Pole of Cold

Follow the journey through into 2014....

Up to date case studies

It's important to keep case studies up to date...

I spent Thursday of this week on the first part of a journey around the coast of Norfolk from Wells next the Sea, visiting some of the communities that were affected by the recent storm surge. The surge affected communities much further up the coast in Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, then down into the Thames estuary.
I will be writing up some of the discussions that I had with people and the stories that I collected in further posts over the next week or so.

Beach Road in Happisburgh is shorter than it was the last time I visited, and the resources I used then will need to be updated.

The full detail, and more images, will appear in a range of resources, including a new GCSE textbook.
Here's a selection of the images I took yesterday...



I was also particularly interested in this image, which shows the area of London that would have flooded in the surge if the Thames Flood Barrier had not been built.

Image copyright: Environment Agency

The Environment Agency has shared a range of valuable information, and I will be adding to that in further posts...

Will the reformed GCSEs be better GCSEs ?

Here's the latest from OFQUAL following the GCSE consultation...


Tiering

We believe that the curriculum content for geography can be the same for all students and that all students can be assessed in the same way. We propose that the reformed GCSE in geography should not be tiered.

Forms of assessment

Our controlled assessment review found a good deal of agreement that carrying out fieldwork is essential for students of GCSE geography. There was less agreement about whether it is possible to assess fieldwork skills as part of GCSE geography assessment, although there was a view that some of the skills – data manipulation, interpretation and analysis, for example – can be assessed through written exams. There were many concerns about the nature of school fieldwork exercises which many schools complete in a single day. Even the most capable students are unlikely to have the time during one day of fieldwork to experiment with alternative approaches to data collection, which means that they are not able to reflect on, further analyse and evaluate their work.

There are also issues of fairness for all students. We found that if teachers designed poor fieldwork exercises then that could prevent students from performing well, or from accessing all of the marking criteria.

The curriculum content requires students to undertake fieldwork, but the related knowledge and skills can be assessed by written exam set and marked by the exam board. We therefore propose that all assessment for the reformed geography GCSE should be by written exams alone and that the total assessment time should be no less than 3.5 hours.

Keeping Cheddar Gorgeous

It's important to have a suitable case study on landscape change....

“This is the equivalent to trying to build a cable car in front of Buckingham Palace. Cheddar Gorge is of international importance. There are better ways of driving business without destroying the very asset people come to see. It is far better to retain the uniqueness of the place.”  

Helen Bonser-Wilton, assistant director of operations at the National Trust.

I explored this planned development of cable cars in Cheddar Gorge with student before the holiday and over half term, this has come into the news once again and here are a few links that you could follow to bring the story up to date.

First, there's a clip from West Country News.... (may only work for a limited time)
A few different opinions expressed here...

Also an article from the Daily Mail, which shows some mocked up images of how the cable car will look, and describes the plans.

Also an article in the Independent

Followed by two local papers:

- the Cheddar Valley Gazette
- the Weston Mercury


The National Trust and the CPRE are both against the planned development in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)
CPRE have produced a report on what they call 'England's Threatened Landscapes'
Click HERE to  download a report and also map and other materials relating to this report.
Cheddar Gorge is included on the map of threatened landscapes...

We used Digimap for Schools to create maps of the Gorge to use with our work...

We will be practising our map skills again over the next few weeks as we get nearer to exam week.

Ian Hardie's Eyjafjallajokull story...

Here's a book which was written by Ian Hardie, who until recently was working for Rayburn Tours as their tour guide for Iceland and other locations.
Ian has a house in Iceland close to the volcano, and was on the scene when it erupted in 2010.
He writes about the impact on the community, and provides in-depth detail of the immediate impacts of an eruption on a community in an MEDC. In that sense it would make a really useful basis for a deeper investigation. It's an easy read.

The book is A5 format and has 78 pages.

If you would like a copy of the book, we have arranged for that to be possible for you.

