What a busy, engaging, inspiring and stimulating few days; I now need a holiday to recover! It was great to catch up with friends and colleagues, put names to faces of social media connections and meet some new geographers and educators from all over the UK and beyond. It is hard to explain the ‘buzz’ that you gain from the conference; watching streamed events from a distance is not the same as being there in person. If you are fortunate to be able to afford to go, then do so and push yourself beyond your comfort zone; everyone is friendly, and you always feel included and valued.
The theme for this year’s conference was ‘Connected geographies‘ and the event was held at Oxford Brookes University in Headington on the outskirts of the city.
I arrived on Tuesday afternoon in time for the ‘Roundtable discussion – Developing strategy for 2025-2030‘, led by Steve Brace, Chief Executive of the GA, Professor Alistair Owens, Chair of the Board of Trustees and Hina Robinson, current GA President. This provided an opportunity to share themes from the GA’s developing 2025-30 strategy with the community and for the audience to contribute comments and feedback regarding the GA’s plan for the next five years.
The GA Awards Ceremony followed, rather special for me this year as I had been nominated for an award (GA Geography Champion). It was gratifying to feel that all the time and energy I have put into supporting teachers and enthusing pupils has been recognised and appreciated more widely.
There were other deserving award winners too, including an Honorary Membership for Dr Paula Owens. Paula has had an influence on me throughout my career; firstly, as a teacher starting out in the profession and, later, as a guiding and inspiring beacon in my role as a freelance consultant.
Dr Anjana Khatwa (Earth Scientist, presenter and writer)’s lecture, entitled ‘The Whispers of Rock: Stories of the Earth‘, was eloquently delivered, entertaining and thought-provoking. Anjana demonstrated that rocks have had a profound influence on human life (from the soils that sustain our crops, to the homes that we have built, the technology we rely on, our biological make-up and even the coffee we drink). She explored the wisdom that lies in the ‘whispers’ we hear when we personally connect with the rocks around us. Anjana also shared an extract from her book of the same name, which will be released on 4th September 2025; certainly one to put on your reading list.
The evening concluded with the Conference Dinner, purely plant-based to reduce the event’s carbon footprint. A delicious spread was laid out for us to help ourselves to and the atmosphere was relaxed with lively conversations flowing.
I survived a 13-hour day on Wednesday! I was keen to cram in as much as possible in the time that I had at the conference. I was so glad that I had perused the programme and used the Sched app to select my choices in advance. Sometimes, it is hard to decide what to see and do as there are so many great presenters/speakers and relevant themes to delve into.
The Rex Walford Memorial Lecture was delivered by Dr Emma Rawlings-Smith, Chair of the GA Teacher Education Phase Committee and based at the University of Southampton. Emma focused on ‘What constitutes a good geography education in a rapidly changing world?‘. She drew on evidence from the GA’s Secondary Geography Quality Mark (SGQM) to explore the contribution that high-quality geography and agentic curriculum-making can make to the education of children and young people in our dynamic world.
Following break, I dipped into a workshop led by Chloe Searl, Independent Field Studies Tutor and aka The Island Geographer, which revealed 30 approaches that top-scoring NEA students consistently use to connect their studies to the highest possible marks. As my daughter is in the throes of planning and collecting data for her NEA, I made sure that I did some note-taking! I loved Chloe’s bingo approach too, although sadly I did not win one of her books (I will certainly be implementing this into a future Primary Geography Subject Leader Network meeting).
Before heading off to lunch, I popped into a session steered by Florence Smart, Head of Geography at City of London School for Girls, to hear about her MSc study that introduced a pedagogy of live interactive video calls with pupils in London and Bangkok and whose dissertation had won first prize for the GEReCo Masters Dissertation Award in 2024. Findings suggested this promotes a more collaborative, globally-connected and up-to-date approach to geography lessons. It also decentralises the teacher as the ‘sage on the stage’ and invites new and impactful perspectives. I chatted about our Step into the Amazon project and what we had achieved to date, which reaffirmed many of her thoughts and comments.
Lunch afforded an opportunity to catch up with some familiar faces and be introduced to new ones. The large communal tables were conducive to this; never feel worried about being on your own at a conference.
Fiona Sheriff, Head of Geography at Kingsthorpe College and GA President for 2026-2027, and Jema Kinsman, Head of Humanities at Rushden Academy, both presented a fantastic session centred on ‘Reading like a geographer: Improving geographical literacy‘. In the words of Dr Seuss, ‘reading can take you places you have never been before‘. Not only does it enable students to connect with geographies and cultures that are not their own, but also fosters cross-curricular links. Their workshop offered practical ideas to engage students with resources that they may not otherwise use in order to broaden their geographical horizons and encourage aspiration. Whilst I had explored several of Fiona’s resources before when planning the content of our last Primary Geography Subject Leader Network meeting whose foci included oracy and ‘speaking and listening like a geographer’, I certainly picked up a handful of new book suggestions and activities to trial.
