Geography Teaching Today

The Greater Birmingham Regional CPD Network is being run by King Edward VI Five Ways School, specifically by one of our CGeogs Paula Cooper

*Upcoming event*

Date: Wednesday October 6th 2010
Venue: King Edward VI Five Ways School, Scotland Lane, Bartley Green, Birmingham B32 4BT
Cost: Free, funded by the Action Plan for Geography
Number of spaces: 30
Target audience: New (2 years as HOD maximum) and aspiring Heads of Geography

Programme:

10.00 to 12.00 Embedding GIS and Google Earth into KS3 lessons and schemes
Bob Lang CGeog, King Edward Five Ways School

12.00 to 12.30 Putting Careers Education into the Curriculum
Kate Amis, Geography Ambassadors Scheme Manager, RGS-IBG

12.30 to 13.00 Lunch will be provided

13.00 to 13.30 Raising the profile of geography and numbers at GCSE and A Level
Kate Amis, Geography Ambassadors Scheme Manager, RGS-IBG

13.30 to 14.00 Evaluation of the Action Plan for Geography and a resources/ideas swap shop.

14.00 to 15.00 Ofsted: getting your department from good to outstanding
Paula Cooper CGeog and Julian Roderick, King Edward Five Ways School

Info sheet and booking form are available. Teachers booking on to this course will be asked to provide a £50 deposit which will be returned to them on the day of the course.

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L-R Alan Parkinson CGeog, Bob Lang CGeog. Iain Stewart, Paula Cooper CGeog, Kate Donovan

Previous event: Joint RGS-IBG CGeog network and Geographical Association branch event.

On September 29th over 350 students and staff from across the Midlands Region braved the Birmingham traffic and travelled to King Edward VI Five Ways School in south-west Birmingham to hear Professor Iain Stewart, intrepid traveller, geologist and broadcaster talk about ‘Unnatural Hazards'. The audience of geographers and geologists were treated to an outstanding presentation on the nature of hazard and risk by Prof Stewart with stories of earthquakes in Iran, garbage slides in Manila and man-made mud volcanoes. Kate Donovan, a postgraduate researcher with Prof Stewart at Plymouth University, gave a highly accomplished and intriguing talk on her research into the geo-culture of risk on the Indonesian volcano Mt Merapi. Prof Stewart said he enjoyed the evening so much he wants to come back next year!

The evening not only gave A level students and teachers topical and fascinating case studies for exams but also made us think about the fundamental importance of our subject and how thinking geographically may be the key in managing hazardous environments. Many thanks go to all colleagues who supported the event and a great thank you to Iain and Kate for coming to Birmingham.

Previous event
Date: 29th September 2009, King Edward VI Five Ways School
Focus: a talk from Professor Iain Stewart and PhD student Katherine Donovan of the University of Plymouth. The talk was for Sixth Form geographers and geologists of all specifications, and G and T or interested younger pupils. Iain's talk complimented A level courses, gave pupils real up to date case studies and tales from his travels. Katherine spoke about her research into why people live in hazardous zones.

Previous event
Date: Thursday June 25th 2009, Tudor Grange School, Solihul
Focus: new GCSE specifications and the controlled assessment

Previous event
Date: Thursday 19th March 2009, King Edward VI Five Ways School
This meeting covered:

• Geographygeek: Website and resources, including GIS Q and A, by Helen Young of Park Hall School, Solihull
• SGQM and CGEOG - why these are great and how to get them, by Ian Dixson CGeog of High Arcal School, Dudley (an SGQM Centre of Excellence)
• KS3 Update - by Paula Cooper CGeog, regional subject advisor for QCA/CfBT and GA
• Open Forum discussion to share ideas for future meetings and ‘network'

The plan is for future meetings to be held at different venues to share out the travelling.

If you would like to attend these meetings please email c.wheeler@rgs.org

Image courtesy of Flickr user Paul Tomlins (creative commons)