Please send a cheque made payable to Ian Hardie for £6 (which includes postage and packing) to:

John Vannet
Greycroft
10 Ellieslea Road
West Ferry
Dundee
DD5 1JH

Proceeds from the book will go to support the Icelandic Search and Rescue Organisation (ICE-SAR

Tivy Education Medal

The Tivy medal is not awarded every year, and is awarded for outstanding contributions to Geography and education.
Previous winners that I could find were:

2008 - Jim Carson

2009 - Erica Caldwell

2010 - Anita Ganeri

2011 - Scottish Association of Geography Teachers

At the recent Scottish Association of Geography Teachers' Conference, Mike Robinson - the Chief Executive of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society read out a citation describing the person judged to have been worthy of being presented with the medal this year, and it turns out it was me!
It was presented by Professor Iain Stewart, who is the President of the Society.

Along with the medal, there was a very nice certificate of honorary fellowship.

What was equally important to me was to read and hear the comments of others who were there, who appreciated the work that I've created, and shared over the years....

Do you teach GCSE Geography - Edexcel 'A' specification ?

From SLN and Jon Wolton....

If you are an Edexcel GCSE Geography centre Pearson would very much like to involve you in the development of our new GCSE Geography specifications for first teaching September 2016 (at the time of writing).

If you are a current GCSE Geography specification A centre, we would like to hear your views, so please sign up for this event if you can - apologies for the short notice.

Don't worry if you are a GCSE Geography B specification centre - your chance will come!

When: 31 October 10.30-14.30

Where: 190 High Holborn, London

To reserve a place, email hilary.fine@pearson.com with your centre name and address, your name and position in school. Places are limited to 25 and early respondents will be prioritised.
Travel expenses will be paid and a £50 Amazon Voucher as reimbursement.

GCSE: time to take some risks ?

I'm unfortunately going to be unable to make this as planned, but if you're around next Thursday, the 17th of October, head over to Neale Wade Academy for the Teachmeet.
Now that I'm teaching, I feel qualified to contribute again :)

The focus is on risky pedagogies, and I have a session linked to our work on the Mission:Explore books and curriculum making... it does last about 20 minutes though ;)

Sign up HERE....

Freshly brewed resources, suitable for GCSE Geography

A few months ago, I worked on a short project for the COSTA FOUNDATION and RAINFOREST ALLIANCE, which involved creating a set of teaching resources around the theme of coffee production and the impact on those who are involved producing it. I'm grateful to those who helped me collect some of the information that made its way into the resource, which went live this week...
Check out the interactive map and teaching resources for download here.

Milk, no sugar....

My new book

Co-written with the great John Widdowson and now available to buy from the GA Shop....

Back to school...

Check my new TEACHING BLOG to find out more about my new teaching job and what I'm up to....

I'm off to a GCSE fieldtrip in a few weeks...
Will tell you all about it nearer the time...

It's good to be putting some of the ideas in the Badger book to practice... Get yourself a copy...

Intense but not in tents.... the Geography Camp

Over at the Geography Collective HQ, we’ve been making some changes and plotting some quality events. We are really pleased and excited to announce some of our plans for our residential camp in early 2014. This will focus on helping geography departments make sense of and subvert the current changes to the National Curriculum and examination system.

As well as the central theme, there will also be lots of informal activities, laughter, great food and fun. We are shaping the programme at the moment, but it will include stuff like:

• Fitting existing Schemes of Work and resources to the new National Curriculum; 
• Using young people to hack your existing curriculum; 
• What to do about assessment; 
• Using Key Stage 3 to improve GCSE performance. 

The final programme will be very much shaped by those who attend.

The style will be (un)conferency, with plenty of opportunity for informal chatting and sharing. As a school leader who held the CPD budget, we’re making it great value and will ensure you’ll leave with lots of ideas, contacts and resources.

We’re delighted to announce that we’ll be using the Field Studies Council centre at Juniper Hall. It’ll be full board and accommodation included in the price. The dates are Friday 25th to Sunday 26th of January 2014.

Go HERE to sign up and register your interest...

Follow and use the hashtag: #GCCamp

100 up...

Now over a year since the publication of my Badger book, and this is the 100th post on the blog to support the book.
Do you have a copy ?
What activities have you found the most useful ?
I'd love to know...

GA CPD Courses...

