The Curriculum Review - the direction of travel.

Steve Brace of the Geographical Association has been the lead drafter of the new draft geography curriculum. Quite a responsibility.

He has written this piece for Teachwire which gives little away that wasn't already known.

Climate Change and Geography

The GA recently released some statistics from a YouGov poll on the public's opinion of the value of geography's curriculum content for the teaching of climate change topics.

79% of UK adults support climate change being taught as part of the geography National Curriculum.
There was majority support for this position across male (76%) and female (82%) respondents, all age ranges 18+ to 65+ (between 75% and 87%), all socio-economic classifications (75-84%) and across all English regions (77-83%).

What facts shall we teach?

 A nice article in an early edition of 'The Geographical Teacher' from 1918....

As we wait for the report of the Curriculum and Assessment Review, what facts should we teach?

Source:

Orford, E. J. “GEOGRAPHY : WHAT FACTS SHALL WE TEACH ?” The Geographical Teacher, vol. 9, no. 5, 1918, pp. 212–15. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40554678. Accessed 15 Oct. 2025.

Oak KS3 Curriculum - coming soon

I've just completed my last contribution to the Oak National Geography Curriculum project for KS3. I helped to work on the Primary Geography curriculum which is already available on the Oak website free of charge to use it as you see fit.

The Curriculum Plan can be downloaded from here.

14 units are already available, and the rest will be available for the upcoming Autumn Term.

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.

'Changing the subject'

This book by Eleanor Rawling was flagged up for me by David Lambert in a recent conversation where I talked about some of the curriculum changes I'd seen.

It describes the changes that took place in school geography between 1980 and 2000 - the era when I trained as a teacher and then started teaching.

I purchased a copy from Amazon second hand, which turned out to have been withdrawn from the Edward Boyle Library at the University of Leeds.

Eleanor, a former GA President of course, describes the various policy decisions at national level which influenced the shape of the National Curriculum in the mid 80s, with its many many attainment targets, which were turned into double page spreads by David Waugh and Tony Bushell in the ubiquitous 'Key Geography' series.

The book was published by the Geographical Association, and the acknowledgements section mentions a whole list of former GA Presidents who were also involved in its production, particularly Richard Daugherty and also in the contents as they were a big part of discussions around the time of the development of the National Curriculum.

More to come once I've had a chance to digest it further...

GA Presidency Month 4: December 2021

December saw a range of activity in the first part of the month which came at the end of a long and varied term which was particularly tiring and challenging, with growing COVID cases in school, and waiting to find out more about the new variant and its potential implications for us, as cases rose and the threat of another lockdown began to loom the week before Christmas.

December 1st was the first of another month of activity supporting GA branches.The GA Birmingham Branch has continued with a programme of excellent speakers, including Ben Hennig.

Thanks to those teachers who came along, and to Bob for sending a recording of the session, which I think went very well.

The 2nd of the month saw the latest of our Parents' Evenings via Parent Cloud. These may well become one of the legacies of the pandemic, with the end to face to face appointments, or perhaps hybrid events.

My booster jab was given on the 3rd. Many people in the world are yet to receive their first vaccine, although impressively over 800 million Indians have received their first dose. It turns out this is going to very important with the Omicron variant.

ERASMUS projects have continued and we have negotiated extensions on the project as they have been majorly affected by the pandemic which has impacted on our chances to work with the teachers who are part of the project. They have been delayed and subject to alteration.

Zaragoza in Spain is a city that I have never been to (yet) and my trip there had to be cancelled last weekend following the emergence of the Omicron variant and changes to travel arrangements.

I also had to cancel a proposed trip to Romania in the New Year, and an event in London as well due to people having to isolate.

I also filled in my CPD log for my Chartered Geographer status this week. I have been a Chartered Geographer since April 2007, and the GA Conference will mark my 15th anniversary as a CGeog (Teacher).

To find out more about this opportunity to get accreditation for your CPD and other efforts check out the Chartered Geographers section of the RGS website.

I had a GIS resource to work on and spent some time on that as well.

