Trevor Bennetts

Updated October 2025

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

Researchgate entries.

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203994238-17/continuity-progression-trevor-bennetts?context=ubx&refId=620ebb2b-1c9a-42a3-ae5b-3772303f1406 

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.

Update

Was sorry to hear that Trevor passed away in May this year. An appreciation of his work will feature in a future issue of GA Magazine. Condolences to Janice, family and friends.

Update September 2025

Here is the piece by former GA Presidents Eleanor Rawling and Richard Daugherty from GA Magazine's Autumn 2025 issue.

Update October 2025

Some memories from former President Jeremy Krause on the impact of Trevor's work.

"Firstly as an 'A' Level student in Harrow I am grateful to Trevor and others for running the Harrow and Wembley GA Branch. It was lectures from the likes of Prof Eric Brown that fired up my enthusiasm for geography beyond school. 

Secondly, Trevor and I found ourselves on the SEAC Geography Committee in the late '80s. It was a privilege to be party to the key debates about the nature of geography and its assessment. Trevor's clarity about what geography was and how it could be assessed with validity, were often at the heart of the debates and decisions we made. I recall the lengthy discussions about Humanities and how the proposals that we considered lessened the place of geography.

He also supported me when I was GA President.

What a loss, but weren't we fortunate to have him with us along the way."

Any other memories of Trevor and his work are welcome.

GA News on Keith Joseph's speech

 From the first issue of GA News.

GA News - the first edition

The first edition of the 'proper' GA News with Mike Morrish as the editor. 

Thanks to Eleanor Rawling for passing this through. First of all, there's a mock up, which was put together to show how it might look.

And then an image of the actual document, complete with the relevant story at the time relating to government-related policy work and the debate over Keith Joseph's speech at the GA Conference which has been the subject of other posts.

Images: Eleanor Rawling

1986-7: Kenneth Baker

An interesting debate carried on from 1985 and Keith Joseph's speech at a special one-day conference in King's College, London in June 1985.

The GA had responded to 7 questions posed by Keith Joseph, but he was then replaced by Kenneth Baker. The letter defined elements of the GA's emerging policy towards a National Curriculum.

This had 4 key bullet points:

1. Understanding geography should be a fundamental part of every child's education

2. Geography had powerful integrating qualities in itself 'with strong links in both the sciences and the arts' and should not be seen as just a humanities subject

3. Direct observation and investigation of the environment was an important part of geographical work and should be undertaken by every pupil

4. Geography could be a vehicle for the study and discussion of controversial social and environmental issues and therefore should be studied by all up to the age of 16.

The GA tried to arrange a meeting with Mr. Baker unsuccessfully, so worked on 'A Case for Geography', edited by Patrick Bailey and Tony Binns.

This arrived on Ken Baker's desk in 1987. Baker had studied History at Oxford and he wanted to change that.

According to Rex Walford, when the GA's delegation finally arrived at his office in June 1987, he told them that Geography would find a distinctive place in the National Curriculum he was about to announce. 

This didn't turn out to be as clear cut as he had suggested. Baker had to defend his plans against Margaret Thatcher who wanted to change them.

I was broadly aware of the changes in the offing as I was completing my PGCE at this time.

The next stage was to put together a Geography Working Group to advise DES officials. This met for the first time in May 1989.

References

Rex Walford's book on UK School Geography - it is well worth reading the section on this period in this book if you can, as Rex talks about the various threats that geography safely navigated at this time, some of which were beyond the influence of the GA....

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.

Thought for the Day: 1985: Keith Joseph

"To my mind, teachers do no service to their pupils if they give them the impression that such problems [development in towns, areas of unemployment, pollution] are easily defined, that the processes involved are well understood so that their occurrence can be straightforwardly explained and that there are always practicable solutions available. Issues such as the ones I have mentioned are matters of legitimate dispute precisely because there are often strong disagreements about diagnoses, goals and strategies"

Keith Joseph 1985