The details of the CPD courses being offered by the GA in the new academic year have been released, and are available for booking now.
Visit the website for details of all the courses.

I'm delighted to say that I will be leading the following days... at various venues around the country from the middle of November through to June 2014...
Hope to see some of you at one of these events...

For sale: one slightly used web domain

In 2001, I created a website called 'Mr. P's Geography Pages' which was hosted on the free TRIPOD service.
A few years later, I moved it to web hosts 123Connect and it became 'GeographyPages'.

At the time, other than David Rayner's GeoInteractive and David Robinson's site there were very few Geography-specific websites. This was in the days of Netscape Navigator and dial-up modems chirruping away...

The site had a few thousand visitors a year, but quickly grew to over a million visitors and well over that in terms of page views.
I had to double the bandwidth, and then again and again....
The website still gets hundreds of thousands of visitors a year,  although I 'archived' it in 2008 when I joined the Geographical Association.

If anyone is interested, the domain name is for sale.... one slightly shop-soiled URL

(Not that I anticipate anyone will be for a moment....)

The site will be disappearing shortly, so grab your favourite bits while you can.
The end of an era...
And the start of another in a month's time....

Badger book heading down to the SW

I shall be packing a copy of my Badger GCSE book at the weekend and heading down to the SW to lead a day for subject leaders down in Cornwall.
The event will take place at the venue shown in the picture here...

Part of the session will be on Ds to Cs....

Some of the materials will be shared on Slideshare after the event...
It's a long way !

digitalearth CPD - better GCSE and other things...

For the last year or two I've been running courses at the University of Salzburg.
They are five day courses in the use of digitalearth technology.

The funding pays for the course fee and travel as well as expenses for things like food.

This is a great opportunity to explore the wonderful city of Salzburg and surrounding area, as well as meet with delegates from all over Europe and swap ideas. Two of the UK delegates from a course that was run at the start of the year have since gained promotions within their department too. No guarantees that attending will do the same for you, but you never know :)

Get more information and download the details you need to start the application process here.

Course will run in January and March 2014

Panorama from Salzburg fortress: Alan Parkinson

Interview lesson resources

For my new teaching job I had to teach a lesson on the theme of Wind Farm Development.

Fortunately, the department has been using my GA KS3 toolkit 'Look at it this Way'
This book is still available to buy from the GA Shop.

I decided in the time that I had to prepare for my interview lesson, which was very short and ended up being in the early hours of the morning of the day itself, that I would adapt a lesson from the book. Some of the students had apparently been doing some of the activities already, so had a flavour of what to expect.
Here's an image of a wind farm that I took while on my way between home and Sheffield.
I discovered that in terms of the definition of a wind farm, then as few as two wind turbines could be classed as a wind farm for planning purposes, although some local authorities classed it as three. There was no overall definition in terms of numbers.

Wind Farm, Lincolnshire Fens, as seen from the A17
Image by Alan Parkinson

As I had a bit of advance notice of the lesson topic, I was able to ask some of my friends to tell me some words to describe wind turbines, and I was able to create a word cloud.
Word cloud created using Wordle.net

Thanks to those people who helped with the lesson in this way.

And here is the lesson itself.

I uploaded it to Slideshare...

Wind lesson from GeoBlogs

And here's the lesson plan....

Note that this is an interview lesson, so is not necessarily representative of normal practice...
I over-prepared and adapted some of the activities (of which there were too many)

Wind Farms lesson plan from GeoBlogs

Some news and some thanks

Over at my Living Geography blog...

6 mark questions...

Relevant to the iGCSE too, but this is a nice piece of work on answering longer questions by Charlotte Lemaitre.

Some ideas from Australia

The new Australian Curriculum document for Geography was launched in the last few weeks.

The support site for the introduction of the new curriculum has now gone live too.

It's called GEOG SPACE.

There's quite an influence from some familiar UK names here, such as this diagram on the 'Child as Geographer' from the work of Simon Catling.

© 2013 Education Services Australia Ltd, except where indicated otherwise. You may copy, distribute
and adapt this material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes, provided you retain
all copyright notices and acknowledgements.

