Christine Speak RIP

In this blog, I have tried to feature people who may not have had the same public profile as others, but who in their own way were particularly supportive of the Geographical Association.

The Autumn 2025 issue of GA Magazine featured an appreciation for the memory of Christine Speak, a former chair of the GA's International Committee, active in Hong Kong, author of articles for GA journals and a long standing member of the association.

It also included a link to a video with Christine, which can be viewed on this link.

Embedding not permitted...

Could you be the GA President for 2027-28?

You have until October to put yourself forward...

There is also a position for an Elected Trustee.

This is the current Governing Body, with Alastair Owens as Chair.

ALCAB

Remembering the work of ALCAB. This was set up to advise on the content of reformed 'A' level specifications. Their work resulted in a number of new subjects appearing on specifications.

Our role was to provide advice to Government and to the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) on the content of A-levels in the subjects of particular importance for preparation for the leading universities. We were funded by a grant from the Department for Education.

Our detailed work in respect of individual A-level subjects was undertaken by specialist subject panels made up of experienced academics. Our work focused on the ‘facilitating subjects’ identified by the Russell Group, which are mathematics, further mathematics, English literature, physics, biology, chemistry, geography, history, and modern and classical languages.

Our work built on the findings of the A-level subject content review conducted by the awarding organisations and Ofqual. ALCAB established expert subject panels to review the content of A-levels in mathematics, further mathematics; modern foreign and classical languages; and geography. The panel reports were published in July 2014.

We will also contribute to the review process for A-levels that Ofqual will establish in the longer-term. Through this process, we will consider the content of the remainder of those facilitating subjects not identified for detailed consideration by subject panels in the first phase of our work, providing advice and drawing on relevant expertise as appropriate.

The Geography Subject Panel.

The Geography Panel is chaired by Professor Martin Evans who is a Professor of Geomorphology at University of Manchester and Head of Geography in the School of Environment, Education and Development.

Geography Panel members are:

Dr Pippa Chapman, University of Leeds

Professor Klaus Dodds, University of London

Professor Richard Harris, School of Geographical Sciences

Professor Anthony Long, University of Durham

Dr Emma Mawdsley, University of Cambridge

Professor Richard Phillips, University of Sheffield

Ms Bridget Oeppen, Hills Road 6th Form College, Cambridge

Dr Alistair Owens, Queen Mary, University of London

Dr Ruth Weaver, Plymouth University

Dr Rita Gardner, Royal Geographical Society

Mr Alan Kinder, Geographical Association

ALCAB ended in January 2015.

I wonder, ten years on, whether the Curriculum and Assessment Review will require similar panels to advise on subject content updates, rather than such changes coming as part of the Review document itself.

The original ALCAB report from 2014 can be read on this link. (PDF download)

A few new updates

I've tickled away at the site over the summer and updated the entries for quite a few people. 

I'm keen to keep the site up to date as the years progress since my own Presidential year. 

If you are reading this and you have been a GA member for a while or have a story (or pictures) from a previous GA Conference, or anecdotes relating to past GA Presidents,  please get in touch.

GA Conference - 2001 - University of Sussex

Thanks to Joseph Kerski for the image

Your thoughts on 'Teaching Geography'

Teaching Geography journal is 50 years old this year, having appeared for the first time in 1975 under the editorship of Patrick Bailey. I have blogged about the journal many times here.

The Teaching Geography editorial board invites you to complete a short survey to share your thoughts on the journal. 

This is an opportunity to express what you enjoy, what you feel could be improved, the topics you'd like to see covered in future articles, and your ideas for the journal’s direction.

Send your thoughts here.

Geographer for Hire

As regular readers of my LivingGeography blog will know, I've been reducing my time in the classroom - partly as a way to ensure that teaching stays sustainable for me at my advanced age, but also because I've been fortunate to have a range of interesting external projects in the last couple of years, including books, curriculum making with the Oak National project, BBC Bitesize work, work with the Environment Agency and my ongoing role at the Royal Geographical Society. I've shared this work in my Worldly Wednesdays posts during the year.

This year, I have gone down to three days teaching a week.

Most of those projects mentioned above have now come to an end, although a few new things have already been pencilled in for this year. This means that I have some time free some weeks this academic year to get involved in further projects and am always interested in something new.

If you think I could help you with a project, even if it's just for a few hours or days then feel free to get in touch and tell me more about what you have in mind. Below you can see some of the organisations and publishers I've worked with over the years. 

I haven't added the Geographical Association and the Royal Geographical Society because they're obvious.

My email is a DOT parkinson AT gmail.com

Also find me on LinkedIn.

Message me on BlueSky @geoblogs

Image: Alice Griffiths

250 000 page views

I always like to mark significant milestones of page views. A little surge of visitors in the last few months across my blogs. Wondering whether it's AI scraping text to train itself...  Thanks for visiting the blog.

Early bird booking now available for GA Conference 2026

Early bird booking is now available for the GA Conference 2026.

More tickets will be released but the price will be higher.

The GA Annual Conference and Exhibition 2026 will be held from 8–10 April at the new and exciting venue of Sheffield College.

Day one will begin at 12.00 on Wednesday 8 April including your choice of a range of field visits, Awards ceremony, Public Lecture and Conference Dinner, plus special opportunities to talk to the GA and hear more about what we do and how to get involved.

Days two and three will feature the usual diverse range of lectures, workshops, Teacher-to-Teacher and research paper sessions. Join for all three days and receive a discount on the daily rate, or choose the best days for you, with special daily pathways dedicated to ECT and primary colleagues.

Make the most of your time in Sheffield by engaging with our networking events, talking to our special interest groups and maybe proposing your own talk for the annual Conference TeachMeet.

Visit the exhibition to speak with representatives from around the geographical community: exam board representatives, sustainable travel companies, field studies centres, publishers, charities and more.