Cultural Geography Blog

“We had pierced the veneer of outside things. We had “suffered, starved, and triumphed, groveled down yet grasped at glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole.” We had seen God in his splendors, heard the text that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man.” Sir Ernest Shackleton Today is the 105th anniversary of the day that Sir Ernest, along with Tom Crean and Frank Worsley arrived at the whaling station at Stromness on South Georgia, following the boat trip from Elephant Island and the crossing of thae mountains and glaciers of South Georgia itself...

 It's the anniversary of the release of this - I believe the phrase is 'absolute banger'.... I saw the tour that accompanied this album when it was first released - I saw a couple of the concerts, with the swooping lights and amazing musicians that Peter took on the road with this album. A powerful experience, ending with arm raised for 'Biko'. Twenty five years later, I was in Glasgow at the Hydro to see the return of the album played in full with the same musicians. I wonder whether the music of today will have the same longevity with students of today. Will they have the same lengthy connections with music as we had, with reduced access and different formats to access it. Second image copyright: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license

Today is the 68th birthday of Mike Oldfield.  A constant in my life since 1973 when I first heard 'Tubular Bells'. Spinning my favourite of his albums 'Ommadawn' and probably more to come. Read about its creation here. Image copyright: David Bailey.

As this piece in the TES reports, OFQUAL are proposing to remove the mandatory requirement for fieldwork for geography and related subjects. We have just started doing fieldwork again at my school, with trips to Cambridge and the Norfolk Coast carried out, or taking place last week and this week. If you have an opinion on this, OFQUAL are running a consultation on the issue, which started yesterday and runs through to the 28th of May. As the consultation page says: This consultation focuses on the subjects for which preparation and work for non-exam assessment and fieldwork activities will be taking place this term for students who will be taking their exams in 2022. It covers non-exam assessments in dance, design and technology, drama (and theatre), film studies, food preparation and nutrition, media studies, music, music technology, and physical education fieldwork activities in geography, geology and environmental science assessment of speaking skills in GCSE modern foreign language...