2018: Stephen Scoffham

Dr. Stephen Scoffham's professional work has been in the area of Primary Geography, and he has a long association with Canterbury Christchurch University, where he is currently Visiting Reader in Sustainability & Education.

He is also involved in a number of campaigns which look to advance the place of geography at this key stage. He serves on the Steering Group of the Humanities 20:20 group, for example.

Stephen's Presidential Address was on the theme of 'Celebrating Geography'.

I have used and referred to a great many of Stephen's books and resources over the years, and this book with Paula Owens has been of particular value when preparing some KS2 work of my own for colleagues as part of our curriculum developments for the coming academic year.

One of the first times I met Stephen was in around 2006 when I worked on a project with David Lambert to develop some atlases for Collins as part of the GA's consultancy work.

 I still use those Atlases in my own classroom, and enjoyed the process of discussing how to make sure the atlases didn't stay on the shelves as much as they normally did.

The following 'biography' was written by Stephen himself and taken from a number of sources.

Initially a primary school teacher, Stephen worked for many years as a teacher educator before taking up the post of Visiting Reader in Sustainability and Education at Canterbury Christ Church University. 

Stephen is an established author of geography teaching materials and one of a very small number of author/consultants for school atlases. 

With well over a million sales, Stephen's publications have been used in many different parts of the world and translated into languages as disparate as Georgian, Hebrew, Gaelic and Portuguese (Brazil). He served for many years as the GA’s publication officer and devised two different editions of its best-selling publication – the Primary Geography Handbook. During his Presidential year he also started a 'tradition' followed by other recent GA Presidents of engaging more with committees and special interest groups and attending meetings - he came to several Secondary Phase Committee meeting while I was secretary, for example.

He joins a number of other GA Presidents in the million-selling club. I have a way to go to reach that yet...

Deeply aware of the dangers of global warming and sustainability issues, Stephen focused his presidential year on contemporary challenges and argued for new and positive approaches using ‘celebrating geography’ as a unifying theme.

Stephen was brought up in Hertfordshire and went to St Albans School before studying philosophy and history at the University of Kent. After training as a teacher, he took up a post as the leader of a research project into urban environmental education. It was here that he developed his ideas about outdoor learning and the value of first-hand experience. As Schools’ Officer for the Canterbury Urban Studies Centre Stephen pioneered new approaches to using the school environment as a teaching resource. 

He then joined Canterbury Christ Church University as a tutor in primary education where his interest in learning, creativity and international understanding provided a rich foil for his ideas about geography education.

Stephen has travelled widely in Europe and Asia. 

He lived for a while in Istanbul after graduating before journeying on foot with friends across the Anatolian plateau – a distance of some 500 miles. As a university tutor he led study visits to south India for over a decade inspiring groups of teacher educators and leaving them with indelible experiences of different ways of living. 

More recently Stephen has directed his attention towards promoting sustainability awareness in academic life, writing about sustainability leadership and pioneering practical initiatives. A sense of place and a sensitivity to the environment pervades all these different endeavours. And his interest in the surroundings, both urban and rural, is something he pursues as a hobby as an enthusiastic walker, gardener and photographer.

In recent years, Stephen has been part of the project team for the Meaningful Maps project.

This explores how young people conceptualise their surroundings. Some of the students at my own school were involved in the early stages of the project, submitting their own maps, and work is ongoing to produce research papers and other outcomes from the project exploring young children's cartographical imaginations.

Stephen was also very helpful to me during my time as Junior Vice President, as he was the Past President during that time, and helped me with the responsibilities and chatted through some of his own experiences to help me get used to the role. This is all part of the Presidential 'journey' which those who put themselves forward for Presidency are taken on. 

References
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen_Scoffham

https://www.routledge.com/authors/i19629-stephen-scoffham

Meaningful Maps: http://meaningfulmaps.org/

As with some recent Presidents, Stephen has a Twitter account.

Image copyright: Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association

Numerous books - too many to list here.
SCOFFHAM, S. Using the School's surroundings:A Guide to Local Studies in Urban Schools Guildford Ward Lock 1980

He has also co-authored many books with other Primary colleagues including Paula Owens.

As always, memories of Stephen's time as GA President welcome...

2017: Nick Lapthorn

Nick Lapthorn works for the Field Studies Council, and was previously Head of Centre at Nettlecombe Court in Somerset.
He has written extensively on fieldwork, and helped tens of thousands of students experience learning outside the classroom.

