The Life Geographic: A somewhat self-absorbed personal and professional development blog of an ex-Geography high-school teacher…
In Episode 5 of the podcast, the I visit East Norfolk Sixth Form College in Great Yarmouth, emphasising sustainability as a cultural practice intertwined with education. Principal Dr. Catherine Richards discusses the college's role in the community, addressing local challenges while promoting climate literacy across all subjects, fostering a sense of belonging and optimism.
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman captured the "Hello, World" image of Earth from Orion on April 2, 2026. The image's unique perspective prompts critical thinking about geography, highlighting Earth's scale and human impact. Educators are encouraged to use the photo as a teaching tool, fostering discussions on Earth's condition and visual interpretation.
Evidence, professional reasoning, and how educators can respond to the consultation. A poetry piece with imagery to raise awareness of the absence of climate change in the government's proposed updates to Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE). Playing on how the acroymn sounds like the name 'Casey'. Performed at the Geographical Association 2026 Conference Teachmeet in Sheffield. Watch the performance, absorb the words, read the rationale, and respond to the govenment consultation before 22nd April 2026. And if that deadline has passed, whatever comes of the consultation, we must all pledge to ensure our safeguarding policies are 'climate literate'. This blog article is a narrative version containing recommended consultation responses.
The conversation with Marvee Sambajon, joining me from Lucena City in the Philippines, was joyful from the start. And as the conversation unfolded, what really struck me was the gentleness with which Marvee moves through the world, and the reverence she carries for the places and people who have shaped her.
My Coffee & Geography conversation with Dr. Robin Hayward had a blend of warmth, laughter, ecological insight and something more ineffable, a shared understanding of what it means to be a person shaped by landscapes, identities and the need to belong somewhere. Before I’d even asked about their drink, we had somehow launched into tree‑hugging analytics, bark textures, the personality of beech trees, and coding algorithms to quantify “huggability”!
Every now and again, a Coffee & Geography conversation leaves me feeling as though I’ve been gently lifted out of my familiar mental landscape and placed somewhere new — somewhere where the world is stretched wider, deeper, older. My chat with Omar Regalado Fernández, a Mexican paleobiologist now living in Germany, was exactly that kind of experience. It wasn’t just a conversation about fossils, or science, or identity. It was an excavation — of assumptions, of histories, of the stories science tells about itself. And like all good excavations, it revealed far more than either of us expected.
Reflecting on an exhausting experience responding to the KCSIE 2026 consultation, emphasising the need for safeguarding reform. Key concerns include the treatment of "gender-questioning" students and the omission of climate-related issues.
There’s something quite special about opening a new season of Coffee and Geography with a guest who shifts the way you think about a topic you thought you understood. My conversation with Gadfly Stratton, an environmental researcher based in Ontario, did exactly that. I expected to talk about invasive species, and we certainly did; but what I wasn’t expecting was how effortlessly this would unfold into a deeper reflection on community, identity, belonging, and who gets to participate in science in the first place.
The final part of the "This isn't activism, it's duty of care". Here I propose five 'reasonable responsibilties' of educators regarding climate change and its impact on children. By combining the three reports explored, we recognise children's emotional connections to nature, school systems' contributions to environmental issues, and officially recognised ecological risks. Rather than advocating for heroic actions, I call for acknowledgment of climate-related concerns, careful language, and institutional honesty. The aim is to cultivate climate literacy without placing undue burden on students, grounding responsibilities in shared, reasonable actions rather than individual blame.
Part 4 of the "This isn’t activism, it’s duty of care" series. Recent reports highlight the intersection of climate change, education, and responsibility, specifically the UK government's National Security Assessment on biodiversity loss. This internal document emphasises foreseeable risks to food, water, health, and economic stability. It calls for awareness and preparation rather than prescriptive measures, advocating for ecological risk acknowledgment in education. Thus, climate literacy should focus on safeguarding rather than activism, fostering resilience and understanding amid uncertainty.
Geogramblings 