Inside Government Geography Day

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I was asked to speak at this event some months ago, and had prepared a packed half an hour session of ideas on the use of new technologies in innovative ways. I was grateful to be asked to be part of a day which included contributions from the following people;
Dr Alex Standish, UCL IOE (chairing the day)
Alan Kinder, GA
Steve Brace, RGS-IBG
Paul Turner, Bedales School
Rachel Hawkes (who also spoke at TMGeographyIcons)
and a number of other teachers and geographers.

Some notes on some of the sessions that I made as people were speaking. All interpretations my own as always when blogging my notes on what other people have 'said' at events of this type.
I didn't take notes on all sessions other than the first few, as I knew I would get copies of the presentations from other colleagues.

Alex Standish opened the day with a brief description of some of the work that he does on the PGCE course.
He outlined the structure of the course, and what they felt were important.
The first mention of the changing binary between enquiry and knowledge.

Alan Kinder was the first speaker, and he described the work of the Geographical Association.
Grade boundaries are likely to go up next year, he said, following the first year when there was an effort made not to disadvantage anyone.
Sharp drop in cohort size at ‘A’ level - Geography down 11.4% in terms of entrants.
GA view - opposed decoupling of AS and ‘A’ level
'AS' - shrinking to a third of what it might have been
University applications are down
Alan described the recent work of the Geographical Association, and some opportunities for delegates to get involved.
Chief examiners had positive things to say about the nature of teaching, and the quality of preparation for this year's students.
Superficial answers (lacking depth and structure) were one issue.
Knowledge application when working in unfamiliar contexts was another area to work on developing.
Metacognitive routines need to be established
GA Branches, Secondary Quality Mark schools, Social media
DfE funded Critical Thinking for Achievement available

Steve Brace from the RGS-IBG was next up, and he described some work on GIS.
1999 National Curriculum - Rita Gardner quote was the starting point (the old brown document)
Recognise the importance of the spatial dimension
>3.7 billion people are using the internet regularly.
ESRI UK - one of the largest geography-related companies in the world
What is the ‘everywhere’ of Geography?
Data Skills in Geography programme was mentioned: I have contributed several resources to this.
"Future of Geography is Cheap" - Jon Reades (PDF download)
ESRI: ‘the science of where’ - a well-worded mission statement
Why is GIS in the specification?
‘Thinking like a geographer’ - what does that mean?
Showed links to the CDRC mapping
Data Skills in Geography - a report to be published shortly on the impact of the project - looking forward to seeing that. Meanwhile, here's a very useful presentation. (available as a PDF)
Geography - Post-16 Maths report - role of numeracy
52% of Geography undergrads are females - gender equality
Our subject - low dropout rates / above average employment / good graduate earnings - 10% above national averages
Here's my session presentation, which took place after lunch.
Thanks to


Image of me in action: Steve Puttick

Here's my main handout:


And finally, thanks to the following people for handouts and freebies that I was able to give to delegates:

- Des McDougall - VR handouts
- Richard Allaway - Google Earth stickers
- Ordnance Survey - for cards giving offers and details on OS Maps App
- Edina - Handouts and folders on Digimap for Schools
- ESRI UK (via Jason Sawle) for pens, badges, USB sticks and other bits and pieces

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