Nick was educated at Kingsbridge School and Community College before doing a BSc degree in Topographic Science and Geography at the University of Wales, Swansea.
He has worked at a number of FSC Centres since 1996, including Amersham, Juniper Hall and Nettlecome Court (which was the first FSC centre I visited, with Tim Burt, as an undergraduate geographer)

Nick can be followed on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nicklapthorn 

Nick was an active member of the Geographical Association's 'Fieldwork' group since 2000. During this time he has acted as member, Secretary and Chair of the group since 2010.

He has contributed regularly to GA publications, articles for journals and consultations, and is a regular presenter at GA Conference and more widely promoting fieldwork. 

To help communicate with as many people as possible he established the @geogfieldwork Twitter account which now has over 3,500 followers in the UK and overseas.

As with some of the more recent Presidents, he was kind enough to pass on some information via my Google Form.

Nick was born in 1973 South Devon (Torbay)

He attended Kingsbridge School and Community College (now Kingsbridge Academy). and the University of Wales, Swansea (now Swansea University)

He told me of his carreer path:

"After university I moved from washing dishes in a pub in South Devon to washing dishes as a general assistant at FSC Juniper Hall. Coming from a family of teachers I have vowed not to become involved in education and thought that an address at a field centre, whilst looking for gainful employment was better than a pub. During my time off shift I used to support the geography tutor with fieldwork on Box Hill and quite enjoyed and found out that I was also not too bad at it. 

When the tutor left to take up a PGCE, I was encouraged to apply for the post and got it. I was already considering by this time doing a PGCE, but hadn't decided if I wanted to do primary or secondary (my father was a primary teacher). I progressed from Tutor to Senior Tutor at Juniper Hall to being Head of Centre at FSC Amersham and then back to Juniper Hall as Head of Centre. 

In 2010 I moved back to the west country to become Head of Centre at FSC Nettlecombe Court."

Nick was working as Head of Centre at Nettlecombe Court when he was GA President.

Nick's conference theme was 'Real World Geography'. 

He told me:

"In spite of having a love for geography as a subject it wasn't really until I started to assist with fieldwork that my passion really came alive. So many elements of the subject seemed to make much more sense when it became a hands-on subject - things just started to make more sense. I knew that if this was the case for me, then that must be the case for many others too. My theme was to highlight the role of geography in the many aspects of daily life. In the last couple of years of being Chair of FOLSIG we pushed forward the 'Year of Fieldwork' that worked across the subject community involving GA, RGS-IBG, Esri, Ordnance Survey, FSC and 21 further partner organisations. As a result I was shortlisted for a LOtC Advocate Award by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom."

Of his links with the GA:
"I became involved with the GA in the late 1990s when the Field Studies Council's Chief Executive Tony Thomas suggested that I became involved with the Field Studies Working Group. I was a member for many years followed by being Secretary and then Chair (2010-2016) as it became the Fieldwork and Outdoor Learning Special Interest Group (FOLSIG). I stepped down as Chair as I took up the role of Junior Vice President."

This is a reminder that if you have some ambition to be GA President, a first step is to involve yourself more closely with the GA. SIGs and PCs offer the chance to be a corresponding member to get involved in their work.

Nick told me that it was a good year to be President when he was...

"It was amazing to be GA President during it's 125th year - something that was brought to my attention about half way through my year as Junior Vice-President when it was agreed that it needed to be marked and celebrated. I spent the next few years suffering regularly from imposter syndrome as you realise the many illustrious footsteps in which you walk and the intellectual shadows you sit beneath. 

However the GA was, is and will remain a welcoming and supportive community. 

Two main memories - the 125 year celebration event in Christ Church College, Oxford. Wonderful to be part of the celebration at the location where the GA was established 125 years earlier. "

I have previously posted about this event, and shared images.

He shared his memory of conference:

"Everything about it was so special, it feels like a geography wedding! One particular memory I have is bumping into Sharon Witt after my Presidential lecture. Sharon asked if Margaret Roberts had found me yet? No I replied. "Well, she wants a word, I think you are going to like it" she laughed. Later that afternoon I did meet Margaret. "Ah, Nick, I'm glad I found you. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your lecture. Not very academic, but entertaining nonetheless." I did like it. I was more than satisified with the review!"

