GA Conference 2026 #1: Day 1

The 2026 GA Conference was held at Sheffield College - a departure from the usual venue at Sheffield Hallam University. This is a short 10 minute walk from the railway station - going out the back entrance. 

I drove up from Norfolk and immediately started seeing people I knew: former work colleagues, present work colleagues, Steve Brace the GA CEO and exhibitors from various publishers and organisations I've worked with over the years. 

The weather was warming up very quickly!

It was good to see the Collins stand had a prominent display of our Discover Geography books, and also the iGCSE Geography book that I was series editor for which was published last March. There was some publicity and order forms for the books as well, so hopefully they will be heading into classrooms soon. 

The Rayburn Tours gang were there with lots of free posters. 

After some chats it was out for the "long standing members" meal, which I am invited to each year. This time we had a minibus to take us to the restaurant in the Winter Gardens, opposite the Crucible Theatre, which was getting prepared for the World Championship Snooker there, starting next weekend. It was a lovely meal and there were 8 former GA Presidents sat at the table, and some other guests and people. All the Presidents are featured on the GA Presidents blog of course. 

One idea I had is to revisit those I can and ask them for an update perhaps.

I had the chance to catch up with several people I only see at this event.

Back to the conference venue, where I had a chat about the National Festival of Fieldwork in June.

I then went to check-in to my hotel and came back via the Graves Gallery and Winter Gardens and some light shopping.

The GA Awards went well. It was good to see David Gardner received the Honorary Membership.

Time for Geography went away with a whole host of Silver Awards.

A Geography Champion award went to Mark and Jay the hosts of the Map Men YouTube Channel, which has over 1.7 million subscribers and authors of the book 'This Way Up' which I read towards the end of last year, who were sat in front of me.

New GA Blog from AESIG

David Gardner has contributed a useful new post on the GA Blog on behalf of the Assessment and Examinations Special Interest Group of the GA.

The GA Blog - Topical insights, advocacy and updates in Geography my blog post responding to Ofsted’s geography subject report focussing on formative assessment on behalf of AESIG has been uploaded today. https://t.co/xIDzOGclFm

— David Gardner (@GeogJazz) March 4, 2024

Here's a related pathway at the forthcoming GA Conference.

The team at AESIG have put together some suggested pathways for @The_GA conference, which focuses on assessment, examination and curriculum planning themes.

There are some amazing sessions here! What else might you want to go and see? pic.twitter.com/bZktmic9ZW

— GA_AESIG (@GA_AESIG) March 5, 2024

High-tech Geography

The Geographical Association has a very high reputation for its publications: the most recent of which is the 2nd edition of Margaret Roberts' seminal 'Geography through Enquiry'.

 In the year 2000, the GA published a book called High-tech Geography: ICT in Secondary Schools. I have a copy as shown in the pictures.

It was compiled by Sheila King who was working as a Lecturer in Education at the Institute of Education at the time.

Although just over 20 years old now, things have rather moved on since then.

In the year 2000 I was starting my dalliance with the internet and web pages, and learning HTML coding. My first websites went up on Tripod hosting, and then I bought my own Domain name in 2001 with the appearance of the GeographyPages website.

The book features chapters written by different contributors. See the contents below.

There are contributions from several people mentioned on this blog as well, including Chris Durbin and David Gardner as well as David Hassell from BECTa, who worked with the GA and funded quite a few projects, including one I was involved in, where I wrote about blogging. I also attended a few research events they funded.

Diana Freeman, who produced the AEGIS GIS mapping package also added a chapter. I later worked with Diana a little when I was freelance.

I liked the chapter on presentation software which suggested that geography teachers might be interested in a new product which was called Microsoft Powerpoint. It replaced the overhead projector and transparencies apparently, with some whizzy effects; and David Hassell explained how to teach when you only have one computer... imagine that...