There are also influences in the SUPPORT UNITS from a range of UK geographers including Fran Martin, Paula Owens, Stephen Scoffham and Liz Taylor.

The SUPPORT UNIT section, in fact, would make excellent reading for geographers around the globe. It's a really useful synthesis of key thinking around concepts, fieldwork, geographical enquiry, ICT and related areas of geographical thinking.
There are extracts from the GA Secondary Handbook, and useful links to other websites.

Delve into the CORE UNITS, and you will find a range of materials for teachers to use straight away and get the curriculum underway...
Here's an activity sheet for a unit on MUSIC FESTIVALS for example (PDF download) which provides a good starter, although I think the Woolvens did a better job here :)

I also liked the unit on E-Waste, and ideas for units about place, coastal management and

For example, here's the New South Wales About Fieldwork website, which was a new one for me.

Well worth spending some time looking through these sites, particularly for new teachers of geography.

And visit the site of AGTA, who were involved in creating these new resources. Plenty of additional ideas and resources on this site too.

Plenty here for GCSE Geographers in the UK - check out the exemplars for the Year 9 and 10 units in particular...

SW Geography Conference - 1st July

At the start of July I'm going to be in Newquay in Cornwall, working with colleagues in the South West for the first time.
I've been asked to lead a morning on the broad theme of Progression in Geography. 
This will include sessions on national developments, raising standards (some ideas), good practice in leadership and management of teaching and learning. My input will finish with some ideas for the use of new technologies, which is where I'll be on safer ground.
One issue with leadership and other aspects is the extent to which it is affected by the personality of the leader, but also the make-up of the whole departmental team. I've been fortunate to work with some great colleagues in my time, but recognise that it can be hard if you're working with uncooperative colleagues.
Here's the flyer for the event... looks good :)

If you're in the area, you're very welcome to join us. Further information can be obtained from Jo Bardell on 01872 322931. The event is free for SLA subscribers, and costs £175 for non SLA subscribers.

I may well be tweeting some questions over the next few weeks (I'll wait until the term restarts to ask them....) to prepare some provocations and elements of tasks for colleagues to engage with...

I'll be using elements of my BADGER book to explore ideas of management of teaching and learning, and also raising standards across the department.

If anyone reading this has a particularly good reference / website / resource on progression and raising standards in geography, which is a bit of a 'thorny' and contested issue, I'd love to hear from you...

GeoGuessr - a nice way to develop geographical imaginations...

A mention for a little variation on a site which I like a little more to be honest, called Mapcrunch.

It's become very popular in lots of places over the last week.

GeoGuessr is a 'game' which takes you to 5 'random' places and challenges you to identify where you are.
A map is provided so that you can add a pin at an appropriate place. This action in itself requires a little geographical knowledge...
There is a score provided for how close you are to the actual location.

There's a chance element involved of course, and there are perhaps more clues available in urban areas than there are in rural areas. These involve signs on buses and other vehicles.
For example, one image I was presented with was the Eden project, so I got within 2 kilometres of the actual location - another looked like Australia but was in fact in S. America so I was several thousand kilometres out...
Since the image is a StreetView image, you can also head off in a direction of your choice to look for clues, or you might decide that is cheating and not allow it...

Remember that Streetview doesn't cover the whole globe either, so if a picture looks like it might be in Africa, then it's probably South Africa or Botswana.
This map shows the current coverage.

This Slate article was closer to my thinking about the use of the site - as students use the site, they should be developing ideas for a guide for how to do well on GeoGuessr. These could be put together using an appropriate package (or a paper and pen)

There could be league tables for how well people do perhaps, or set group challenges. Perhaps a 'GeoGuessr' of the week ?
You could also provide options for support that could be used each game (in the vein of 'Who wants to be a Millionaire')
These could include:

• A Google Search
• 1 minute to explore beyond the area shown on the original photo
• The chance to add an extra 1000 points to the final score if the guess proves to be in the wrong continent...

Any other ideas for 'jokers' ?

