Ethical Fashion Report

 

Baptist World Aid's Ethical Fashion report is an annual event, and the report for 2022 has been released recently.

The full report would usefully sit alongside other materials linked with the teaching of the impacts of fashion, alongside Dana Thomas' excellent book perhaps and the resources created by Fashion Revolution.

Here are the criteria they used for their scores - always important to know how any index is calculated.

Download it from here.

Alford Gardner's Windrush story

 

We shared the story of Alford earlier in the week in our Windrush75 discussions with Year 7. Later that day, he appeared as one of the subjects of the BBC portraits of Windrush, and will be on display in the National Portrait Gallery later in the year.

We are delighted to announce that portraits of the Windrush Generation commissioned by His Majesty King Charles III will go on display in the Gallery from October. pic.twitter.com/UwcoCx7QyT

— National Portrait Gallery (@NPGLondon) June 22, 2023

 The book that Alford and his son wrote about his life is also published now and available to buy.

Refugee Misconception Study from Gapminder

We start Year 8 by looking at the work of Gapminder and their misconception tests. 

There is now a new one for our students to complete.

Most people overestimate how many refugees flee to the richest countries! We discovered this misconception and many more in our new Refugee Misconception Study.
See all of the findings here: https://t.co/a6CM5VgQvK pic.twitter.com/rJNT9MQPma

— Gapminder (@Gapminder) June 21, 2023

Gapminder has released a report which is available to download, and explores the misconceptions that people have about migration and refugees.

As it says on the site:

Refugees are often in the news. The best ways to help them, where they should be housed and how much money to spend assisting them are fought over by politicians, the public and in the media. In our Refugee Misconception Study 2023, we discovered that – regardless of people’s opinions – they were almost equally wrong about the facts.

We asked nine fact questions in seven different countries. The average number of questions each person answered correctly across those countries was 2.1. That is worse than random!

I like the fact that as well as monkeys they also now compare people's score with chatbots...

Time to update my knowledge again...

Windrush Day 2023

We will be revisiting the work we did earlier in the academic year today with those groups who have a Year 7 lesson.

Windrush Day marks the day that the original migrants disembarked from the ship and changed the history of Britain.

Local newspapers have been sharing many stories of migrants for some days, and local news has also had some good coverage, which is pleasing to see.

I have a growing library of books on this and related topics, including the book by Floella Benjamin.

There have also been some recent interesting new additions:

- The Royal Mint has launched some new coins, desgined by Valda Johnson. 

- The Royal Mail has also got in on the action with some lovely stamps.

There are 8 stamps featuring related scenes and I have ordered a set, along with postcards.

Further stories of the callous government decisions affecting the Windrush Generation are emerging.

RMetS Heatwaves Scheme

The Royal Meteorological Society has been working with the Young People's Trust for the Environment on a new 4 lesson scheme of work about Heatwaves. This is timely given the first amber alert which has been announced for the southern half of the UK this coming weekend and into next week.

Heatwaves are now being graded on a four point scale. This is part of the Heat Health Alert Service.

Details are here.

All of the materials are available to download from the RMetS website

This package of lesson plans consists of 4 lessons:

Lesson 1: What are heatwaves?
Lesson 2: Why are heatwaves dangerous?
Lesson 3: How can schools prepare for a heatwave?
Lesson 4: What is your school like during a heatwave and how could it be improved?

By the end, students should be able to show which places in the school are most affected by extreme heat, understand what measures could be put in place to reduce the impact of extreme heat and be able to present their learning and research.

The lessons have been designed to support learners in Key Stage 2 (or equivalent) with understanding more about heatwaves, the reasons why we are likely to face more of them in the future and some steps that schools can take to protect young people during these events. 

The lessons can be adapted to suit other age groups by modifying the information given in the linked notes.

New Polar maps from the British Antarctic Survey

The Arctic and Antarctic are changing so rapidly that the maps need updating regularly. This work is completed by the British Antarctic Survey. I have one of their maps for my department, but perhaps need the latest now to replace it (or for comparison).

Today our cartographers released new Antarctic and Arctic maps - with lots of changes to these fast changing and fragile places:

🧊 ice sheet loss
🌊 new sea ice data
📌 using indigenous town names in the Canadian Arctic#WorldOceansDay #climatechangehttps://t.co/GNfe2F5BEF

— British Antarctic Survey 🐧 (@BAS_News) June 8, 2023

The BAS have just released some new maps.

News here.

Had their chips?

We have been covering some of the reasons for the current food inflation which is causing real concerns for many of the poorest in society, as food prices are rising well above the rate of what is already a high rate of inflation...

In a recent issue of the Guardian there was a piece on the growing price rises facing consumers and business owners, and the impact of potato prices in particular (on this occasion).

Open Farm Sunday

For King's Ely Geographers this is your annual chance to see some of the place where your food is grown as farms open their gates and welcome visitors.

There are some local farms doing this, including some particularly large farms which are important local employers.

Two weeks until the big day! 👏🥳

LEAF Open Farm Sunday, 11th June 2023 - don't miss out on the opportunity to visit a farm and hear first hand from a farmer about where your food is produced, what they are doing to look after the environment & more! 👇👇https://t.co/JZpwphs1t1 pic.twitter.com/NQb1jeqpsv

— LEAFOpenFarmSunday (@OpenFarmSunday) May 28, 2023

Fawcett Fellowship Research Questionnaire - your help requested

I'm proud to have been a UCL-IOE Fawcett Fellow for this academic year, working with others to explore curriculum thinking and epistemic quality in the curriculum.