GA Presidency Month 5: January 2022

Arriving in 2022 means that this was the start of the second phase of my Presidency, and the 8 months leading up to the end of August. January has been a very busy month.

I started the year with meetings related to the working of the GA, and connecting with the GA's Strategic Plan (2020-25)

There was good news with an award for one of the GA's resources. Well done to all those involved in creating the resource which has won a TeachPrimary award.

We're delighted to have received the @TeachPrimary four star award for our Primary Geography CPD Packs 1-5 in the mail today!

Once again, thank-you to @TeachPrimary for the award and for the beautiful trophy.

Find out more about our CPD packs at https://t.co/EafBsW5Mtx pic.twitter.com/zumI9kJq4F

— Geographical Association (@The_GA) January 6, 2022

 

The Governance Working Group is going to meet at the beginning of next month, but preliminary meetings and discussions were held to set agenda items. For those who want to know more about the governance of the GA, the GWG sets the agenda for Governing Body. 

We also saw the publication of an excellent new book by David Gardner on Curriculum which deserves to be purchased and used by all secondary geography departments. 

We also had first sight of a National Research Report on the "professional needs and views of teachers of geography". This was launched just before the end of the month and we were expecting to see quite a bit of coverage on TES and elsewhere, and this was certainly the case. 

Download the report from here.

TES article here.

The report was co-written by Alan Kinder and Dr Emma Rawlings Smith.

Alan said:

'This GA National Research Report has been a year in the making and I’d like to thank all those GA members and others who gave their time towards such an insightful exercise. With a growing membership, the GA needs to work ever-harder to listen to and represent the views of its members. This report distils a huge range of ideas and makes recommendations for the GA, for policy-makers, for school leaders and teachers or geography. Our next challenge will be to pursue these findings and recommendations, so that children and young people in schools everywhere benefit from the improved support we are able to provide to teachers of geography, nationally and internationally.'

We also did final edits on the text of the latest Advocacy for Geography piece in the latest GA Magazine, which was the first in the new format, with a reducd page length for the print copy, but a larger and more flexible online offering. Check that out if you are a GA member.

If you aren't a GA member, I recommend that you join the 10 000 plus existing members to help amplify our voices.

This followed some final edits on an article which I wrote for the Summer 2022 issue of 'Primary Geography' on the transition curriculum I have developed at school. This will be out in the next issue, and thanks to those colleagues who I've worked with since last Easter to change what is taught in Years 3-5.

We also had further discussions regarding the Geographers' Gaze project. This has been funded by former Honorary Treasurer Brian Ellis and we are getting close to the first release of materials. Digital transfers of our selected lantern slides have been made and notes created. The next phase is going to be planned during the summer, and keep an eye on the website for the details of the first phase going live. We hope that you find it useful. There will be a second phase of images eventually. We have plenty of wonderful images to share with you.

I presented a session on Everyday Geographies for the GA's Tyne and Wear branch. Thanks to those who came along and for the excellent questions at the end of the session from those who were there and took my thinking in new directions. 

We started to send out the details of the GA conference to all those involved as well, as Bryan Ledgard worked on the design for the actual booklet. I also started previewing every session at the conference over on my LivingGeography blog.

There was also the recruitment of the moderating team for the Primary and Secondary Geography Quality Marks for the Summer 2022 season. I look forward to reading through the portfolios of the schools that have applied for the award.

I worked on updating the wording of some of the GA's Policies, and we also had discussions about some forthcoming changes to the GA's Governing Body in the year ahead. That acts as a reminder to everyone that there are some opportunities for you to get more involved in the GA coming up as we move into March. 

The year always starts with planning for the term ahead and the Education Group meeting - the 2nd of the meeting that I chair as President. I worked on the agenda and papers for the meeting and then chaired it - a long meeting with plenty of interesting discussions. We also welcomed Eleanor Rawling who has been working on a framework which was shared with us, and was also going to be included in the GTE conference the following weekend.

