it creepy and dislike it. Indeed, the results can be controversial and it’s hard to stay indifferent to this technology. We invite you to create videos using this feature and share them on social media to see what your friends and family think. This feature is intended for nostalgic use, that is, to bring beloved ancestors back to life. Our driver videos don’t include speech in order to prevent abuse of this , such as the creation of “deep fake” videos of living people. Please use this feature on your own historical photos and not on photos featuring living people without their permission.

I tried it on a few former GA Presidents - what do you think? Should I stop?

Here's Percy Maude Roxby

Sir Halford Mackinder

Commons Select Committee Evidence

The Geographical Association has often been called on to present evidence to official consultations and documents, and at times to Parliamentary Select Committees: particularly where that involves curriculum change or related educational issues. This work continues to the present day, with Alan Kinder being involved in such consultations and policy work regularly, along with other GA volunteers and staff. When I worked at Solly Street we were often called on to comment - I usually deferred such work to John Lyon as he has a good face for radio. :)

Here's an example provided by Richard Daugherty.

Parliamentary proceedings are all reported in Hansard.

This took place in April 1981 when there were discussions over curriculum content and what students should be learning in geography. It's interesting to see the way that subjects were viewed and also some of the preconcieved notions that members of the Education Select Committee had on the value of geography (and other subjects).