I also put out the call for papers for the session that I have had accepted at the 100th IGU in Paris. If you would like to be part of the session you need to submit your abstract by January 11th.  Let me know if you would like further information.

I also had to get copy for the Spring 2022 issue of my Webwatch column for GA Magazine's Spring 2022 issue finished. The magazine is getting a face lift in 2022 with a new format which means the full version of Webwatch will now be available to download with a smaller version in the magazine.

With the GA now passing 10 000 plus members (as you may have read in a piece I wrote for the GA website)

Christmas was a bit of a pause for most people.

I continued to potter on projects during the school holidays:

- The first day of the holidays I had a meeting with Alan Kinder.

- Wrote an article on the KS2 work I am doing at school. This will appear in 'Primary Geography'.

- Worked on ERASMUS project outcomes for GI Pedagogy and also D3 - check out the course we have created here.

- I also bought and started reading David Gardner's new book, which is out now as an eBook - it's excellent, and comes with an accompanying GeogPod broadcast which I listened to this week as well.

- I worked on finishing a new session called 'Click and Collect' to present at a number of GA Branches this coming year. It links with another resource I'm working on, which also connects with the idea of Supply Chains. That will all emerge in 2022, as part of my 'Curriculum Vitae'

Omicron cases continued to rise as we entered the final few weeks of 2021 and many of the teachers I follow on Twitter tested positive.

Here are the Twitter stats for the month as usual.

IGU - a call for paper abstracts

This information will be appearing in a number of locations, including the GA website over the next month.

There is a month to the deadline for submitting a paper as part of a session that I have had approved at the IGU in Paris in July 2022. It's also a month to the deadline for early bird booking.

This may be of niche interest to some reading this, but it is posted so that I can direct those who may be interested and attending the event to see the full details. The final results will also be of direct interest to those who teach in any capacity as we explore the idea of a curriculum framework.

This will be the 100th IGU Conference in Paris in July 2022.

My session at the IGU’s centennial conference will continue a long tradition of GA / IGU engagement, involving former GA Presidents including Norman Graves and Sir Dudley Stamp. I will draw on previous employment as the GA’s Secondary Curriculum Leader and experience in developing curriculum artefacts and vignettes to help bring curriculum documents to life. This will hopefully be the start of a renewed international conversation about curriculum: to reconnect with each other after several years of enforced separation.

Title of proposed session:

Developing a curriculum framework for Geography at national level

The session is described as follows:

The Geographical Association (GA) has pursued its mission ‘to further geographical knowledge and understanding through education’ since 1893, during which time it has undertaken successive exercises to reframe the school geography curriculum in the UK and further afield.

One of the GA’s flagship initiatives at present is a fundamental review of curriculum thinking in geography education.

This initiative has taken a very wide range of evidence and perspectives into account to work on the production of a geography curriculum framework that is informed by research and practice, reflects the contemporary world and discipline and can be used by the Association to exert influence on national and international curriculum conversations in the future. This work is being led by Eleanor Rawling, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Oxford Department of Education, and will emerge during 2022.

The curriculum framework will be introduced at the session, along with a description of some of the other projects which influenced the thinking. Key issues around such work will be explored, with reference to other national curricula. The curriculum framework also creates opportunities for teachers to develop deeper (powerful) knowledge and equip students with choices about whether and how they wish to act, as well as a better understanding of how and why others do/do not act in the same way.

Alan will outline his ‘Curriculum Vitae’ - a curriculum for life: to engage young people and equip them with key questions that they will carry forward with them beyond their schooling. The Climate Emergency and other global issues should be threads running through any new curriculum, but teachers need support in considering how such issues can become objects of study, so that they may be examined in school without the attendant real-world pressures we otherwise face when dealing with complex social, political and environmental challenges. Should this be part of the framework, or the associated guidance? Such questions will be discussed.

If you would like to get involved, please get in touch. The IGU website has reopened during December and early January for the submission of papers and there will then be a selection process to create the programme for the session that I will chair.

The IGU website will be open for submissions until January the 11th 2022. These are abstracts at this stage.

