Back to School

Excitement is building now, as the final weekend of a long summer holiday draws to a close.
I've been in school the last 3 days getting N2 (and myself) ready for the return.

I'm teaching Year 7 and Year 8 this year, and also have my Year 8 form in Queen Phillippa house.

We have a whole set of new exercise books ready for your excellent and creative work, new sets of Atlases, plenty of new equipment, and a load of new lessons and resources ready to use.
The new KS3 National Curriculum means that we are going to be having a bigger emphasis on the UK and on 'thinking like a Geographer' even more...

The year will start off with the traditional Ely Cathedral service, and the real start of term will come as the choristers sing and the whole school community comes back together again to set off on a new journey...

Follow the various stories that emerge here.

A new resource I wrote on Mapping London

There is a new area of the updated RGS-IBG website which you may not have seen.
It is a project called Rediscovering London's Geography.

One outcome of the project has been the creation of teaching resources, with more to come.

The first two are now up on the website, and both would be useful to those teaching the new KS3 for the first time.

The first is a resource exploring Ice Ages and Geological Timescales, which has been written by Dr. David Anderson: Head of Geography at Eton College.

The second one is called Mapping London, and took me the first two weeks of my summer holidays to write and put together. There are 6 sessions which can be followed with KS3 students.

Thanks to the various colleagues who are mentioned along the way in the unit for their ideas which were adapted and used in various elements of the unit.
The ideas could be adapted for other cities too...

Study Day at the RGS

Heading down to London in December with the 6th form students for a study day at the RGS-IBG. Will be good to see Simon Oakes in action.
Always good to hear other people talking about their areas of expertise.

Keep an eye out for similar events by visiting the RGS page.

The Ice Man

Matt Podbury and Russel Tarr are putting together a geography / history unit based on my children's book 'The Ice Man', which was published in 2012, for the lucky students at the International School of Toulouse.

It's great to see what they're creating, and you can head over to Geography Pods to see the geography related elements of the unit, along with some supporting resources.

Thanks guys !

The book is still available to purchase of course...

And King's Ely students will be looking at this book too, later in the year.

GCSE results

Following the excellent 'A' level results last week, it was wonderful to read of the excellent GCSE performances too, with so many top results in all subjects. Well done to everyone involved!

One of the projects I'm involved in during the year ahead is the writing of a GCSE textbook, which will be for the GCSE specification that is taught at King's currently. You may well get the chance to have a sneak preview of some of the contents as it is written.

Also good to see over 1000 views of the blog during the summer.
King's staff are back to work after the Bank Holiday to prepare for the first day of term on the 1st of September.
You can follow the 2nd year back in the classroom right here...
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'A' level results...

Great to read of King's Ely students doing so well in their 'A' levels - results were out today... Next week sees the GCSE Geography results too...
Those in KEJ will be standing outside the Old Palace with their result slips before they know it :)

Summer post 8: Antarctic base loses power

Imagine if you were living in a remote part of Antarctica, with sub-zero temperatures outside and no hope of rescue, and the power suddenly goes off...
This happened a few days ago at the new Halley base in Antarctica, as described in this BBC report.