John Lyon

Alongside the Presidents, this blog also features other notable figures from the GA.

One of my best professional experiences was working with John Lyon for three years at Solly Street in Sheffield when I was the GA's Secondary Curriculum Development Leader during the 2nd half of the Action Plan for Geography.

John had a long career as a teacher in the Rotherham and Sheffield area, eventually becoming a Deputy Head in Anston, a place I visited regularly when I was at school as I had friends who lived there, and used to cycle over from my home in Wickersley. 

He worked as the GA's Programme Director, which meant he had oversight of many of the GA's activity strands, with an eye on the bigger picture. I was more the 'ideas man'... some of which were good :)

John was involved in a great many GA projects, whether coordinating them, or contributing to them. He has served on the moderating team for the GA's Quality Marks for many years as well. He was involved in a BECTa funded ICT project and the Making my Place in the World project - working with young people in Sheffield. He and I presented a number of times at GA Conference, including a session with Michael Solem from the AAG. He was also involved in the early stages of the I-USE project which was Erasmus funded.

He is one of the authors of the 'Progress in Geography' textbook published by Hodder.

He has contributed to GA journals over the years, and worked to write resources for a whole range of areas of the GA's work.

John is also the host of the GA's Podcast series, which has to date interviewed around 40 people and produced an hour long-ish discussion each time with supporting resources. Hunt out GeogPod, particularly the episodes where he interviews people such as Margaret Roberts.

You can listen to them on the GA website, or on all the usual streaming services such as Spotify.

Here he is on a Worldwise Weekend with Nick Lapthorn - another former GA President. He has been involved with Worldwise and the Worldwise Challenge for some time, and this led to involvement in the International Geography Olympiad eveents - iGEO.

John is a keen cyclist and runner, and lives high up in the Peak District in a perfect place to carry out these hobbies. He also acts as quiz master on the GA Conference quizzes which are very popular.

As mentioned, John was also one of the writers who worked on this textbook, of which I have a few copies in my classroom.

John also serves on the Physical Geography SIG. This is one of the GA's SIGs or Special Interest Groups.

Other memories of, and embarrassing stories about, John very welcome as always.

Association at Work - with Alan Kinder - image Bryan Ledgard

2014: Mark Higginbottom

Mark Higginbottom was GA President during 2014. He has spent a career supporting other teachers as an advisor and school improvement officer since 2002.

As with more recent Presidents, much of this entry has been written thanks to contributions from Mark to a questionnaire which I sent round to all the Presidents who are still around to answer one.

Mark has worked in the North West of England for many years, and has a long association with that part of the world, having been born in Stockport in 1965 - which makes him younger than me. A whippersnapper President :)

Mark also kindly invited me over to Wigan to lead a session for him while I was working for the GA, which I remember was held in the function ground of a local rugby union team with a lovely group of teachers.

Mark went to New Mills School, then went on to study at the University of Manchester (BSc Joint Hons Geography and Geology, before going to Sheffield University to do a PGCE in Secondary Geography, where his tutor turned out to be another former GA President: the remarkable Margaret Roberts. These encounters were important in Mark's further engagement with the GA as well as his own professional development.

He has been particularly associated with the Worldwise brand, including the Worldwise Quiz (including the website element) and the Worldwise Challenge weekends.

Mark has also accompanied teams to the iGeo events to locations around the world. In 2019, there was a particularly impressive performance by the team. More on that competition and the role of the GA has been posted separately.

Mark chose Making an Impact as his Conference theme.

"Making an Impact'. The theme of ‘Making an Impact’ provided an opportunity to reflect on the geography our young people encounter and engage with and the relevance it plays to their everyday lives and experiences, be they EYFS, primary, secondary, post 16 or HEI students and whatever their ethnicity or socio-economic background.

I have been a GA member since September 1998. You had to join before Margaret Roberts would let you onto her PGCE! Since 2001 I have coordinated what was Geography Action Week (now Worldwise week), which led on to being the GA link for the Challenge weekend and have been co-chair of Worldwise since 2005. I have been team leader for the International Geography Olympiad since 2006. In 2019 in Hong Kong TeamUK had its best ever success, ranked 3rd in the World (43 countries competed), with a gold (the student was 2nd in the World out of 167 students, a silver and two bronze. 