In 1987 Edith Fawcett endowed annual Fellowships in the Department of Geography at UCL in memory of her father, Professor C B Fawcett, who was head of the department between 1928 and 1949. The Fellowships were originally designed to enable UK-based teachers and other professional geographers in mid-career to spend a sabbatical term studying at UCL. The teaching Fellows continued to be paid their full salary and the scheme funded replacement geography teaching. This has now been opened up to a second model, where regular meetings are held across a year. 

This year's group of fellows has had regular meetings at UCL, and discussions about curriculum, curriculum making and the influences which shape our professional practice. We have been discussing our decisions over what to teach, how to sequence it, and how to assess it. We have been using a number of books for inspiration, which have included the excellent David Gardner book published by the GA and others, including Alex Standish. We are drawn from different stages of our careers and different school contexts. It's been fascinating to learn from the other fellows, and I have a bulging notebook of notes and documents. We also have an input from Dr. Alex Standish during each session, and are also encouraged to follow up the Fellowship by applying for Masters level study.

We are now reaching the final stage of the year, and writing up our research and thinking. I've now got ethics clearance to launch the questionnaire which will inform the final part of my work and writing. The questionnaire is linked to and also embedded below.

This questionnaire is aimed at teachers who teach GEOGRAPHY, and refers to these lessons specifically. You don't have to be a full time Geography teacher to get involved. All responses are anonymous and may be referenced in a chapter for a forthcoming publication on curriculum thinking in geography. 

The aim of my Fawcett Fellowship is to research the impact of "everyday geographies" and how these are unpicked and taught by individual schools. My GA Presidential theme for 2021-22 was Everyday Geographies, and an exploration of the quotidian. 

As significant local / national / global news stories and related content (such as images and videos on social media accounts) appear, I'm keen to discover  how  you, as geography  teachers, react  to them and make time for them. 

This is particularly aimed at KS3 Geography teachers, but KS2 teachers would also be welcome to respond.

At  what point might these news stories prove weighty enough to displace other content in your curriculum and earn a place in your curriculum for the next few years, and what thought is given to the longevity of these stories placed against topics which form a stronger foundation for GCSE courses as they appear in the specification?  How are these stories combined with existing curriculum content, or used to displace previous case studies? Is thought given to how this might create an imbalance in the parts of the world covered, or the extent to which this reinforces partial views of the world?

Is there a tendency for these topics to skew curriculum offerings away from ‘physical geography’ or what might be considered important disciplinary knowledge because of their nature? Are more news stories likely to be what might be termed 'human' or 'environmental geography'?

I'd be interested in your thoughts on the questions below. 

Please provide as much detail as you are happy to provide.

You can fill in the survey on the embedded form below, or by clicking this link.

I am very grateful for any and all contributions.

If you want to let me know more thoughts, feel free to add a comment on the blogpost below, or DM me on Twitter: @GeoBlogs.

Thanks to SLT at King's Ely for supporting my application and enabling my involvement.

The application process for next year's Fawcett Fellowship will be open shortly, and I shall let you know all the details as soon as they are available.

Life on the Edge

With Year 7, we are currently exploring coastal processes and how they remove material from the coast, with the aid of videos from the Time for Geography folks.

New on iPlayer as of a few minutes ago is this 27 minute documentary on events at Hemsby on the Norfolk coast.

Worth a watch.

The residents of Hemsby don't want to leave, but their houses are on the edge of a cliff. This is their story of surving one of the most dramatic cases of UK coastal erosion.

YGOTY 2023

A powerpoint I created to help guide students in putting together their entries for this year's title: 'Blueprint for the Future'

IFRC Disasters Report 2022

This is produced annually by the International Federation of Red Cross organisations.

The report for 2022 rightly discusses the legacy of COVID19.

We celebrated the Coronation of the King in school yesterday, including a service in the Cathedral.

King Charles III is not just King in the UK but in other countries too... including Canada.

There was a map printed in The Guardian yesterday showing the various countries and terrirories where he will be Head of State.

To celebrate the coronation of King Charles III, we're releasing new resources that include lesson plans, articles, infographics, and a #StoryMap, covering topics such as sustainability, environmental conservation, and treaties with #IndigenousPeoples: https://t.co/UU7JWYtR7t pic.twitter.com/tYCRguwYv8

— Canadian Geographic Education (@CanGeoEdu) May 6, 2023

The Canadian Geographic Education website now contains a whole range of new resources which reference the work of King Charles III on the environment over the years.

Wildflowers for Primary Schools for the King's Coronation

 I've set up a Google Alert for the term 'GCSE Natural History' and it sent me to a recent post from the Department for Education.

They are going to be sending Wildlfower Seeds to Primary Schools around the country.

According to the blog post:

This initiative is inspired by His Majesty the King’s commitment to the environment. Working with the Eden Project’s National Wildflower Centre, over 200,000 seeds packets will be sent to schools.

If planted together, around 40 rugby pitch sized wildflowers meadows would be created. The packets of seeds include native annual wildflower species, like cornflower, corn poppy and corn chamomile.

Planting the seeds will be an opportunity for children to engage with the natural world and learn more about the importance of biodiversity, as well as being a way for them to celebrate a historic national moment.

The Eden Project has produced some educational resources, and guidance on planting the seeds.

There is also a link to the new GCSE in Natural History which I am preparing resources for, and have a dedicated blog.

You can also join over 750 other teachers on our GCSE Natural History Facebook page.

As the post says:

We’re also developing a new Natural History GCSE which will enable young people to explore the world by learning about environmental and sustainability issues, and gain a deeper knowledge of the natural world around them.

UK Food Security

We have spent some time as before this year exploring geographies of food.

Check out the latest warnings of salad shortages in The Guardian.