Election – GA President 2026–27

I started my career in education straight out of university back in 2004. Working with and inspiring young people is all I’ve ever known since. I have many highlights from being a high school geography teacher for 13 years at the start of my career, but my fondest are those empowering students by bringing them onboard in partnership to run the geography department. The stories that that alone gave me!

I may not be at the chalkface today but I cannot see myself doing anything that doesn’t support or elevate the work of teachers and the young people they treasure. My year off after teaching saw me volunteer as an education officer for climate scientists at NOAA in Boulder, Colorado, and the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco, California. 

My subsequent stint managing an EU-funded project with climate scientists was all about making science accessible to youngsters of all ages. My outreach job with a university involved directly working with students to inspire them to realise their potential. And my current role, supporting students and their schools to take climate action through the DfE-funded Climate Ambassadors scheme, has never been more important.

Without a doubt my work in the past few years has seen me support teachers and students with a range of ages, backgrounds and demographics, from Primary to HE, urban to rural. And among all these ‘day jobs’, I enjoy spending time as a consultant for organisations like the GA, the National Association of School Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT), or as an advisor for OCR and charities such as Project Earth and Climate Dice.

Many of you know I’m a pest in the geography teacher community, hopefully clearly wearing their geographer heart on their sleeve. (My TeachMeet performances can attest to that!) And my identity of being an out member of the LGBTQIA+ community is not just something I’m proud of, but has had young people approach me and tell me I give them hope that someone like them can achieve in life. That others feel I have the potential to represent the heart and soul of the GA is deeply humbling.

Fiona Sheriff is a dedicated geographer, Head of Geography and a recipient of the Geographical Association’s Award for Excellence in 2024 as well as winning the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Ordnance Survey Award in 2024 for excellence in geography education at secondary level. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

Fiona had her first book, 100 Ideas for Secondary Geography Fieldwork, published in October 2024 and she has also been the co-ordinator for the UK Polar Network Antarctic Flags outreach programme. 

For the last five years she has connected schools with polar researchers and scientists, sending thousands of flags to Antarctica to enable students around the world to learn more about geography and science careers in the polar regions. She was a UCL Fawcett Fellow in 2022–23, working on curriculum design and how to embed stories into everyday geography teaching practice. She has worked with the Geographical Association over a number of years to deliver training, writing an article for Teaching Geography, presenting at the Annual Conference in 2022 and 2024 and was the Curriculum Design Lead for the partnership between the Geographical Association and Oak National Academy in KS3 geography.

Fiona is an excellent representation of what it means to be a ‘working geographer’ in the wider community. She has led her department to become a Geography Quality Mark Centre of Excellence alongside being a member of the GA’s Fieldwork and Outdoor Learning special interest group. Fiona is always willing to share her ideas with the wider teaching community.

She is a keen supporter of the Maternity Teacher Paternity Teacher Project and is the regional representative for Northamptonshire, encouraging geography teachers to feel supported and inspired during pregnancy and after. Fiona’s enthusiasm for our subject continues in the primary sector with her two young children, encouraging them to carry out fieldwork in the garden, and the work she has carried out with local primary schools.

Fiona is an inspirational geographer whose experience, commitment and energy would make her an ideal GA President.