I was a member of the membership and professional board for three years before electing elected to Council, serving for two and a half years before it became the Governing body, whereon I served for six years. Twelve months later I was elected as President for 2014 - 2015."

During his Presentation Mark included some voices from young people, with the help of Daniel Raven Ellison.

It included this thought provoking question:

“Asked if geography helps young people shape an understanding and appreciation of the world around them, whoever they are, wherever they live and whatever their academic interests, I believe we would all immediately respond with a resounding ‘yes!’; but do we really know the impact geography has on shaping them as ‘well rounded’ human beings?”

Mark's Presidential Address in 2015 was memorable, particularly for him.

He told me:
"The buzz of conference in your Presidential year is hugely memorable. Meeting teachers and young people and seeing your theme being put into practice and the impact it was having was a real success for me. Working with the three other Presidents as a team ensured synergy between years to further strengthen and embed my own theme over time. The minutes before my Presidential lecture will be a lifetime memory, in many ways!" - another President to mention the lecture - should I be worried?

Mark is now heavily involved in the iGeo competition, which takes students around the world to compete in the annual Geography Olympiad. The 2019 team had particular success, and the momentum behind this competition has been building, although the Pandemic has sadly curtailed competition and travel for a while.

Mark has been described by other Presidents as a particularly talented teacher and colleague, including those he has been worked with personally over the years.

Why the GA matters to Mark?

"The GA matters hugely. It is a community of like-minded professionals committed to working with teachers, educators to enrich young peoples lives through geography."

Mark also mentioned the importance of the support of other former GA Presidents as part of the personal journey:

"Many previous presidents were all very supportive and encouraging during my time as President. Of note however was Professor Michael Bradford. Mike was my lecturer at the University of Manchester and was doubly keen to support me in my year, as conference and the associated futures day was at the University. Mike met with me many times, providing wisdom and guidance, for which I will always be so very grateful. Mike pulled out all the stops to make my presidential term, my 2015 conference and the futures day a great success for everyone."

Images: copyright Bryan Ledgard / GA and used with permission.

Selfie of Mark in his natural habitat sent by Mark himself 

References

Mark has written for a number of GA Publications over the years, and contributed to the materials which are made available for Worldwise Week (formerly Geography Action Week) - former packs can be downloaded from here.

Mark's Presidential Lecture - 'Making an Impact'

https://www.proquest.com/openview/bdae85f83bebfa6979fc8a9b33bd373d/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=28686

As always, any memories of Mark in his time as President, or working with the GA welcome...

Worldwise

Worldwise is a familiar GA 'brand' to many, and has links with many former GA Presidents.

The Worldwise Quiz has been around for decades. A number of quiz books have been published over the years: small format books which I had copies of in my filing cabinet when teaching. Worldwise connects with other GA activity in the same way as the Quality Marks cut across several strands of GA support. It was developed by Rex Walford.

Details of how to enter the competition, and also some sample quiz questions are available to download from here.

Worldwise also feeds in to the International Geographical Olympiad. (See Sue Lomas' entry for more on this, and also Mark Higginbottom)

Jeremy Krause gave me his thoughts on the developments:

2015 Mark Higginbottom who used part his Presidential Address to share his ideas and experiences of the Worldwise programme. This was about students and them learning geography. That has been at the heart of the GA since 1893. Mark with Sue Lomas have been the driving force behind the ‘Worldwise’ programme which focuses on developing school students’ skills and knowledge of Geography. This has been a massive commitment for them in terms of time and energy in the UK and overseas. They have made this highly successful programme one of the GA’s jewels. 

Worldwise also connects with Worldwise Week (WWW)

WWW is linked with the theme of the yearly conference.

You can download the packs from previous years going back to 2007. I recommend doing this.

I will be thinking about possible activities for the 2022 Worldwise Week pack over the year ahead.

