Alan Parkinson
Teacher, Geographer, and Writer in England, United Kingdom
Alan Parkinson
Teacher, Geographer, and Writer in England, United Kingdom
Head of Geography: King's Ely (Junior)
Past President of the Geographical Association 2022-23
30 years teaching mostly Geography (plus ICT related subjects). Worked as Geographical Association Secondary Curriculum Leader 2008-11. Involved in over 500 CPD sessions in the UK & Europe since 2008, & wrote the GA's Webwatch column for 14 years. My Living Geography blog has had over 6 million page views, alongside other blogs & websites.
Since 2011, I've worked as a freelance author & geography consultant, completing work for Google, RGS-IBG, BBC Bitesize, Collins, EDINA, Ordnance Survey, Follow the Things, ESRI UK, IB, British Red Cross, Costa, TUI, Exeter Uni, South Georgia Heritage Trust & many others. I've written books for Badger, CUP, Hodder & GA, & children's books for Collins. I worked for the Open University's VITAL service for 18 months & have been involved in numerous ERASMUS+ projects including GeoCapabilities. Part of the Geographysouthwest team.
I'm a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Chartered Geographer (Teacher), GA Primary Geography Champion & consultant to the GA. Expert trainer for GA/ASE CTfA project. In 2013, I received the Tivy Education Medal & Hon. Fellowship from the RSGS. Co-founder of the Geography Collective, creators of Mission:Explore - we've worked with National Geographic Education, RSPB, John Muir Trust, INTEL, Thames Water, Do it Kits etc. Mission:Explore was Hay Festival / National Trust Outdoors Book of the Year 2011, runner-up in Educational Writers' Award, & shortlisted for Innovation award in LotC 2012 & 2014.
While teaching, I received the RGS-IBG OS Award for 'excellence in secondary geography teaching'. Four writing projects have won GA Silver awards. 'Fieldwork through Enquiry', co-written with John Widdowson won the SAGT Book Award in 2013. 'Pole of Cold', written for a Felicity Aston expedition won an SAGT non-book award. I've received 5 Innovative Geography Teaching awards from the RGS-IBG.
I've co-written textbooks for OCR GCSE (Hodder), and edited/co-written for AQA 'A' level (CUP). Check out 'Why Study Geography?'
Co-head of Education Outreach UK Polar Network
OS #GetOutside Champion 2018-20
Working on ERASMUS+ GI Pedagogy Projects until 2023.
UCL/IOE Fawcett Fellow for 2022-23 exploring curriculum making.
Always up for further consultancy / writing - please get in touch.