There could also be a rubric for assessing the clues that are provided in an image...

e.g. Urban or Rural, Weather conditions, presence of snow, upland landscape or lowland, coastal or inland, presence of a distinguishing feature such as a large building, flags, language / typography / alphabet used in signage, advertising billboards, company names on vehicles or stores

More often than not it's a 'feel' that you get - is it European or not ? is the vegetation tropical in appearance ? 

Any other thoughts for using with pupils ?

Trade justice, globalisation and interdependence...

For the last week or so, and for the next few weeks as well on and off, I'm going to be spending some time working to develop materials for the rather splendid Follow the Things website. 

The website is created in the form of a 'shopping experience', but follows the stories behind the products which sit on the 'shelves'. It explores themes related to trade justice, which are of course very raw and topical at the moment, with the rising death toll from the incident at Rana Plaza in Savar, near Dhaka.

We're working on a range of materials which will help you to engage with the website, as well as creating your own materials and stories. At the same time, there are some changes coming to the website, which will include a brand new area for teachers and students.

We'll also be creating:
- Reading lists of books that are linked to this theme, such as Kelsey Timmerman's 'Where am I wearing' and 'Where am I eating' and explorations such as Conor Woodman's 'Unfair Trade'
- Opportunities for you to get involved
- Some further missions on the special Follow the Things challenger area of the Mission:Explore website.
- Thinking on the people who manufacture items that you wear, or use - this will particularly link to the events in Bangladesh and beyond.

Go to the PRODUCTS OF SLAVERY website to find out more about this process.
You can also download a rather nice PDF of a poster (which can also be ordered as a hard copy) - donations are also welcome if you download the PDF

We'll be having one (or more) Google Hangouts later in May to give you the chance to see the updated site in action

We're covering social media too - we'll be adding links to:
- Twitter lists of relevant accounts relating to trade justice - you can also follow FOLLOW the THINGS on Twitter to get the latest relevant news retweeted out from a range of organisations
- Websites and ready made resources to extend your knowledge in this area
- Pinterest boards with relevant images from campaigns
- Case Studies of trade justice issues, and particular products which might resonate with students as young consumers:

These will focus on some of the more popular areas of the website, such as our LEGO re-enactments.
With LEGO now being the world's biggest toy brand apparently, this is perhaps a good time to focus on these, as well as the Lego School being built in Billund, Denmark.

And we'll also be developing ready-made materials for CPD sessions, so that you could spend a departmental meeting exploring the ideas on the site.

There's no shortage of interesting material and inspiration related to this issue..
For example, here's an interactive map which shows the places that supply Apple. Thanks to Karl Donert for the link here.

At a time when the world is increasingly globalised and interdependent, the work that is covered on Follow the Things is becoming more important than ever...

Professor David Lambert on Curriculum making

For 'national curriculum document' read 'GCSE exam specification' and you get the idea...

Tweeting case studies, or historical events...

I'm a fan of the idea of taking a historical event, and bringing it back to life by tweeting (in real time if possible) the events that happened, and adding in images and other information to bring the event to life again...

I've mentioned Twitter and its use in the Badger book... including as a tool for revision purposes.

Thanks to Tania Grigg for the tipoff to a live-tweeting event happening to retell the story of the expedition to conquer Mount Everest in 1953....

Follow the Twitter feed... or the hashtag #Everest53
What events / anniversaries are coming up that could be re-enacted ??

How about 33 years after Harry Truman tweeted... "Feeding the cats... mighty quiet here..."

Or 27 years ago today perhaps.... an engineer at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine... "we have a problem"....

New OFSTED literacy report

As preparation for GCSE Geography, students should be writing a range of texts of different length and complexity to prepare for the particular formats they will face in the exam...

A new report by OFSTED on literacy was published earlier in the week....

So why should geography teachers be bothered ?

Well, as it says in my session from a few years ago down in Suffolk, literacy should be part of the planning for every Geography lesson, or listen to this slidecast, prepared for a Teachmeet in 2010

Speaking, listening, writing and reading should all be part of the experience of geography that all students participate in...

You can download your own copy of the report from HERE in PDF / Word format.

What's particularly nice is to see some work by friends being highlighted in the Geography mentions that are peppered through the report.

