Living Geography Newsletter #24
Jun 12th-18th
Welcome to the twenty fourth weekly newsletter providing a summary of key posts on the LivingGeography blog.
Each newsletter will usually include a number of sections:
a digest of posts from the LivingGeography blog (and other blogs)
any important geographical news
an update on any personal projects
details of books that I am reading, or cultural experiences
a couple of nice images taken this week
events that you might be interested in
Posts this week included
A review of the GA / RGS Festival of Geography, hosted by the RGS in London as mentioned later.
A brief review of the Climate Call card game I received this week. It’s really good and easy to play.
Details of some new CPD sessions organised by Matt and Richard from International Geography.Training. Check them out if you are an international teacher, teaching MYP, IB DP or iGCSE Geography in particular.
A request to vote for Rayburn Tours in the Best School Tour Operator (Large) category of the UK School Travel Awards if you can please, particularly if you have travelled with them with your school. I work for them as a Field Studies Tutor and we are all proud to work for this family firm which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. This would certainly add to the celebrations.
Details of new Choose Geography resources created by Alice Matthews on the theme of careers. These are all free to access and it’s great to see the start of an excellent range of support for teachers in this area, to help demonstrate the value of studying geography.
I passed 300 000 page views of my teaching blog sharing what I do at my school: GeographyTeacher 2.0
I also passed 200 000 page views of my blog sharing the biographies of all GA Presidents to date, and the history of the Association.
News
First up, it’s congratulations to Graham Goldup, who was awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list for his services to (geography) education. Very well deserved.
Congratulations also to Di Swift, who did so much for the Geographical Association before moving into teacher education, for being awarded an OBE.
Also congratulations to Christine Counsell who many geographers have learned from for her award.
This week, the main event was the Festival of Geography, which was the first joint event between the Geographical Association and the Royal Geographical Society for some years. We worked closely together during the Action Plan for Geography.
Thanks to my co-presenters and everyone involved in organising the event.
It’s Refugee Week until the 22nd of June. Important to focus on this given what’s happening across the Atlantic.
OCR has released a Level 3 qualification which may be of interest to geographers. It’s a certificate in Sustainability. More on the website if you want to take a look ahead of its launch.
Anthony Barlow has carried on with his impressive A-Z of fieldwork posts. Catch up with the videos so far here: they are full of ideas and suitable for all age-groups really.
Don’t forget you can see other stories I’ve found interesting on my Blue Sky account as well. Please follow it.
I left my 8000 Twitter followers and cancelled my account last year.
Also I went over to Norwich at the weekend to upgrade my laptop after having the same slowly fading Macbook Pro for about seven years. Time to move onto a new device as I need my battery to last for more than an hour, and with a keyboard where the keys don't fall off.... If you are buying a new Mac, don't forget to check out the Education discount. You will need to verify your teacher status with Unidays.
I opted for the new Sky Blue colour Macbook Air. It’s a beautiful thing.
Projects
The first deadline for my latest big writing project passed last week, and it’s already onto two new chapters… between them that will mean around 140 pages to write in the next month or two. I’ve already started them ahead of schedule and am looking forward to the reading and research to come.
I’ve also been doing some Oak reviewing of some of the Year 9 units for the GA’s KS3 curriculum, which should be taking shape and ready for download later this year. A video was shared on the GA website earlier in the week. Check out the resources that have already been added. The legacy resources produced for teacher support during the COVID pandemic will shortly be removed from the Oak website.
I’ve also been putting together my proposal to offer a session at the GA Conference 2026 in Sheffield. The venue and date for this will be announced shortly. If you have never spoken at the GA Conference before, why not make 2026, your first? You will receive a free day if your session is accepted, which is a double bonus. Start thinking around the conference theme of ‘Geography makes a difference’.
Books
I received a copy of Quintin Lake’s Perimeter book. This is the pictorial record of his journey around the coast of the UK, taking pictures along the way. I followed at the time, and also tried twice to catch up with him when he was in Norfolk. COVID delayed his walk just when he was in my neck of the woods. Here’s the route he took.
The book is seriously chunky with some wonderful images and text telling the story of the walk and the encounters he had along the way.
