Thoughtful Thursdays #1: First week of term

OK, so last academic year I started my Worldly Wednesdays when I didn't teach and had time to devote to consultancy and other work. It seemed to work OK thanks to involvement in some nice projects which included the GA's KS3 Oak National curriculum project - which has now been completed and is available to download from the website to help KS3 geography teachers with curriculum making - and some writing for various publishers and work with various organisations including BBC Bitesize and the Environment Agency. They turned out to be very productive and busy Wednesdays.

This year, I've dropped another day from my teaching load so that I can have more time to have those breaks in the working week and use the time for other work, and also to consider how much longer I want to stay teaching after over 30 years in the classroom.

I'm going to call these my Thoughtful Thursdays and today is my first one. 

They will be posted during term time only and will share some of the things I've been thinking about. That could include:

- thinking back to something that happened on this day in previous years (Facebook memories are useful for that)

- thinking about a resource or project I'm working on, and sharing ideas which may be useful to others.

- thinking about a forthcoming event

- thinking which might lead to some creative project of some kind.... or not...

Having two days mid-week also offers the potential for some cheeky overnight trips somewhere. If so, I will be sharing some images from those when they start to happen.

Here's what I've been thinking about today.

Firstly, today is a good day for Anjana Khatwa. After years of work her book is finally published. I've been talking about it for a while, and am now thinking about how I hope it does well for her.

I was grateful to receive a review copy and have written a detailed review with my thoughts on the book as well as producing a document with curriculum links. 

I've also been thinking back to an event that happened on this day 27 years ago. 

My memory was initially prompted by a Facebook memory, but also by the fact that today has seen lots of thundery downpours.

Back in 1998, I sat in Horse Guards Parade for the premiere of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells 3. 

We had to head down to London after a day of teaching and get seated. There was a surprise support act; I got some merchandise before it ran out and the rain poured down. It was one of four times that I saw Mike play live and I'm grateful for that.

As always the soaring guitar improvisations were the highlight, and we all got very very wet.

I've also been thinking about the GA Conference 2026 and decided to book my ticket on the Early Bird Rate and also a hotel room on an early booking deal - a hotel I've stayed in quite a few times before in Sheffield, which I know is decent. Also thinking about who I can catch up with while I'm up there.

Finally, these two days in the week are potentially available for me to work with you...