Take part in the GA's fieldwork survey ahead of the start of the National Fieldwork Festival tomorrow.
Primary & secondary #geographyteachers please share your views on #fieldwork by taking part in this survey.
— Steve Brace (@SteveBraceGeog) May 29, 2024
Only 10 quick Qs & your answers which will help inform @The_GA work as part of #NationalFestivalofFieldwork
Look forward to your answers. https://t.co/rcvRS4mqM9
The latest GeogPod has been released and it features Paula Richardson and I talking about the GA's National Research Report and how that fed into the development of the National Fieldwork Week.
This starts on Monday the 6th of June.
Episode 53 of #GeogPod is now available!
— Geographical Association (@The_GA) June 4, 2022
In this episode, @GAGeogger speaks with @GeoBlogs and Paula Richardson on fieldwork
Listen now at https://t.co/hLSfHDfVhp
Series 9 of GeogPod is kindly sponsored by @CambridgeInt#geography #nationalfieldworkweek #podcast #education pic.twitter.com/sk62VGtEQS
Thanks to John Lyon for hosting - see if you can spot the question I wasn't expecting... :)
She mentioned in our discussions that she remembered her first GA Conference. This took place in 1971 at the London School of Economics: the venue for the GA conference for many years.
She remembers meetings in small rooms, up lots of winding stairs, whe she had the chance to hear 'the great and the good' of the time, such as Arthur Holmes.
I hunted out the report on that conference from 'Geography'.
The main theme of this very well-attended conference, again held in the London School of Economics, was Geography in School and capacity audiences were privileged to hear a most stimulating series of lectures.
Mrs. I. M. Long, in her Presidential Address showed how, at a time of sweeping changes in education, it is still of prime importance to interest children in the work they are doing. She demonstrated a method by which this interest might be gauged over a group of 1800 boys and girls of varying abilities and in many types of school. Professor N. V. Scarfe (Dean, Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver), taking as his title "Games, Models and Reality in the Teaching of Geography in Schools", showed how new techniques involving inductive thinking should be used with discrimination to demonstrate real situations, but only after children have employed deductive methods in relation to the real world. In his lecture entitled "Recent Advances in Climatology and their Relevance to Schools", Professor T. J. Chandler (University College London) demonstrated in masterly fashion the circulation of the atmosphere, while Mr. C. E. Everard (Queen Mary College, London) in his paper "Geomorphology in Schools" urged teachers to look always at the totality of the environ- ment and to work wherever possible from real examples. Most informative papers on "Geography Examinations" and on "Geography and Curriculum Development" were read by Mr. B. S. Roberson (University of London, Institute of Education) and Miss Mary Goss (Staff Inspector, Inner London Education Authority). Mr. Roberson dealt with the structure and evaluation of G.C.E. O- and Α-level examinations while Miss Goss drew together and summarized the various aspects of the current changes in the field of education.
Paula aso talked about visiting a school in Farnham and there was a part-time / supply teacher there who drew an amazing block diagram of South Downs, and when she got talking to him it turned out to be Eric Young who said "you may have seen my book" - Young and Lowry of course. The classic text from when I did my 'A'levels. I have a copy in my collection.
Source:
“Geographical Association.” Geography, vol. 56, no. 2, 1971, pp. 154–159. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40567515. Accessed 31 May 2021.Paula Richardson has been involved with the GA for many decades and held may different posts, and served on committees for decades.
She has also written the 'Meanderings' section of GA Magazine for even longer than I've written the Webwatch column. This comes at the end of each issue and is a sort of miscellany of ideas and links of general interest to all key stages. It always has something of interest.
Paula and her husband Tony have also written or co-written a great many resources for the GA including the Superschemes series, and resources to accompany another Paula creation: Barnaby Bear (see his own separate post)
Paula says:
After a lifetime in education including the placement and supervision of trainee teachers both in the UK and overseas I now work more specifically with teachers working towards QTS status.Paula was awarded Honorary Membership at the 2021 GA Conference - the Association's highest honour.
Here is the citation that I read out.
Honorary MembershipThis is the highest award that the GA makes and recognises the enormous contribution that the
recipients have made to the GA and to geography in education. This year the award goes to Paula
Richardson.
Paula joined the GA forty-five years ago in 1975 and she has given outstanding service during this
time in a multitude of ways – through her work as consultant, her many publications – including
the invention of Barnaby Bear for the QCA Schemes of work – and extensive work as chair of
Publications Board; she is a highly-valued member of EYPPC and FOLSIG; she promotes the GA at
national and international level, supporting ITE with Educators Abroad; she is also a GA Governing
Body named trustee.
She is the GA’s representative on the Education Committee of the Royal Meteorological Society.
Paula has been a consultant to the GA since 2005 and a Primary Geography Quality Mark
moderator since its launch in 2006. She has made numerous school-based CPD and conference
contributions over many years, always promoting the aims and objectives of the GA.
Paula has had a varied career; in addition to teaching, she has worked as a local authority adviser,
in ITT and in many significant roles for the GA. Other activities include her volunteer work with St
Johns Ambulance, most recently training hundreds of Covid-19 vaccinators.
She is constant in her service to the Association: few volunteers can be more deserving of this
award. As one staff colleague commented: ‘It’s hard to think of anyone who’s done more for the GA’.
Image copyright: Bryan Ledgard / Geographical Association
The Barnaby Bear project arising from the QCA Scheme of Work
(‘Where in the World is Barnaby Bear’?) has done much to promote new ways of
bringing geography alive for younger children. It is a useful tool in involving
children in working with geographical concepts which otherwise might be too
difficult for them. Using an animal is a way into arousing interest and
curiosity in young children and provides a bridge from their own small world to
a larger world outside.
From 1998 – 2002 the BBC filmed 12 programmes for the ‘Watch’ series – 8 were geographically based and 4 were more generally based for showing on ‘Cbeebies’. All these programmes have enjoyed a run /re-run on television which has far out stripped the normal ‘five year ’limit for programmes of this type.
The geography programmes were then sold to CBeebies and ran for
several years on this channel.
Updated post. Sad news at the end of last week from colleagues who have organised the Charney Conference over the years of the passing of Ma...
