"Look at it this way"

A lovely short film...

This is a very useful report from the Friends of the Lake District It's a really clear piece of research by Dr. Davina Stanford on the costs and benefits of tourism in the Lake District with some case studies from other locations on how they raise money for sustainable tourism and to pay for some of the additional requirements. One option is a Tourist tax expansion. What is the tax spent on? If you have travelled to a European city recently, you will be familiar with the idea of paying a few extra Euros on top of the price of your room. I think I may try to do something with this for our Year 8 unit exploring tourism as it's a lovely area for young people to learn about. Who Pays for the Lake District? Tourism is a vital part of the #LakeDistrict economy – but it comes at a cost. It’s time to talk about the problems and the solutions. Read our report here: https://t.co/1IYKJxZmly #WhoPays pic.twitter.com/liwxF8Pok7 — Friends of the Lake District (@FriendsofLakes) November 20...

As National Parks turn 75, a new report highlights only 6% of their land is recorded as being in good health for nature - with the Yorkshire Dales having less tree cover than York and waterways across these special places heavily polluted by sewage released from storm overflows. pic.twitter.com/efHAHoGqdj — Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) April 9, 2024 Biodiversity: just 6% of national park land in England and Wales is being managed effectively for nature, say campaigners. https://t.co/tZ620wBL99 — Brian Groom (@GroomB) April 9, 2024 Here's one of my images of the Peak District... near Strines Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license on Flickr.

  The new film from Daniel Raven Ellison, with voice over from Cerys Matthews. Premiere was last night, followed by a panel discussion on the future of the UK's National Parks. Watch the film below: UK National Parks in 100 Seconds - Preview from Dan Raven-Ellison on Vimeo . "What do the UK's National Parks really look like? To see what these landscapes are made-up of, let's go on a walk. Each second of the walk reveals 1% of our National Parks and how they appear from above. Are you ready for the UK's National Parks in 100 seconds" Filmed from above and spoken by Cerys Matthews, this short film will likely change how you think about our National Parks forever. What could we do to make the most of our National Parks? What do you think? #UKNationalParksIn100Seconds

An excellent Ordnance Survey Blog post which says a lot of nice things about the Mission:Explore National Parks book. It also features a short video with Steve Backshall. The book is now available to buy from online or National Park shops, and is a perfect accompaniment to your summer explorations of landscapes. The Mission:Explore team compiled the book after putting a huge selection of challenges to the vote by schoolchildren, with the favourites selected to be published . It’s the seventh book the Mission:Explore team have released, since winning the Geovation Challenge in 2010, when they wowed the team with their exciting ideas using geography. If you haven’t come across them before, the project encourages people, and especially children, to see, explore and act in new ways. Mission:Explore founders saw the subject of geography being marginalised, and in schools and neighbourhoods children’s physical geographies being reduced due to risk aversion. And they wanted to cha...

Out soon in English and Welsh, the latest of our Explorer HQ books under the Mission:Explore name. This is Mission:Explore National Parks , and involves the usual shenanigans of creative ideas for kids of all ages. The books will be available for £5 from all National Park shops in England, Scotland and Wales. Here's a pile fresh back from the printers. As always it's been wrangled by myself, Dan Raven Ellison and Mark Pearce, and shaped by Helen Steer , who skilfully blended all of our words with some inkings from the mighty  Tom Morgan Jones. Very proud to have been involved with this, and we also have two other projects which are freshly brewed and about to launch. Will tell all when I'm allowed to… Watch this space for plenty more exciting Explorer HQ news soon….

This time last week I was in Snowdonia. ... exploring river valleys and glaciated upland landscapes... landscapes in action.

A nice piece by Dan Raven Ellison on his blog. We have plenty of rural  national parks, so why not an urban one ? One to discuss with students perhaps. What if London were a National Park

That's the (difficult) question on this BBC page. Here were the standings at the time when I cast my vote...

I worked on a range of projects for the Royal Geographical Society a few months back, and the final pieces of the project that I contributed have now gone live on the RGS website. They were part of the Goldsmith's funded FROM THE FIELD project. The latest module which I contributed was for the KS4 series, and is on the theme of MOORLAND ECOLOGY . It explores the process of moorland regeneration, and its link with the ecology that is needed to make the regrowth productive. It's worth remembering that all the resources from the Geography Teaching Today website have now been migrated to either the RGS or the GA websites, depending on which organisation was responsible for producing the original content. If you're after the excellent KS3 RESOURCES they are available here on the RGS website. If you're after the FIELDWORK resources they're here on the RGS website. Thanks to Rose Wilcox , PhD researcher from the University of Hull for her guidance an...