Go here to submit your abstracts

https://www.ugiparis2022.org/fr/soumission-de-resumes/29

Summaries are possible in two formats:

Oral communication: Presentation of 15 minutes maximum, in one of the working languages ​​of the session (see the presentation sheet of the session to which you are submitting your proposal)

E-poster: If your e-poster proposal is accepted by the session organizer (s), the poster must respect the charter (.pdf format) and be placed in the E-Poster area accessible with your identifier, before June 15, 2022 .

Summary format
The sessions will be organized on the principle of one or more session (s) lasting 1h45, each corresponding to 4 presentations of 15 min maximum and 5 min of discussion.

Submission of an abstract
Abstracts must be submitted in French or in English.

The submission form must clearly specify the working language of the communication, with reference to the languages ​​proposed in the session. There will be no interpretation service during the sessions, unless the session organizers offer and provide it themselves.

The sessions will take place face-to-face or virtually; there will be no hybrid sessions.

Submission format

Title : 255 characters maximum, spaces included
Summary : 2000 characters maximum, spaces included
Keywords : 5 maximum
References : 5 maximum

Make sure your paper is linked to the session in the Geographical Education section of the event.



We will share the date and time of the session in the final programme as soon as we can.

Get in touch if you would like to know more details.

Norman Graves and the IGU

A few weeks ago, we heard that a sesssion proposal that I put in has been accepted for the IGU.

The International Geographical Union (IGU) has its centenary conference in Paris in 2022.

Its title is: 

Developing a curriculum framework for Geography at national level

The session is described as follows: 

The Geographical Association (GA) has pursued its mission ‘to further geographical knowledge and understanding through education’ since 1893, during which time it has undertaken successive exercises to reframe the school geography curriculum in the UK and further afield. 

One of the GA’s flagship initiatives at present is a fundamental review of curriculum thinking in geography education. 

This initiative has taken a very wide range of evidence and perspectives into account in order to produce a geography curriculum framework that is informed by research and practice, reflects the contemporary world and discipline and can be used by the Association to exert influence on national and international curriculum conversations in the future. 

Its presentation, for discussion, at the IGU’s centennial conference continues a long tradition of GAIGU engagement, involving former GA Presidents including Norman Graves and Sir Dudley Stamp. There will be inputs, possibly remote or pre-recorded from those people involved in the development of the curriculum framework: an initiative led by Eleanor Rawling, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Oxford Department of Education. 

The curriculum framework will be introduced, along with a description of some of the other projects which influenced the thinking. Key issues around such work will be explored, with reference to other national curricula. 

One aim is to create a ‘Curriculum Vitae’ - a curriculum for life: to engage young people and equip them with key questions that they will carry forward with them beyond their schooling. The Climate Emergency and other global issues should be threads running through any new curriculum, but teachers need support in considering how such issues can become objects of study, so that they may be examined in school without the attendant real-world pressures we otherwise face when dealing with complex social, political and environmental challenges. Should this be part of the framework, or the associated guidance? Such questions will be discussed. 

The curriculum framework also creates opportunities for teachers to develop deeper (powerful) knowledge and equip students with choices about whether and how they wish to act, as well as a better understanding of how and why others do/do not act in the same way. 

Current GA President Alan Parkinson was previously the Geographical Association’s Curriculum Leader and is a practising teacher with much experience in developing curriculum artefacts and vignettes to help bring curriculum documents to life. Ideas for breathing life into the framework will also be explored and shared. This will hopefully be the start of a renewed international conversation about curriculum: to reconnect with each other after several years of enforced separation.

If you would like to get involved, please get in touch. The IGU website will be reopened during December and early January for the submission of papers and there will then be a selection process to create the programme for the session that I will chair.

I will be channelling a former GA President who was heavily involved with the IGU for many years, and wrote this excellent book in 1979: Professor Norman Graves. He has his own entry on the blog. It will also draw on the current work of another former GA President: Eleanor Rawling.