Here's the Worldwise Statement of Purpose 

The overarching principle of Worldwise is to engage geography teachers and young people with geography across a range of paradigms to develop a secure understanding of the World. It develops young people’s geographical vocabularies, their geographical imaginations of the World around them at a variety of scales and it stimulates their personal geographies. A key aim is to provide directly to teachers and young people opportunities that stimulate a passion trough their understanding of geographical concepts, constructing meaning, deeper thinking and understanding of interconnectedness, interdependency and processes in a world of change. Worldwise engages young people from EYFS to post 16 across its brand of activities. It has to support the acquisition of geographical vocabulary, stimulate interest in young people in a discipline not just seen as a school subject and encourage them to challenge their own thinking, perceptions and those of others within and beyond the classroom environment. This demands Worldwise to generate resources ranging from those seen as ‘knowledge- based, portraying a simpler view of the world and geography through knowledge recall particularly through its face to face and online quizzes. We view these as developing what we would term, enabling knowledge. Students have a knowledge framework which enables them to explore concepts and develop ‘thinking geographically’ with a firm base of knowledge about the world. Worldwise challenges teachers and young people to identify and reflect on their personal geographies and geographical imaginations. To recognise different approaches to understanding the concepts and processes that holds geography as a subject together. The Geography Awareness Week resources, allied to the current Presidential theme are a key element of this challenge. The themes selected, modern approaches to learning and the application of modern technologies all encourage up to date thinking and learning in geography. The awareness week resources encourage teachers and young people to further their understanding of geographical concepts, construct meaning, deeper thinking and understanding of interconnectedness, interdependency and processes. The focus on investigation and enquiry secures awareness week materials as supporting best approaches to twenty first century learning in geography and provides teachers with additional, free, up to date materials to support their curriculum. The ‘week’ acts a as lever for many schools to raise the profile of geography both within the school and often, within the wider community. The Worldwise team deliver two additional activities to engage teachers and young people in new approaches to geography and making geography real. The Worldwide Challenge weekend, for schools who have engaged in other WW activities most successfully brings young people and teachers out into the field in some of the most iconic areas of the UK. The joint GA / FSC partnership generates fieldwork activities that stimulate and challenge geographical thinking, in ways often not seen in the classroom or possible in the classroom. Worldwise delivers an annual post-16 competition, focussing on a geographical issue that is ‘live’ at the time. It stimulates older students to engage with a current aspect of geography, to research it beyond the text book and provide a reflective, evidenced based view of the issue from different perspectives. The winners represent the UK at an annual International Geography Olympiad.

The Worldwise Challenge is an annual fieldwork event organised in association with the Field Studies Council. It is hosted at an FSC centre, and Presidents have previously gone along to get involved and award prizes to the winning team.

References

Walford, Rex. “‘But First the Facts Must Be Familiar..." A Review of the Worldwise Quiz.” Geography, vol. 74, no. 3, 1989, pp. 252–254. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40571674. Accessed 15 Nov. 2020.

https://www.geography.org.uk/WorldWise-Challenge

1998: The view from the Window

Thanks to Frances Soar, former Senior Administrator for the GA for sending me this piece from the Sheffield Telegraph in 1998 when the Geography through the Window project was launched as part of the Geography Action Week. 50 000 posters were printed apparently.

Frances told me in an earlier email:

Seeing the area further develop around Solly Street was fascinating. I have a vivid memory of standing with Rex Walford at one of Solly Street's first floor windows, leaning on the window sill and looking out at the landscape below with all the features that in a single view told the history and geography of our city - 'Geography Through the Window' came not long afterwards. Sadly, that wonderful view up the Don Valley (which also provided a helpful weather forecast and bird's eye view of traffic levels as we planned our evening journeys home), was eventually blocked by all those smart new blocks of student flats.

It's a lovely piece as it also makes clear Frances' own strong connections with Sheffield: the long-term home of the GA.

Does anyone still have one of the original posters? I hope to be able to find one in the archive when I finally get a chance to visit it in person again...