Geographical Association

Every year at our Annual Conference, we hold a GA Awards ceremony to recognise the achievements of individuals, schools and publishers during the previous year. This year's GA Awards were presented at the GA Annual Conference in Derby on 8 April 2010.

This award is presented to a person who has made a significant contribution to the GA's work over the last 12 months.

This year's award goes to Paula Cooper for her inspiring work as a geography teacher in a West Midlands secondary school. She guided her department's application to become a Secondary Quality Mark 'Centre of Excellence' and shared her good practice in the role of Regional Subject Advisor in the CfBT New Secondary Curriculum project. Paula's innovative approach to teaching global issues can be seen in her contribution to the 'Making Geography Happen' project and in the new GA GCSE Toolkit book, For Richer and Poorer? A study of uneven development. The Association and the geography community as a whole owes Paula a considerable debt of gratitude for her energy, enthusiasm
and commitment. Very many thanks and congratulations Paula.

This award is made to a GA member who has made an outstanding contribution to the work of the Association in furthering the learning and teaching of geography.

This year's award goes to Paul Baker for many years of dedicated service to the GA in the role of Independent Schools Working Group Chair and more recently as Membership Promotions Officer. As well as being a leading light in independent schools' networks, he has worked tirelessly to promote geography and the GA across all sectors, particularly through the establishment of regional cluster groups which offer support and training to local teachers. Paul successfully relaunched the Oxford Branch in 2006, and has worked hard to make it one of the most active of the GA's local branches. Last year Paul was appointed as a Primary Geography Champion, enabling him to extend his work in the Oxfordshire area. He has also served on the GA Education Committee, presented numerous Conference workshops and is a registered GA Consultant. Very many thanks Paul for your enthusiasm, dedication and hard work.

Presented to Keith Orrell and Tony Thomas for outstanding service to the GA by making significant contributions through membership of, and contribution to the work of, its committees or sub-groups.

This award is presented to those articles in each of our three journals (Geography, Teaching Geography and Primary Geographer) which have made the greatest contribution to the development of good practice, as decided by a poll on the GA website.

This year's winners are:

Gold Award Winners

The GA Awards are given for materials associated with geography in schools and colleges which are considered to make a significant contribution to geographical education and professional development.

This year's awards go to:

Living Geography
Edited by David Mitchell
Chris Kington Publishing, 2009

Coastal Conflicts: A Geographical Enquiry
along the Jurassic Coast
David Weatherly and Anjana Ford
Devon Learning and Development Partnership, 2009

Discovering the Arctic
RGS-IBG, 2009
Website

GCSE Geography OCR A Students' Book
John Widdowson (Editor), Justin Woolliscroft (Editorial Advisor), Caroline Cole, Emma Cook, Stephen Kaczmarczyk, Alan Kinder, Nicole Lyons
Oxford University Press, 2009

Rainforests iPoster
Catherine Slade
BBC Active, 2009

Climate Through Time – our rocks reveal the story of change
Elaine Johnston, David Bailey, Alan Smith, Mark Cooper, Brian McConnell
British Geological Survey, 2009

Frederick Soddy Trust
GA Frederick Soddy Awards Page

The Frederick Soddy Trust wishes to encourage students' interest in field study by providing financial support. Schools often find it difficult to compete successfully for funds from the main grant-making bodies or to allocate their own financial resources to field studies. The Trust hopes to encourage field studies by providing support specifically for such work.

This year five schools have won Frederick Soddy Awards:

• Aston Manor School, Birmingham
• Aston Comprehensive School, Sheffield
• Bristol Grammar School, Bristol
• St Louis Catholic Middle School, Bury St Edmunds
• Wakefield City High School, Wakefield

Last year the Frederick Soddy Trust launched the 'Go the Extra Mile' competition in conjunction with the Geographical Association as part of its mission to encourage field studies in schools.

Pupils were asked to make a journey of one mile in any direction from the school, looking at people, places and spaces on the way, then record their impressions on an A3 sheet.

Congratulations to pupils from the following schools who won the competition:

• Years 3 & 4: Perton First School
• Years 5 & 6: All Saints CE Primary School

The Primary and Secondary Quality Marks recognise quality and progress in geography leadership, curriculum development, teaching and learning. With 92 schools winning Awards in 2009-10, we are unable to list them all here, but full details are available on the Primary and Secondary Quality Mark pages.