This included this very helpful diagram showing where different groups get involved in the process of curriculum change.

I also checked submissions for the IGU Session that I am chairing in Paris in July to find that there were 12 submissions to be part of the session that I am going to be chairing.

I attended a meeting of the GA Worldwise Board. Once again, this is a way for people to get involved in the work of the GA, particularly by organising or sending a team to a local Worldwise Quiz.

The Board were interested in the conference theme that I had developed and I will help with the development of some special activities for Worldwise Week later in the year. I've helped create materials in the past. It was lovely to chat to the Board members, who include a number of former Presidents: Sue Lomas, Mark Higginbottom and Steve Rawlinson, along with a former colleague 

A flyer has been produced for the National Fieldwork Week which is coming in June.

It can be viewed here:

GA National Fieldwork Week Flyer from GeoBlogs

I also had a chat with a film producer and we worked on a project which is going to be part of the BBC's Bitesize and children's programming in 2022. This was very exciting to be involved in, and followed some other work last year on the new BBC Regenerators resources for Primary.

The conference programme was shared in draft ahead of April, and bookings opened. I started blogging about each of the sessions on the programme.

I also completed the first draft of an article for the summer issue of 'Teaching Geography'. Historically, the GA President's conference paper was always reproduced in an issue of 'Geography' journal, as they were often presented in that format: read out from a paper, rather than being a little more improvisational.

The end of January is the Geography Teacher Educators' Conference (GTE), which had been due to be held at the University of Worcester.

I was pleased to be able to kick off the whole event with my own presentation on the GA Presidents and their influence, and a slightly redacted version is here:

Out of the mouths of Presidents from GeoBlogs

Particular thanks to Elena Lengthorn and other members of the GTE for their organisation, and for changing to an online format at the last minute.

I led a 90 minute session for teachers in London last week as well on the theme of curriculum making. This involved a series of ideas linked to the nature of curriculum and the part of teachers and students in the process.

This was based around some ideas on curriculum making, and also drew on David Gardner's new book.

As always, here are the Twitter statistics for the month. A reasonable return on the tweets that I've sent, and a lot of the numbers came in the last weekend when GTE Conference was particularly busy tweet wise.

This was a very busy month, and the next month starts promptly, with 2 sessions in the first 2 days.

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.

David Gardner

The blog has shared stories of numerous individuals who have been involved with the GA over the years. The latest to be mentioned here is David Gardner. Here he is presenting at an event at the GA HQ in Sheffield in the Patrick Bailey Room.

He has worked on a number of projects and publications, drawing on his experience of working with QCA and also as an experienced and prolific author of textbooks and other resources. 

From David's LINKEDIN biography:

For 6 years he led and managed major curriculum and research projects as part of his work at the QCDA. Before that he was the author of various textbooks, teacher guides, and websites for a range of publishers and subjects including geography, history and ICT. David has 28 years experience as a teacher of geography, history, and ICT. 

From 2011 to 2014 David led PGCE Geography at Goldsmiths University, and was Senior Lecturer in PGCE Geography at UCL Institute of Education, from 2014 until August 2018. From July 2012 to February 2013 he was also subject leader for PGCE Geography at the Open University. David is a freelance educational consultant.

As senior advisor at QCA/QCDA he led for the subject two national curriculum reviews - primary and secondary, the development of new GCSE and GCE qualifications.

David has also extensive experience of working with teachers to develop curriculum around the world leading workshops in a range of countries including Kazakhstan, India, South Africa, Indonesia, Jordan and Kuwait, UAE and Singapore.

His most recent substantial project is the KS3 Hodder book 'Progress in Geography' with associated support materials. I also have a copy of his pack produced by Heinemann many years ago called 'ICT Activities in Geography'. If you see a map of Scarborough in a book it's probably been written by David.

David also wrote the accompanying 'Skills' book for the Hodder series which won a GA Award this year.