2008 - Working for the GA

It was in September 2008 that I started work for the Geographical Association. I worked there for three years, and it was the best time of my professional life and every day was CPD as I travelled across the UK and Europe, learning, writing, teaching and pushing forward the idea of what school geography could be.

I worked with many wonderful geographers, and had the chance to visit hundreds of schools and work with thousands of teachers as we worked to deliver the projects funded by the Action Plan for Geography and meet the KPI targets.

See the recent post on John Lyon for more on the time we worked together at Solly Street.

I kept notebooks all the way through that period of three years, to jot down everything I was doing, and also keep agendas of meetings etc.

Here they are:

When my job was made redundant I was bereft and thanks to many people who offered me some help in the next few years. I thanked them here.

Particular thanks as always to Claire Kyndt for changing that around 8 years ago.

1977: Geography in a Core Curriculum

In 1977, Patrick Bailey laid some groundwork for future curriculum changes to come with some work which appeared in 'Teaching Geography'.

The GA's association with curriculum has continued of course.



Sources
“EDITORIAL: Geography in a Core Curriculum.” Teaching Geography, vol. 2, no. 3, 1977, pp. 98–98. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23750399

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).

The GA's responses to curriculum debates in the 1970s and early 80's - 2 of 2

This is the second part of an article written for me by Richard Daugherty, GA President in 1989. See Part 1 yesterday for the context: a move towards a National Curriculum framework.

During that time, the GA was also one of the leading members of the Council of Subject Teaching Associations (COSTA). When the House of Commons Select Committee invited a COSTA delegation to submit evidence to it about the school curriculum in April 1981, the GA sent me, as Honorary Secretary (Education) as its representative.

An extract (page 174) from the Hansard minute of that meeting offers some insights into two of the main issues that were raised by Select Committee members.

Hansard - GA Response to Framework Curriculum Proposals (1) by Alan Parkinson on Scribd

A Conservative MP, Patrick Cormack, clearly believed that knowledge of place names was being undervalued in the GA's leaflet (see previous post). Referring to the capitals of European countries, he says "I went to one school recently and none of them (the pupils) knew any of them."

Which hindsight,  could acknowledgement that place knowledge had a role, if not a major role in the teaching of geography have helped the GA be better prepared for the National Curriculum arguments later in the 1980s? 

On the same page of the Hansard report (above) is my attempt to respond to a question from the Committee Chair: Christopher Price by welcoming on behalf of the GA, a potential "common system of examination" for 16 year olds. 

This would within a short period become the GCSE that was introduced in 1986.

Thanks again to Richard Daugherty for both of these posts.

The GA's responses to curriculum debates in the 1970s and early 80s - 1 of 2

I am grateful to Richard Daugherty for taking the time to send me a number of contributions to the blog. Richard was the GA President in 1989, and his own entry on the blog will appear in a month or so.

In the 1980s, Richard was heavily involved in the GA's response to the proposals for a National Curriculum. This sort of advisory work has gone on for decades and often happens in the background, with many GA members being unaware of the effort that goes into shaping curriculum and assessment. I have been involved in a little bit of this myself, going back about 15 years.

GA Council, which used to make decisions on GA Policy and other work were aware of the emerging National framework for Geography following an earlier speech by James Callagham which I have blogged about recently.

The following text and documents were provided by Richard. The documents themselves were uploaded for Scribd for ease of access and reading.

Throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the GA was responding to emerging ideas from Government and from the Inspectorate that would eventually result in a statutory National Curriculum for schools in England and Wales. The first section of a discussion paper for a meeting of GA Council in March 1980 summarises developments up to that point.

GA Council Paper March 1980 by Alan Parkinson

Shortly after that meeting, I co-wrote an article with Rex Walford for the Times Educational Supplement (TES), published on 18th April 1980, commenting on the curriculum proposals.

It was titled "Overlooked in the Secret Garden".

Here's Part 1 of the article.

TES Article Page 1 18th Apr... by Alan Parkinson

Here's Part 2 of the article

TES Article Page 2 18 April... by Alan Parkinson

The GA then decided to prepare and circulate a leaflet to summarise the main features of what we believed to be the subject's contribution to the education of young people'.