I’ve also been reading my advance copy of Anjana Khatwa’s ‘The Whispers of Rock’ which is dense and sprawling, visiting some fascinating places and people and full of ‘everyday geologies’ of our lives. We need to listen carefully if we are to hear the rocks whispering to us from deep time. A full review will be published just ahead of publication date.
Images
A couple of the images I took this week. I went on fieldwork with Year 7 at the start of this week to Hunstanton. We enjoyed good weather and nice to have an ice cream at the end. Job done.
Four steel supports from the old pier which burned down in 1978 and was later removed - relocated to Hunstanton’s Esplanade Gardens - image by Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license
A member of the excellent grounds team preparing the cricket square on School Field with Ely Cathedral looking on - hottest day of the year so far - image by Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license
Looking up at Lowther Lodge from the gardens of the RGS - image by Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license
Events
I’ve completed quite a few creative projects over the years with Matt Podbury and Richard Allaway. They have provided a lot of support for teachers in international schools in particular with ideas for teaching MYP and IB DP, plus iGCSE Geography. They teamed up for this new venture which started earlier in the year. Their programme of events for the first part of the next academic year is now published.
There will be six online workshops between the end of August 2025 and May 2026, which can be booked individually or as an ‘any three’, ‘any four’ or ‘all six’ bundle.
Each workshop consists of two 90-minute sessions and then the opportunity to have a 30-minute one-on-one meeting with either Richard or Matt to focus on your specific topic of interest and questions.
The workshops will happen on Saturdays, so most of you will not need to find cover for your classes. They will run from 10h00 CET to 13h30 CET, so you have enough time for a lie-in and a lazy breakfast, and everything is finished in time for a late lunch.
Saturday 30th August 2025 – Surviving the first months as a DP Geography Teacher
Saturday 27th September 2025 – Adapting to the new CIE IGCSE Geography 0460 Syllabus
Saturday 1st November 2025 – Making it matter for your students
Saturday 29th November 2025 – Using generative AI as a Geography Teacher
Saturday 7th March 2026 – Getting your students exam-ready
Saturday 9th May 2026 – Big things that your students need to write
The duo have a new Tom Morgan Jones logo inking too, which is always a mark of quality. Go here to find out all the details including the pricing options.
If you’re buying a bundle and you have a Whole School subscription to both geographyalltheway.com and ibgeographypods.org, you will get a 10% discount
This duo come highly recommended for anyone just starting out with teaching MYP or IB Geography, or iGCSE Geography.
If you are preparing for teaching the new Cambridge iGCSE specification, then don’t forget this recently published book (which comes with an accompanying Teacher Guide and Workbook too). You can order it from Collins here.
As part of the Royal Geographical Society's ongoing partnership with the Historical Association, a joint event to primary teachers of geography looking at climate education has been planned. This will take place online. Details are here.
The programme will consist of a set of talks focussing on embedding climate education into the history and geography curriculums:
Keynote from Dr Alison Kitson, Programme Director for UCL’s Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE), showcasing various ways in which schools have embedded climate education and talking about the need for all subjects to contribute.
Ailsa Fidler on Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt movement as a significant individual: positive representation within a broad and balanced curriculum.
Emma Espley on thinking critically about climate change and sustainability in relation to hot and cold places (foci: the Arctic, Antarctica and Amazon rainforest).
This online RGS event is quite a long way off, but you may as well get it booked in now if it is of interest. This one is aimed at teachers who want to find out more about what it is like to move to teaching in an international school out of the UK. This is becoming increasingly popular, and is something which I might have done myself but was not really sure how to go about it, and then I got married and had kids and that was the next 25 years whizzing by.
Chris Hoare will share his experiences, with some hints and tips, and ther'e’s also a Q&A.
Sign up for the latest GeogLive! Primary CPD. The theme this time is migration with ideas for teaching this topic in the primary classroom.
This week is Show your Stripes Day - on the 21st of June. You can also show them on the 20th as that’s a Friday and a school day - we certainly will be. Stickers are already printed for students.
Download the stripes for your own local area and display them.
I have my Climate Code shirt to wear too. Here are the stripes for Cambridge:
There’s still time to apply to be a Fawcett Fellow for 2025-6 too. I discussed the value of this in the previous Substack newsletter. I also spoke to someone who has already been accepted onto the programme. Happy to talk about this if anyone has questions.
Thanks for reading as always. If there’s something you want to publicise or share here, get in touch ahead of each Wednesday, which is publication day.