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20 February 2026
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The GA Conference is a three-day annual event that includes a range of lectures, workshops, research papers, field visits and networking events, as well as the annual GA awards ceremony and Public Lecture.
This year Conference will be taking place on 8-10 April 2026 at Sheffield College, City Campus. We have asked our GA President and some of our Keynote Speakers to give us a sneak peek into their sessions!
Catherine Owen – Presidential lecture: Geography makes a difference
I’m Catherine Owen, GA President 2025-26 and teacher of secondary geography for over 30 years. Having attended GA conferences almost every year since 2006, it is hard to believe that I have the privilege of leading this year’s Conference and choosing the theme of ‘geography makes a difference’.
The highlight of past Conferences for me has to be hosting international guests who have been successful in applying to GAIF for funding to visit. I have thoroughly enjoyed the company of guests from countries including Dominica, Palestine, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Nepal and more and I am delighted that we will have a guest from St Kitts and Nevis joining us this year.
A Conference session which particularly sticks in my mind was by the wonderful educationist and rapper Silas Zephania, who encouraged us to write raps to explore geographical language, leading to some stunning performances!
I hope that my theme will really get delegates thinking about how geography makes a difference through developing green skills, supporting disadvantaged students in being more confident in engaging with the world and in providing a safe space to talk about concerns about our uncertain future in the face of issues such as conflict and climate change. I would love to see you at our Conference – please say hello and have a chat!
This Presidential Lecture will take place on Thursday 9 April at 5.30pm.
Written by Catherine Owen, GA President 2025-26
Vicki Pountney – Rex Walford Memorial Lecture: Reimagining geography: creative and critical thinking for a changing world
1998 – Leeds: I attended my very first GA conference as a PGCE student. At the time, I remember being a little overwhelmed by the scale of the Conference yet left feeling utterly inspired by such knowledgeable and passionate members of the geography community.
28 year later – Sheffield: I was asked by Catherine Owen, GA President, to take the Rex Walford Memorial lecture, aimed primarily at the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and Early Career Teacher communities. As a teacher educator, I was thrilled to be asked to take the memorial lecture, in the city I now work in. For those of you who are unsure of who Rex Walford was, his contribution to geography teaching and ITE was significant – you can find out more about Rex Walford here, part of Alan Parkinson’s excellent Presidents blog.
I now have the privilege of working with student teachers across the primary and secondary phases at Sheffield Hallam University. In this role, I try to make a small contribution to the way beginning teachers think about geography teaching and how they might choose to enact the geography curriculum with purpose and passion in their own classrooms. My hope is something we consider sticks and this helps beginning teachers to develop into pragmatic, principled and inspiring geography teachers and curriculum thinkers.
We are now at an important crossroads. In a time of curriculum change, we are told the Curriculum and Assessment Review will bring ‘evolution’ rather than ‘revolution’ – I am not sure this will suffice. In an increasingly interconnected and rapidly changing world, where democracy is under attack and misinformation and disinformation are on the rise, I will argue in my lecture that the geography community must look to interpret the new curriculum framework from a different perspective.
Re-exploring ‘how’ the new curriculum might be taught and reflect on the importance of embedding creative and critical thinking into lessons – given we are living in an increasingly uncertain time in our rapidly changing world. Is now the time to re-evaluate how we might teach the new curriculum?
Join me in the Rex Walford Memorial lecture to consider how we might interpret the future curriculum, consider how teacher choices and pupil experiences might come together to help pupils develop the disciplinary knowledge, critical and creative thinking skills I believe pupils require to become knowledgeable and empowered citizens in a changing world.
This Rex Walford Memorial Lecture will take place on Thursday 9 April at 10.00am.
Written by Vicki Pountney, Senior Lecturer in Education
PGCE Secondary Geography Subject Leader, Primary Geography Subject Lead. Chair, Teacher Education Phase Committee, Geographical Association
Ilan Kelman – Keynote Lecture: Disaster by choice: Geography making a positive difference
Sometimes a hurricane or earthquake kills thousands and sometimes a far more powerful tempest or shaking has limited human impact. This difference is not from nature, but from how society treats people and constructs infrastructure. These long-term processes include education, healthcare, planning regulations, and building codes. All are human decisions causing or avoiding disasters, meaning that nature does not cause disasters. Disasters are not ‘natural’.
Geography identifies, expresses, and demonstrates how to change disaster-causing human decisions into disaster-avoiding ones, across people, in varied places, and through time. By explaining and proving why the phrase ‘natural disaster’ should not be used, geography inspires students into careers which transform ‘disaster by choice’ into ‘no disaster by choice’
I am a professor at University College London, England and The Arctic University of Norway, involved in research, teaching, and public engagement. I am privileged that my job must include dissemination through conferences, scientific and for the public. I have attended conferences, meetings, workshops, and symposia ranging from 10 to 10,000 people on every inhabited continent, learning so much and being able to return knowledge and action to where I visit and especially to where I live.
This keynote lecture will take place on Friday 10 April at 10.00am.
Written by Ilan Kelman, professor at University College London, England and The Arctic University of Norway
Helen Martin – Primary Keynote Lecture: Why loving the world makes all the difference
I am looking forward to giving the Primary Keynote Lecture on the primary day on Friday 10 April at 2pm to consider what the Early Years and Primary Geography curriculum is for – and how it has potential to change the life experiences and opportunities for the futures and personal geographies of young people. We will be curious about child development, their understanding of places that are important to them, and consider how we guide, facilitate and learn alongside our youngest and most creative children.
As a recently retired primary headteacher, following 18 years as a head of two rural West Sussex Schools, I cherish the opportunity to explore the adventures and opportunities that we as primary educators can offer to the young children in our care. As a very hands-on head, I was always working alongside children – as their Forest School Leader, their storyteller, their geographer and their facilitator.
Being curious and creative alongside children and young people is the best way to learn yourself, to be present within their development and to extend the curriculum to provide endless questions, enquiries, open-ended thinking and opinion-centred debate. Where we can take children in these opportunities surely is endless, and we will explore why this is a vital part of what geography can offer us.
Join us for the strong and exciting Early Years and Primary offerings this year – beginning with our first ever primary fieldwork afternoon on Wednesday, and then a range of superb lectures and workshops throughout the Conference! Come along if you are a primary educator – and come along if you teach secondary and beyond – we will challenge you, extend your thinking on whole school innovation and change. Come and chat to any of the Early Years and Primary Phase Committee, we would love to meet you!
This Primary Keynote Lecture will take place on Friday 10 April at 2.00pm.
Written by Helen Martin, Chair EYPPC, Geography and Leadership consultant
Come along to Conference to take part in the sessions mentioned and many more! We have over 130 sessions over the three day Conference that cover a wide range of topics for geography teachers across all phases!
Find out more here:
https://geography.org.uk/events-cpd/ga-annual-conference-and-exhibition/conference-overview/
Please now our online booking has now closed. If you would like to attend please email events@geography.org.uk or pay on the day.
