Blog and updates
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17 Jan 2024
Hopeful Geographies 3: Signs of Transition in Britain’s Electricity Supply
At A-Level we are asked to consider thresholds or tipping points in Earth's systems. We are used to talking about thresholds in terms of climate change, such as accelerating ice melt and positive...
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10 Jan 2024
Hopeful Geographies 2: ‘Joined Up’ Conservation Works in Southern Africa
Last week The Guardian reported that African elephant populations in southern Africa have stabilised after many decades of decline. Further, the science shows elephant populations able to migrate...
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8 Jan 2024
2023 - A Year of Extreme Weather
Most of us started back at work today - and much of that 'Christmas holiday chat' will have focused on the state of the weather over the two week break. I live in Buxton so am no stranger to...
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2 Jan 2024
Hopeful Geographies in 2024
Happy New Year to you and all your students. And in the Geography Department, in 2024, I think us teachers ought to mean it. In an excellent opening lecture at last year’s GA conference Jenny...
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11 Dec 2023
How the Climate Crisis Could Impact Health Locally and Globally
Last week the health impact of global environmental change was in the headlines as officials met to discuss the issue at COP28 in Dubai - a COP first. This week the story has become a local one,...
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14 Nov 2023
COP28 Teaching Activities: Three Carbon News Stories and How to Use Them
Three recent news stories about the carbon budget and climate have caught my eye. Spoiler-alert: one story features a Pacific 'island paradise'. All are useful hooks to promote students'...
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11 Oct 2023
Global Heating and the Unintended Consequences of Global Governance
Studying human interventions in the carbon cycle? Here’s an update you might have missed, as it was publicised in August. Scientists have discovered that we have been carrying out a massive...
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29 Sept 2023
Sycamore Gap: Place Imageability & Place Meaning
Yesterday the news broke of the loss of a 300-year old tree that stood on in the so-called Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s Wall, apparently felled by vandals. I use the term ‘broke’ in part because I...
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27 Sept 2023
AQA A-Level Geography Paper 2 Topic Tracker 2023
UPDATED FOR 2023: This resource provides a detailed, topic-by-topic breakdown of how the Paper 2 Human Geography topics have been examined in the papers set so far for AQA A-Level...
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27 Sept 2023
AQA A-Level Geography Paper 1 Topic Tracker 2023
UPDATED FOR 2023: This free, downloadable resource provides a detailed, topic-by-topic breakdown of how the Paper 1 Physical Geography topics have been examined in papers set so far for AQA A-Level...
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20 Sept 2023
Geography Requires Improvement (although has improved significantly since the last report!)
Yesterday Ofsted published the long-awaited geography subject report - and there are lots of positives to take away - the main one being that geography teaching is in a much better state now, than...
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19 Sept 2023
UK Infrastructure Developments - Time for an Update!
Most of us teaching the AQA GCSE spec will agree that the UK section of Changing Economic World is a thorn in our sides and very tricky to make remotely engaging to students. And then you add in...
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18 Sept 2023
Space and Place - A-Level Changing Places
Having met my Year 12s for the first time last week we launched ourselves into the Changing Places unit of the specification. We have learned that a space is a place without meaning, whereas a...
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12 Sept 2023
Lessons to be learned from the summer's GCSE exams - Paper 3: Fieldwork
My final blog highlights the important takeaways from the fieldwork section of the examiner report. Each year this seems to be the part of the paper that teachers and students dread (completely...
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11 Sept 2023
Lessons to be learned from the summer's GCSE exams - Paper 3: Issue Evaluation (the pre-release)
In this blog I have highlighted the key points from the examiners report that you need to aware of when prepping students for this part of the exam next time. It is also worth pointing out that the...
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8 Sept 2023
Lessons to be learned from the summer's GCSE exams - Paper 2
Today I am moving on to look at Paper 2 - this examiner report is much shorter than the one for Paper 1, so it will be discussed in just one blog post. It is probably worth mentioning at the start...
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7 Sept 2023
Lessons to be learned from the summer's GCSE exams - Paper 1 analysis
In this blog I am going to highlight the key points from the Paper 1 examiner report for AQA GCSE Geography. Have a read of the previous post that summarises overall performance -...
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6 Sept 2023
Lessons to be learned from the summer's GCSE exams - Paper 1 overall commentary
Over the next week or so I am going to share a series of blogs that summarise key parts of the examiner reports. The examiners reports are a really useful tool to help inform your teaching, and in...
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18 Aug 2023
A-Level Geography Results Analysis 2023
Grading of students this summer was trailed as being similar to that of students in 2019, prior to the pandemic. In fact, across all subjects A* results were up, from 7.7% to 8.9%, as were A*-A...
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9 Aug 2023
A great opportunity to hone those DME skills! Should Llanharan have a bypass?
Educational rationale: Decision making exercises are common in GCSE courses, notably AQA, and also included in some A Level courses too. It is a critical thinking skill held in high regard by...
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