There's a mention for Tony Cassidy and colleagues in the geography department at Kirk Hallam Community College, with his innovative scheme of work based on Geraldine McCaughrean's excellent 'The White Darkness' (check out her book 'Fires Astonishment' too) to teach about extreme environments in the Arctic.

Remember that geography literally means 'writing the earth' and the more you read the better you'll be able to write...

Book still available to buy...

We're coming up to another GCSE revision season...
Remember that there are plenty of great revision ideas in the GCSE Badger Book....

Available to purchase HERE.

GA Conference write-up

18 posts describing my experiences at the GA Conference are now up on Living Geography.

Daniel Raven Ellison's TEDx Talk

Dan Raven Ellison, my friend and Geography Collective / Mission:Explore / Explorer HQ colleague was in Switzerland last month doing a TEDx talk on the theme of exploring...

This is well worth watching... Several ideas to use straight away with GCSE colleagues... particularly the idea of 'polar exploration'.

GA Conference 2013

I'm preparing my contributions to the Geographical Association Conference today.

The conference will be held at the University of Derby, which is my favourite of the three venues. It runs from the 4th to the 6th of April.

The first day of the conference doesn't involve any of the usual workshops.
I will be heading over to the Association at Work session to grab a bite to eat, and chat to Ian Cook (who features in this month's 'Geographical' magazine coincidentally) to talk about a Follow the Things project I'm doing between now and the end of June.

Later that afternoon, it's the public lecture from Ellen MacArthur, followed by the GA Awards. I know that something I worked on has won an award, and there may be a few more in the offing too...
Then it's the wine reception, followed by a few drinks with esteemed geographer colleagues...

Friday is the main day of the conference, with sessions from early in the morning to late in the evening. My draft schedule is as follows:

9am

Lecture 2

Oceans for the Geography Classroom from Jamie Buchanan Dunlop. I've worked with Jamie on three different projects this year for Digital Explorer.

10

Workshop 6

Ian Cook – Follow the Things 

A controversial choice as this clashes with Bob Digby's Presidential Lecture, but I'll be going along to get ideas and pointers for the work I'm doing with Ian. I'm sure there'll be a big turn out for Bob's lecture so I won't be missed...

11.45

Workshop 11 – SPC

I'll be going along to support SPC colleagues in their workshop.

Lunch, and a chance to network with colleagues. I'll also spend some time on the Discover the World stand to share ideas on the mission booklet which we've put together with them.

1.50

Lecture 7

David Lambert

My old boss talking about the thorny subject of progression in Geography - what's not to like.

2.55

Workshop 20

APPening Geography 

I'm up on this one. Katy Shipman and I will talk about apps, and their use in geography. We'll ask people about their favourite apps, and explore how they can support learning.

4.30

Workshop 26
I'm up on this one as well.. going to be a busy couple of hours !

Two Hundred Heads are better than one
I'm going to act as master of ceremonies, and introduce two sessions by Tony Cassidy and John Sayers. They are both on the theme of collaborative work, and the importance of sharing. 

5.35

Lecture 13

Urban Vignettes - Emma Rawlings-Smith and other colleagues who are involved in setting up a website with writing on urban areas. I'm hoping I can get across in time to join this one.

SPC Meal - down into Derby Centre for a pizza and a chat with colleagues...

GeoBeerMeet - over to the Brunswick Inn near the railway station for a gathering of teachers and some fine ale...

Sign up for the event on Google+ here

After the GeoBeerMeet I shall sleep soundly, knowing that my major contributions to the event have been concluded.

The second main day of the conference is on Saturday.

9am

Lecture 13

Digital Earth - a lecture by Karl Donert, related to an EU project which I am involved in, and which has taken me to various European locations... which is nice :)

10.10

Keynote – the changing Arctic

Terry Callaghan lecture - an important element of the conference is the chance to develop knowledge and skills in new areas. This is an area that I've been focussing on with some reading, and will develop further for some writing I'm planning in 2013 and beyond.

11.45

Mission Explore fieldtrip - a quick trip out, with a trial of some of the missions in the book

1.50

Forum

Bringing knowledge back in
A range of contributors from the various UK nations...