I can share that feeling.... I have presented a few times with Margaret in the audience and it certainly sharpens the mind :)

You can see Tony Thomas and Rob Lucas on the right of the photo above, supporting Nick.

Of his memories of his GA year he also says:
"Working with the Worldwise Challenge weekends with Mark Higginbottom, Sue Lomas and John Lyon - I can't think of many weekends in my life that I have enjoyed more. Working with young people, engaged in the subject that they enjoy and that we love in beautiful locations and often laughing until the tears rolled down my cheeks."

Image: Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association

In his Presidential lecture Nick talked about how everyone is a geographer, and why Geographers should always be able to claim the window seat on planes.

Here's Kit Rackley's review of the lecture with a few images.
In 2015, Nick was one of the key people behind the Year of Fieldwork project.


Image: Kit Rackley

& a presentation from an INSET course:

QUALITY FIELDWORK Nick Lapthorn FSC Nettlecombe Court GA Junior-Vice President 12th Feb 2016Somerset Geography Inset 1.

A few of Nick's Slideshares are here too...

References
FSC news press release: https://www.field-studies-council.org/news/ga-presidency-role-for-fsc-head-of-centre.aspx

Images copyright: Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association unless otherwise stated.

As always, memories of Nick and his time as President welcome.

2005: Sue Lomas, OBE DL

Sue Lomas is a stalwart of the GA, and is still active supporting Worldwise Challenge (being Chair of the Worldwise Board) and international GeoOlympiad events, along with other contributions to the GA, as well as serving on the GA's Education Group.

Sue was also another GA President with experience of teaching, having been a Head of Geography in two schools.
At the time of taking up the Presidency she was a School Improvement Officer, and in fact she asked me over to Salford to work with colleagues from a school there and introduce them to some GIS ideas when I was working for the Geographical Association back in the day. 

She is also involved in the GA Manchester Branch

She was Head of Geography at Connell Sixth Form College.

Sue has also been awarded an OBE for her services to young people and Scouting.

She is still involved in promoting Outdoor education, and was involved early on in the development of the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC) with its award and accreditation scheme. She also participates in the organisation of the GeoOlympiad competitions, accompanying competitors to their venues.



I am grateful to Sue for sending more information via the Google Form which I set up for this project.

She told me:

"I was born in 1953 in Birmingham

Sue attended the King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls - one of the best known schools in the city.
I have a University of London degree but studied in Derby. I then did my PGCE in Cheltenham for a Bristol University Certificate.
I started out working as a geography teacher in rurban Cheshire, before moving to Macclesfield to become a Head of Department and then Senior teacher. I was also an advisory teacher for geography in Cheshire with Jeremy Krause. I met Mark Higginbottom for the first time here. He was an NQT in a Cheshire school whom we were working with. 

I moved to be the Foundation Subjects Consultant and then Key Stage 3 Strategy Manager for the National Strategies."

These were an important part of teaching development during the 2nd decade of my time as a geography teacher.

"Moving into a school improvement role, I became an inspector for Geography ITE. Taking early retirement in 2010 I started my own company and became a schools' inspector. I also inspected abroad in the UAE. I have joint-authored two sets of Key Stage 3 textbooks, both edited by John Hopkin. One for the UK: "Geography Matters" and another for Pakistan.

My passion has always been for my subject and if people ask me what I do, I always say I'm a geography teacher - as this was my first love.

I have been involved with the GA since the 1980s when Jeremy Krause invited me to join the geography education community. I have always enjoyed working in a collegiate way, and to get together with like-minded professionals, and the GA provided me with lots of high quality CPD in my own role. 

After serving as the President (for the four year cycle introduced by Michael Bradford) I moved on to Worldwise and was lucky enough to have accompanied the UK Team to the Geography World Championships in venues across the world (sadly now defunct) and from 2006 I was one of the chaperones for the UK teams who attend the International Geography Olympiad. 

I am now the Chair of that competition - what a fantastic opportunity that has been - working with colleagues from the iGU. Meeting young people from over fifty countries and working with their leaders (teachers or university staff) to write the three tests has certainly been a privilege.

I am a GA Consultant and that has given me a range of experiences from reviewing the quality of geography in Liverpool to supporting new heads of department across England. 

I am also an assessor for the PGQM."

