œAnything is geography.

These three words defined the thinking around the geography curriculum when I started teaching in 2004 and, for a while, this seemed hugely exciting. Geography is such a broad discipline that we could “ we were told “ study anything in our classrooms, put anything into our programmes of study, at least until we had to prepare for an exam specification, and we could call it geography.

And so we did.

We would create units on the geography of crime in which pupils would consider how different stakeholders felt about a crime that had taken place and, as a result, develop empathy. Or study the geography of sport and plot the location of Premier League football stadiums and, as a result, relate the subject to pupils™ interests.



They could study the geography of fashion and learn about the deplorable conditions of sweatshops and, as a result, hopefully change their shopping habits. What mattered wasn™t the content but the result of studying it. Read the full article here.

Discover Mark's new book Powerful Geography here.

‹The webinar will take place on Tuesday 16th March 2021, from 16:00-17:15. Register here.

Bob Cox is the award-winning author of the ˜Opening Doors™ series and a frequent speaker at regional, national and even international conferences. He has also supported about 500 schools in-house. Bob has spoken online this term for Babcock Education, Leeds LA and worked with UK schools as well as one in Athens. He is due to present at the Potential Plus Festival, The EdFest and the Osiris World Summit. He is passionately committed to exciting and creative English for all learners, with plenty of challenges!

This free event is very much for teachers wanting to find out more about the ways in which the opening doors principles and strategies for richer English have been supporting schools. This includes of course those already using the ideas in the books! Some schools have been working with us for a long time. The session will include contributions from Bob Cox and a chance to question co-authors of the more recent books Leah Crawford and Verity Jones. A feature of the session will be short presentations from teachers who have used ˜Opening Doors™ in their own specific ways to develop an ambitious English curriculum. Everyone logging on will be entitled to 50% off any of the ˜Opening Doors™ books via a code out. The session will be live and not available afterwards as a recording.

Discover the Opening Doors series here.

‹The CASK poster is a is a framework for self-reflection and recording of skills and knowledge on students™ career journeys. Download the poster here. In addition, we will be sending out A3 versions of the poster with all orders of The Ladder.

Discover The Ladder here.

To take advantage, use the code SPRING30 at checkout.

We have all seen the statistics, that one in five new teachers leave the profession before they have even served two years in the classroom (Weale, 2019). Undoubtedly, teaching is a difficult job but how many of those practitioners may have stayed in the classroom if they had been given the support of a highly skilled mentor? Somebody who was given the time and training to support and nurture them through what can be one of the toughest times of their career. Now more than ever, in an uncertain educational landscape, where early career teachers are often working in isolation and education is rapidly changing, having supportive mentors and experienced colleagues to support can make a huge difference. Read the full article here.

Discover Mentoring in Schools here.

‹Listen to the extract, which begins at 40.03.

Discover The Ladder here.