If you're going along to the conference, come and say hello.
Happy to sign your copy of the BADGER GCSE book :)

GCSE Geography request...

I'm interested in the support strategies for GCSE Geography that seem to work the best for you.

I've also set this post up to show the potential for using GOOGLE FORMS for collecting data. This can be used for data collection for KS3 and GCSE/'A' level projects. It features in a new book on 'Fieldwork through Enquiry', which I wrote for the Geographical Association, and will be published later this year.

If you have a GMail account, you will already have a Google Drive available to you, which you can claim by visiting the site.
There is a HELP PAGE here.

If you had a minute or so to fill in the few questions that I've added below that would be much appreciated. As any entries are made, they will appear on a spreadsheet, and can then be analysed. There are also some immediate visualisation options....
Thanks in advance...

Useful Tourism infographic

Why not create some local endangered places which people should visit soon ?
With thanks to Noel Jenkins for bringing this to my attention...

Local area comparisons: a possible format to teach this....

Each year, the RGS-IBG run a competition in association with Geographical Magazine.
It's called the Young Geographer of the Year Award.

The details have just been announced of this year's competition.


The competition began in 2000 and has become a regular feature in many schools' calendars.
The question for Young Geographer of the Year 2013, run jointly with Geographical, is:

How does either the human or physical geography of your local area compare to the rest of the UK? 

Pupils should use different sources of geographical information and data to research their local area and compare it to the national picture in the UK. This might include using census or climate data, and examining urban change or flood risk. However, the choice is open to you to explore relevant data to your local area.
The competition has categories for Key Stage 2 (KS2), KS3, GCSE and A Level students. 

The Society encourages schools to run their own in-school competition before sending their top entries into the national competition.
We particularly welcome entries which:

• Can demonstrate a good use of different and relevant data
• Focus on and explain a small number of geographical features and information about them. We do not need to know everything about your local area and would prefer you to select some key data
• May also involve first-hand observation in the local area

Entries for the Young Geographer of the Year competition must be received by 5.00pm on the 11 October 2013.

Rex Walford Award 2013 – for student teachers or teaching colleagues new to the classroom

The same question will also form the basis of the accompanying Rex Walford Award, which is for teachers in either their student training year (for example: PGCE, Schools Direct) or who have just started in the classroom (for example: NTQ, Teach First). Entries should include lesson notes or a scheme of work to cover two or three lessons exploring this issue and we particularly welcome entries which include opportunities for data handling and fieldwork. 
Entries for the Rex Walford Award must be received by 5.00pm on the 11 October 2013.

Go to the RGS-IBG website for further information and entry forms...

OSIRIS CPD for GCSE Geography

I have another new strand in my activities starting this year.

I have previously led hundreds of CPD events all over the country for the GA, and beyond the UK for digitalearth, but I will be doing some events for OSIRIS for the first time.

OSIRIS offer a range of courses for different subjects.

I will be leading two different courses, which will be put on several times at several different locations.

The first is a course called 'All Pupils pass GCSE Geography' 
This will be held twice during March, in London and Birmingham.
Details of this course can be read HERE.

This will draw on some of the ideas from the book that I wrote for Badger, and which you can read about in the book's accompanying blog HERE.

The second is a course on the 'Future of Secondary Geography', which will look at all the coming changes and equip you with strategies and resources to prepare for, and implement the coming changes at KS3 and 'A' level, and the introduction of the EBC....
This is a new course, which will be put on in London, Birmingham and Manchester in July - dates are still to be confirmed. It will draw on a new book that was published by Routledge in December 2012, and which I contributed a chapter too. Details can be read HERE.
I shall let you know when details are added to the website - we are finalising the details of the course, which will involve all new exciting  materials.

Both courses are, at heart, opportunities to get together and learn from the practice of others, as well as take time out of the daily stream of demands to plot a steady course through some of the changes ahead, and prepare students effectively for formal assessments.

Head over to the OSIRIS website to find out more about their courses in a range of subject areas.

I look forward to perhaps seeing some of you at these courses.