One of my conference highlights was the workshop led by Jon Carnell, GA Primary Curriculum Lead. Jon examined how and why a high quality geography curriculum is more than just the sum of its parts. He modelled how to embrace the interdependent nature of substantive, disciplinary and procedural knowledge. Jon also considered the role that creating and monitoring meaningful connections between those constituent parts has in empowering pupils to access, interpret and accumulate knowledge. It was great to be able to ‘have a play’ and chat with individuals, as well as steal a few resources and ideas that I will, undoubtedly, utilise in future bespoke CPD sessions and training events.
‘Developing global connections: Bringing the outside world in‘ was presented by the very proficient Catherine Owens, Head of Geography, Chair of the International Special Interest Group and GA President for 2025-2026, along with Amy Case, a former Head of Geography and now working at Flooglebinder, and Jon McCormick, a teacher based at Moat Farm School. Whilst Jon shared some of the global activities that have taken place at his school, Amy discussed a previous overseas trip to the Azores and pointed us in the direction of a number of associated resources that teachers have since produced (https://geography.org.uk/resources/the-azores-views-volcanoes-and-values/) and promoted a future Study Tour to Costa Rica (https://geography.org.uk/events-cpd/ga-study-tours/). Catherine highlighted the Educational Recording Agency (ERA) website (https://era.org.uk/) and asked us to help her and them with evaluating the existing material and updating it to ensure the content is more easily accessible. Towards the end, I talked about our links with the Kambeba indigenous community within the heart of the Amazon and how we have managed to connect pupils in the UK with children there in real time as part of Step into the Amazon‘s new week-long initiatives.
We all piled into the JHB Lecture Theatre to hear the Presidential Lecture given by the Hina Robinson. As mentioned previously, Hina’s chosen theme for the conference was ‘Connected geographies‘. She spoke about her background, how her interest and passion for geography had been ignited and nurtured and exemplified how interconnected our world is. Hina was very open, honest and a pleasure to listen to. I learnt quite a lot about her as a person, in addition to being encouraged to reflect.
Many of us made our way to The Terrace for drinks and nibbles and the infamous Teach Meet. This was organised in conjunction with one of the GA’s strategic partners, Discover the World Education, as an informal way for colleagues to share ideas outside of the main conference programme. Karen Corfield steered the proceedings competently, enabling a variety of presenters to take to the floor and a degree of discussion to pursue.
Although supper and a quiz was on offer, I decided to retire gracefully as I had a long walk back to the hotel and needed some beauty sleep after a rather chaotic day.
We were wowed on Thursday morning by Paras Chandaria, a wildlife photographer and safari planner and a cousin of Hina Robinson. Paras is a passionate advocate for wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism, with a particular focus on the delicate balance between urban development and natural ecosystems. His work centres on highlighting the unique role of Nairobi National Park as a vital conservation area situated next to a rapidly growing city. Not only can people engage with him on topics, such as urban-wildlife coexistence, conservation strategies, eco-tourism development and innovative approaches to promoting protected areas, but also discuss how strategic content creation and storytelling can inspire greater awareness and support for conservation efforts. Paras had us all enthralled with his stunning photography, movie clips, humour and anecdotes. Afterwards, I approached Paras to see if he might be able to do a virtual speaker session for GlosGeog, Gloucestershire’s local GA branch. Watch this space to see what transpires!
Next, I attended a workshop that Graeme Schofield, Geography Subject Lead at Oak National Academy, led on ‘GIS for everyone: Developing GIS across the geography curriculum‘, which was very insightful and introduced me to a couple of new tools to explore at my leisure. GIS is not as complex as you might think and, in actual fact, many of us engage with it on a day-to-day basis without really realising it.
I managed to squeeze in a meeting with a GA colleague and visit the accompanying exhibition before gathering for the Primary Meet and Greet. It was lovely to chat with members of the GA Early Years Primary Phase Committee (EYPPC) in person, many of whom I frequently communicate with via social media.
Following lunch, I headed to the Chakrabarti Room to hear from David Holmes, Founder of and Director at InView Assets, a leading UAV aerial survey and geographic data company. Both he and colleagues showcased a recent project that they have been involved with alongside ESRI UK. ‘You can measure every pebble! Drone flight to virtual fieldwork resources‘ has some incredibly detailed footage to engage with and huge potential for use within the classroom. It will be interesting to see what resources evolve as a result of its implementation. I am looking forward to attending a GIS day that Bob Lang has organised as part of the GA Worcester branch’s activities in late June, and will, hopefully, become more proficient and confident thereafter.
Taking into account the long drive home and getaway Easter weekend traffic, I decided to call it a day and say goodbye to GA representatives and fellow delegates. A jam-packed few days, but well worth the time and money; I am now feeling reinvigorated and raring to go for the next two terms! Many thanks to all the organisers, presenters, attendees and staff at Oxford Brookes University for making this event such a success. Roll on Sheffield next year!