Today is one of my favourite days of the year.
For the second time, I went down to the Royal Geographical Society to present the awards to the Young Geographers of the Year for 2025.
The Highly Commended entries receive a certificate, with the Winners (one from an Independent school and one from a State school) also receiving a very nice engraved glass trophy which was elegantly designed.
The winners also received a goody bag with prizes from Philip's, Geographical Magazine and the Ordnance Survey (who provided a customised OS map) for each winner. Thanks to the sponsors, which also include ESRI UK.
We had a winner from Australia and Cyprus this year.
The theme this year was Understanding Islands.
This is an extract from the entry by one of the KS3 winners: Kitt Sutton.
I liked their connecting theme of Viking invasion and the presentation style.
I also handed out the Rex Walford Award to Emelia Welch from Marling School.
Emelia's winning resources will be published on the RGS website in due course.
For those who are unfamiliar with Rex Walford's work and legacy, you can read his entry on my GA Presidents blog.
Thanks also to Dr. Liam Saddington from the University of Cambridge for his excellent talk on the prevailing narrative that islands such as Tuvalu are 'sinking' as sea levels rise. There were some nice provocations too regarding countries and whether they will persist if there is no land. We heard about the plans for maintaining a viable population in the future: the Long Term Adaptation Plan or L-TAP.
Well done to Claire Brown and the team at the RGS for co-ordinating the awards and the event, and also to Eugene Rae for putting together a special selection of objects on the theme of islands from the RGS's archive.
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