Geographical Association

Contact

Steve Rawlinson
Branch Secretary
Email: steve.rawlinson@northumbria.ac.uk

Thursday 2 February 2012
Global Cities
Prof Peter Taylor

Wednesday 22 February 2012
Water, Equity and Tourism
Alison Stancliffe
This will be supported by various resources for KS3 up to A-level. The session will be interactive and enable materials to be used for a number of Key Stages.

Wednesday 7 March 2012
The fears and misconceptions of being on a PGCE course
Lynne Fairburn

Friday 9 March 2012
Branch annual conference: Where does geography lead me? Why does geography need me?

12-18 March 2012
Climate Week
A variety of events are being arranged

Thursday 29 March 2012
Coastal Erosion in Staithes
Dr Mike Lim

Past Event Report

Teaching Today
Wednesday 29 September 2010

Today we had a very informative public lecture by Steve Rawlinson, Chief Admissions Lecturer of Primary Education at Northumbria University and Lisa Conlan, a Geography Teacher at a local secondary school.

The event was started by Steve outlining the possible future of geography within schools and what we could do to keep it at the forefront of education with regard to our creativity in teaching, enthusiasm to promote the subject through the GA and to encourage students to attend out of school events to ensure they become a 'citizen of the world'. Steve ended with an outline of how to apply for a PGCE course.

From this Lisa continued with her experience of teaching over the past seven years and the reasons she entered the profession. Resources were handed out of useful websites, worksheets and activities that could be used both in the primary and secondary classroom. A variety of literature was also available for current and future teachers.

Cheese and wine tasting took place after the talk and attendees were treated to free goody bags filled with GA and OS materials.

The lecture was attended by undergraduate students and teachers who thoroughly enjoyed meeting other educationalists and gaining vital information and advice to maintain their enthusiasm for geography and promote the subject in schools.

Thank you to everyone who supported us in this event.

We have finished another successful year of our branch with our AGM and end of term meal. The AGM report outlines the activities we have planned or been involved in since September. A huge thank you to everyone involved in the planning of these events together with the support we have received from local schools, Northumbria University and the wider community. 

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 15 September at 5:15pm, room TBC.  A Cheese and Wine event will be held on Wednesday 29 September together with a public lecture regarding Learning and Teaching by Steve Rawlinson, principle lecturer of Early Years Education at Northumbria University and Lisa Conlan, teacher of Geography and 2nd Dept. Fliers will be emailed out by Friday 23 July 2010.

Download the following flyer for more on forthcoming events.

Past Event Report

AQA Exam Session by John Smith, Chief Examiner AQA
Friday 23 April 2010

John Smith held a thoroughly interesting and invaluable workshop session with A Level students and teachers regarding the forthcoming AQA AS Level exams. As so many students and teachers from the Tyne and Wear area attended, this event will become annual together with a plan of another session for students and teachers who follow the EdExcel syllabus.

James Armstrong from Sunderland College said:

'I thought the John Smith talk was invaluable as both my students and I learnt exactly what the new 4B exam is all about. We were given a fantastic opportunity to talk to the chief examiner and learn what exactly he expects students to write about in the exam.

Despite the fact that we had used both Phillip Allan and Nelson Thornes A2 Geog textbooks extensively to prepare for the exam, we learnt an awful lot more by actually listening to John Smith in person.

I'd highly recommend this to all of my colleagues next year should the talk be repeated.'

Thank you to everyone who supported us in this event and keep an eye on our webpage for similar forthcoming events.

The Tyne and Wear GA branch were proud to be part of the GA Annual Conference 2010. The session was showcasing the use of '8 Way Thinking with i-Pods and New Technology' presented by Steve Rawlinson, Cath White and Lucie Chruszczewski. See the following report by the Northumbria University Insight magazine:

Past Event Report

Emergency Response to Floods in Morpeth
Wednesday 2 December 2009

Dr Maureen Fordham gave a fascinating talk on the 2008 Morpeth floods. The talk was very well attended by university lecturers, teachers and A Level students from surrounding schools. It was interesting to learn about the factors which led to the severity of these floods and to discover more about what is being done in terms of flood preparedness and mitigation. The information given in the talk was useful to our A-level students who require knowledge of a local case study.

The presentation that accompanied the talk can be downloaded below in four parts:

Annual General Meeting

Tuesday 14 July 2009

"We discussed a very successful year of public lectures regarding a variety of topics and a wonderful day at Northumbria University where year 5, 9 and 12 pupils came to experience university life with specific workshops geared towards Geography and Environmental Studies.

There have been a number of changes within the committee: "a big thank you to James Armstrong who has been our Branch Secretary for the past few years and a welcome to Dawn Atkinson who is our new branch secretary with Emma French and Eileen Regan as deputy secretaries. We also welcome Lucie Chruszczewski who is our new Press Officer who is replacing Jane Entwistle. Thank you to Jane for all of her hard work over the years and we welcome her now as our new Discipline Rep. within Northumbria University. We also created new positions to ensure that we are open to everyone: Steph Mathison is now our Student Rep. Officer, Steve Rawlinson is now our National Primary GA Link and Education Dept. Rep. within Northumbria University, Michael Found is our Secodnary Education Rep. for Sunderland University, Richard Kotter is the Committee's Access to Higher Education and finally our link to North Tyneside is Emma French. Welcome to everyone and I hope we will all enjoy working together and promoting the wonderful subject of geography to everyone in the north east!"

Positions that were voted to remain are Lisa Conlan as Chairperson and Cath White as Treasurer.

Many thanks to everyone who has supported us over the last few years. Read the full Chairperson's Report here:

Past Event Report

Human Health at Risk: The Case of Cholera in Peru and Bangladesh
Lecture by Ross Edgeworth

Here are two PowerPoints that accompanied the lecture:

<<< back to Branch list