'Geography in the School Curriculum 5-16' was published in January 1981.

It can be seen below:

GA Pamphlet Re School Curri... by Alan Parkinson

The GA leaflet 'Geography in the School Curriculum 5-16' was distilled from lengthy discussions in GA committees into a summary of what was then agreed as the Association's view on geography's contribution to the curriculum.

Part 2 to come tomorrow.

1985 - Keith Joseph on geography in schools

Updated October 2020

In 1985, the Secretary of State for Education addressed the GA's Conference and talked about some proposed changes to the school curriculum.

This resulted in a response from the GA, which was concerned at the implications for Geography's position on the school curriculum. I have blogged that previously, slightly out of sequence perhaps.

In his book on UK School geography, Rex Walford talks about his involvement in the response, and also the work of Patrick Bailey and Tony Binns (who are coming up on the blog shortly) in writing 'A Case for Geography'.

Keith Joseph asked 7 questions and Patrick Bailey responded, sort of calling his bluff according to Rex Walford.

There was also a response from Denys Brunsden, who was Senior Vice President of the GA at the time, on behalf of the BGRG.

This was all part of an ongoing process starting with a James Callaghan speech in the 1970s which opened up the 'secret garden' of curriculum. It became known as the 'Great Debate'.

Geography was a popular option under a 'free market', but the emergence of the TVEI (I used to have a TVEI tie back in the day) was an element in cutting down choice. It also led to the founding of COBRIG in 1988 and closer working with the RGS-IBG.

This was about getting "a place in the sun".

References

"A Case for Geography" - published by the GA, edited by Patrick Bailey and Tony Binns

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40571306.pdf?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/23751212.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A6ebe5211589a8ba858eec7824db86441 - responses to Keith Joseph from Patrick Bailey

Bailey, Patrick. “A Reply to Sir Keith Joseph's Seven Questions, from the President of the Geographical Association.” Teaching Geography, vol. 11, no. 2, 1986, pp. 64–67. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23751212. Accessed 31 Oct. 2020.

1982: Curriculum Change

Rex Walford was involved in coordinating the GA's response to a period of curriculum change in the early 80s.
He wrote about the GA's involvement in 1982 in the 'Geography' journal.
The GA was involved in these consultations through a group called COSTA: the Council of Subject Teaching Associations. This no longer exists, although there is still a Council for Subject Associations of which the GA is a member.


This work is an important part of what the GA does to guide the development of the subject and the way it is assessed, and the content which forms part of any national curriculum, as well as advising on more local curriculum projects as well.

Reference
“Recent Involvement of the Geographical Association in the Curriculum Debate.” Geography, vol. 67, no. 1, 1982, pp. 71–75. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40570476. Accessed 22 Feb. 2020.

1980: GA thoughts on the school curriculum

A report by Richard Daugherty and Rex Walford in response to Government proposals for the School Curriculum, published in 1980. Another of the many policy documents the GA has created over the years.


Reference
Daugherty, R., & Walford, R. (1980). GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS FOR THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM IN ENGLAND AND WALES. Geography, 65(3), 232-235. Retrieved August 26, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40569279

1976: Michael J Walker

Michael Walker was formerly the Head of the school where I taught for over 20 years. He had a few articles published in journals and also wrote a few books.

In 1976, he contributed an article to 'Teaching Geography' exploring the curriculum - a topic which is now at the heart of much discussion.
Always interesting coming across people you know in the early journals and discovering how long ago they were contributing to the community of practice that is the GA.



Reference

WALKER, MICHAEL J. “Changing the Curriculum.” Teaching Geography, vol. 1, no. 4, 1976, pp. 163–166. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23751253.

School's Council 14-18 Project

This was launched in 1970.

More to come as the project found its way into school.
Memories of School Council project resources and lessons welcome.

REYNOLDS, JOHN. “Schools Council Curriculum Development Project: Geography 14-18 Years.” Geography, vol. 56, no. 1, 1971, pp. 32–34. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40567432. Accessed 6 July 2020.