When she became the GA President, she was the Key Stage 3 Strategy Manager for Salford Local Authority.

Sue's Presidential theme was "Sensational Geography".

Sue told me: 

"I think in those days, the theme was very much influenced by the GA (rather than chosen by the President as they are now), so I think I agreed the theme with David Lambert, who was the CEO at the time. I was always keen to "promote the varied approaches and the rich, diverse resources that we can share" (excerpt from Conference brochure). 

I started in the GA as the volunteer PR Officer and then became Chair of the M & P D Committee. I have been involved in Worldwise since the 1990s at first with Keith Orrell, when we were tasked with updating the whole offer for students. That was when we changed the Worldwise Quiz Final (which tended to happen at the GA Conference itself) to the Worldwise Challenge. 

The latter included the practical experience at an FSC site rather than the (independent) schools' final at Conference. 

Keith's and Tony Thomas' links to the FSC meant we were able to provide a free weekend to teams from schools across the country. Peter Smith was heavily involved too. Sadly, I think we have seen the last of the Challenge events, given the COVID-19 situation with residential centres. Since 2006, Mark Higginbottom and I have been joint chairs of Worldwise. I will always be grateful for the experiences I had and the people I met at the GA, and I'm sure my career was enhanced by being so heavily involved.

Currently, I work to try and ensure that new teachers are well-prepared for the profession. I run two Appropriate bodies for NQTs and I work as a SCITT geography tutor and an Associate Lecturer in Manchester Metropolitan University.

Of her time as President, Sue told me:
`'It was a privilege to be part of the roll-out of the Action Plan and I recall many interesting meetings with the officers of the RGS, some at their headquarters. There was a real buzz about the recognition that Geography is an important subject and it was great at the conference to promote all the brilliant resources and activities that would see Geography given much greater status, particularly in secondary schools. I also have some great memories of the Conference. It was in Manchester, so it was lovely to be 'on my own patch'. The Exhibition was amazing and in those days we had a couple of good receptions - including a Chinese banquet! I also attended the Scottish Awards event. The best bits were meeting the wide range of colleagues that make up our membership some of whom were almost as passionate as me about the subject."

I have been involved with the GA since the 1980s when Jeremy Krause invited me to join the geography education community. I have always enjoyed working collegiately and to get together with likeminded professionals and it provided me with lots of high quality CPD in my own role. After serving as the President (for four years) I moved to Worldwise and was lucky enough to have accompanied the UK Team to the Geography World Championships in venues across the world (sadly now defunct) and from 2006 I was one of the chaperones for the UK teams who attend the International Geography Olympiad. I am now the Chair of that competition - what a fantastic opportunity that has been - working with colleagues from the iGU. Meeting young people from over fifty countries and working with their leaders (teachers or university staff) to write the three tests has certainly been a privilege.

References
GA News Autumn 2005 - biography and setting out her stall for her conference.



This book was co-written with Linda Thompson, who was serving on the GA's Secondary Phase Committee when I joined in 2004, thanks to the invitation of Rob Lodge. 

I remember using this book as a teacher in Norfolk.

Sue was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester in 2015.

This website has a useful short biography of Sue as well.

Sue was born in Birmingham and moved to the North West for her first teaching job in 1978. She taught Geography for 20 years before moving into school improvement work in Salford. Sue now has her own consulting business working in a variety of educational fields. She is a qualified Ofsted inspector and has worked as an Associate Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University. Sue has a passion for her subject, and has been a member of its professional body, the Geographical Association for many years, including being its President in 2006. She works on a voluntary basis to enthuse young people about the subject and is the chair of the association's youth arm 'Worldwise'. Sue has been a member of several school governing bodies and has also worked as an assessor for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

A member of Girlguiding since she was eight years' old, Sue is now a trustee of the national organisation. She is passionate about promoting the opportunities Girlguiding offers to girls and young women and has recently completed her term of office as Region Chief Commissioner for North West England. Sue is also national chair of the charity 'Youth United' which supports the work of the ten largest uniformed organisations across the UK.

Sue is married to Ian and lives in Culcheth, Warrington. She has one daughter who works as a teacher in London. Jen is very much involved with the Geographical Association and its work in Primary.

Images: Copyright Bryan Ledgard and the Geographical Association

As always, memories of Sue Lomas' time as GA President welcome.