Spending a few days barn & dog-sitting in a rather fine barn in the Dartmoor National Park . It's stocked with shelves full of books, WiFi for Spotify and a wine cellar... So it's got pretty much all I need. One of the books is Ian Mercer's 'Dartmoor' , which is published as part of the Collins New Naturalist Library with a lovely cover by Robert Gillmor. I liked the description of Ian Mercer as "a geographer and naturalist at heart, never happier than when revealing the secrets of a landscape". The author's foreword begins: "This book is about my perception of a landscape, and what knowledge is needed as a foundation to that perception..." which is an interesting statement, as it links with some of the ideas in the GA's current  CURRICULUM consultation. He goes on to say "the attraction of true local geography is that it depends upon the wielding of a broad brush much of the time, but allows the display of intricate det...

"A landscape is the function of structure, process and time" W. M. Davis, 1884

All schools that lie within the newly designated South Downs National Park will soon receive an education pack which was put together by the Geographical Association . It features a range of activities to explore the geography of the National Park, and the idea of landscape as a palimpsest ... It matches nicely with some of the ideas in my KS3 Toolkit: "Look at it this Way" , which is available from the GA's online shop . The pack will also be available to download from the South Downs website from Monday 16th of May....

One of the chapters that failed to make the "final cut" in the toolkit book was on the theme of Snowdon and the construction of the cafe at the summit. The mountain has been in the news this week due to some work that has been carried out on one of the main tracks to the summit: the Miner's Track . The Daily Mail had a slightly different angle on the story... Another piece from Janet Street Porter could be used as a way of enquiring into changes in the landscape. "Snowdon is being tamed and turned into a Welsh version of Disney Land" I also had a Facebook message from colleague Tony Cassidy earlier in the week to say that he was standing on the summit... Why not take some of the quotes from the article and debate whether the paths should be improved. What is to be gained and lost from this activity ? ' Snowdon is a mountain not a theme park for children. It defies common sense. Next they'll be wanting to put a lift up Everest or filling in the Grand ...

The South Downs was designated as a national park yesterday, as I blogged about at the time. Having investigated the blog a little further, I've come across a resource that would be useful for those teaching about LANDSCAPE . Here is how the project is described on the website: ‘Landshapers’ is an oral history project which tells the story of the South Downs through the people who live and work there. A joint undertaking between the South Downs Joint Committee, Natural England and Hampshire County Council, the six audio visual files help explain how this landscape has been, and continues to be, shaped by man. These stories cover a wide range of themes intrinsically linked to the unique landscape we see today, all presented by a variety of local experts and accompanied by evocative and inspiring images of the South Downs. These are impassioned and personal accounts by the narrators based on their own background and experience. The audio files can also be downloaded onto mp3 players ...

The South Downs was officially designated as a National Park yesterday... Check out the LEARNING ZONE with Nibbles the Sheep.... A useful section on PROTECTING THE LANDSCAPE . It includes the very useful LANDSHAPERS audio resource which I shall investigate in more detail and blog about later.....

Images of Castleton area by Alan Parkinson and Simon Hathaway Lesson 3 of my toolkit looks at the impact of a road closure on a settlement. It is based on the closure of the road below Mam Tor near the Peak District settlement of Castleton. At a session in Gloucester yesterday, I talked about the connection with the settlements in Cumbria which have been affected by the closure of bridges following the unprecedented rainfall in the area over the weekend. There is lots of potential here for exploring the impact of sudden change, and the long term nature of that change... I have uploaded an old resource of mine which I developed for use around the same time, but which didn't make it into the toolkit. This is a "most likely to" activity based in the same area of Castleton in the Peak District. I used this extract numerous times throughout my teaching career, and it found its way into many a textbook and mapskills task... Castleton Most Likely To View more presentations fro...

A current consultation is going on with Natural England , over a document / strategy relating to ' FUTURE LANDSCAPES '. Plenty of geography here, and a good excuse to explore how our landscapes are changing... One change for the future was made today, when the SOUTH DOWNS was finally granted NATIONAL PARK status after decades of waiting. Those lesson plans and worksheets which ask how many National Parks there are will all have to be changed now ;)