The Life Geographic: A somewhat self-absorbed personal and professional development blog of an ex-Geography high-school teacher…
My #CoffeeGeogPod chat with Dr Claire Brown highlighted the importance of adapting UK housing for climate change, focusing on thermal comfort during heat waves. We discuss social issues such as the insulation and shading choices available to private homeowners versus social housing tenants. Retrofitting existing homes and incorporating solar shading into building regulations are pivotal for future-proofing structures and ensuring health and safety.
My first RGS-IBG Annual International Conference took me from Fenland weather heritage and flood resilience to cyborgs, climate humour and the geographies of outer space, while raising new questions about inequality, knowledge and what it means to create more just places.
When millions of phones sounded with a wildfire Emergency Alert last month, concern was not hysteria. My latest article for East Anglia Bylines explores why children's climate concerns cannot simply be blamed on schools, parents or social media, and how events such as the Dunwich Heath wildfire shape young people's understanding of climate risk through lived experience.
A reflection on the devastating Nepal-Tibet floods, the emerging evidence of an ice-and-rock avalanche, and the difficulty of discussing climate change before formal attribution is possible. Alistair and I also consider why some disasters remain visible while others are forgotten, and how teachers can keep human experience at the centre of hazards education.
Talking to Amy Imhoff meant bringing together several of my favourite things: space, geography, Star Trek, science communication, feminist media, public engagement, and the kind of wonderfully nerdy conversation where you begin with astronomy and somehow end up at Taylor Swift, dark skies, comet juice and Captain Janeway.
In this episode of the Coffee & Geography Podcast, I discuss geographical identity and social justice with Dr. Cyrus Golding, a Senior Teaching Fellow. They explore the impact of place on personal experiences, the redefinition of natural disasters, and the significance of student voices in geography through the journal Routes. The conversation emphasised geography's role in revealing inequalities and connections in society.
A new Natural History GCSE qualification for high school students in England could be more than another exam about nature. Here’s why I’m advocating for fieldwork, notebooks, inclusive access, climate literacy as safeguarding, and school climate action plans at the heart of the new qualification.
A personal reflection on GroundEd, a two-day regenerative education gathering at the Homestead in Northumberland. This post explores what happened when CPD moved outside, slowed down, made space for nature connection, climate action, teacher wellbeing, community, music, humour, and the messy but necessary work of imagining education differently.
Despite best efforts, England's new Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance does not name climate change. But a climate-literate Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) can still notice when climate is changing the safeguarding context. This article comes with a free KCSIE 2026-aligned INSET resource for schools: slides, DSL guidance and staff handout.
What a debate about schools and heat reveals about climate, resilience, safeguarding and adaptation - and why geography helps us move beyond the soundbite.