One of the names which has been cropping up throughout my work on the blog has been that of Trevor Bennetts. He was Senior Geography HMI during the 1980s: a time when the GA had to fight hard to ensure that geography found a place on the curriculum.
He lived in Eastleigh and was associated with the University of Southampton, where he was a Visiting Fellow in the School of Education. He was one of the attendees of the GA's Centenary weekend in 1993 at the University of Oxford. He can be seen chatting to Patrick Bailey in the centre of the image, in the light coloured jacket and trousers.
He was a long-standing member of the GA's Council - a key position.
In 1985, he published an article in 'Geography' on Geography from 5-16, which also remains significant.
Trevor Bennetts has written a great many important papers and articles and some are referenced at the end of the piece.
He was also involved in the development of the GCSE's in the late 80s (when I started teaching)
Richard Daugherty provided some details on Trevor's association with the GA, describing him as a 'long time supporter of the GA'.
"Trevor told me at the time that, against all expectations that ministers’ speeches are usually mainly written by officials, Joseph took great trouble to prepare what he said to the GA. Trevor was sent away more than once to supply Keith Joseph with further reading so that the Minister could satisfy himself that he had his arguments right when it came to speaking to the GA.That tallies with my own experience of seeing the early drafts of the first ever GCSE geography criteria. As Pat Wilson, geography officer at SEC and SEAC, will confirm, their draft versions of the geography criteria came back from the Department of Education with insertions and amendments in Keith Joseph’s own handwriting. Not a Secretary of State who left things to his officials! "
His work on Progression in Geography from 2008 is still useful today.
Trevor was also included in the list by Jeremy Krause of people who should perhaps have been GA Presidents but never were.
References
Bennetts, Trevor. “Geography from 5 to 16: A View from the Inspectorate.” Geography, vol. 70, no. 4, 1985, pp. 299–314. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571001. Accessed 28 Mar. 2021.
Bennetts, T.H. (1981) ‘Progression in the geography curriculum’ in Walford, R. (ed) Signposts for Geography Teaching. Harlow: Longman, pp. 165-85.
Bennetts, T.H. (1995) ‘Continuity and progression’, Teaching Geography, 20, 2, pp. 75-9.
Bennetts, T.H. (1996) ‘Progression and differentiation’ in Bailey, P. and Fox, P. (eds) Geography Teachers’ Handbook. Sheffield: Geographical Association, pp. 81- 93.
Image: thanks to Sheila Jones, GA President in 1975
All comments on Trevor Bennetts work with the GA welcome as always.
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