"Look at it this way"

  A cross-posting from my Geography in/on Film blog. Check it out! A new film called 'Our Land' explores land ownership in the UK and the role of trespass. Free tickets are funded through the BFI Escapes initiative. Our Land dares to tread where few have trespassed before, asking the timely question of who has the right to roam in the English countryside? The UK is a wild and beautiful place, but the vast majority of it is off limits to the general public, with 92% of land and 97% of all rivers in England not legally accessible. At the same time, it is a landscape shaped by centuries of inheritance and tradition, with land held and cared for by families across multiple generations. Our Land takes us to the heart of the ‘Right to Roam’ movement as it embarks on a provocative trail of mass trespass, campaigning and education, while also exploring landowners’ concerns around environmental protection and the danger such widespread access could pose to a landscape already  under th...

One of the nicest programmes on the telly is Gone Fishing with Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer. The latest series has just ended. Each programme features short snippets of music to sit alongside the beautiful close-up, slow motion and drone cinematography. There are Spotify playlists for each episode which can be found by searching. Some of them are curated by people involved in the show, and others by fans of the show.  Some really good music is included and it's always good to hear a snippet of something you like, such as Goldfrapp...

During this term of lock down, Richard Allaway and Matt Podbury have been doing a double act to support the global IB DP community. Think 'Reeves and Mortimer' rather than "Laurel and Hardy'.... Richard's site: Geography all the Way has a fantastic range of materials for teaching a whole range of age groups. Most areas of the site, which has built up over many years, remains free, and the IB area is one of the few areas that is subscription based, but well worth the small amount to gain access - think how much money you're saving by not using glue sticks, photocopier etc. Similarly Matt Podbury has a wonderful site: GeographyPods which is largely free, but has a relatively new IB area which is behind a paywall to help support the development of further new materials for the wider teaching community. Both sites are well worth paying the small subscription fee from departmental budgets. You can watch a repeat of each webinar on this link here.   Yo...

Writer J D Taylor spent four months on a bike a few years ago, travelling around Britain and seeing it in a way that many other travel writers have failed to do. The value of cycling is that you see the world at a slower pace, and are actually in the environments you are travelling through. The author has created a very useful blog to follow the journey, and includes a whole range of additional resources and ideas that underpin the journey including some additional writing. You can follow the journey with images and text from each stage of the journey. The book is fantastic to, and I've just been reading it. A part of this journey was a search for the UK's identity as the Brexit vote approached. This is excellent for older students exploring such ideas as Changing Places , and also the GCSE unit on UK in the 21st Century. There is a New Statesmen article here by the author, which identifies some of the themes in the book, which is certainly political in its nature...

Thanks to Rob Chambers for the link to this fun quiz. Locate that Landmark would be useful for younger students to find well known places, which they could then investigate further. Which of them are: a) natural features b) man-made c) located in National Parks d) World Heritage Sites etc. You could also do it as a competition, as speed is of the essence as well as accuracy. On my first go on my phone I scored 10,750 on Level 1 - can you beat that? Also useful for UK Geography introduction - UK is important in GCSE Geography under the new specifications. Those taking the UK Citizenship test also need to be aware of many of these places too.