May 5: Music related CPD - John Wilkinson and Miranda Sawyer

I mentioned earlier in the blog that John Wilkinson was a key inspiration in the development of this blog, and he has now developed a new online PTI course which may be of interest.

This online course will explore how Britpop can be used as a lens to examine the socio-economic, political, and cultural landscape of 1990s Britain. It will consider how music reflects identity, lived experience, and sense of place, while addressing the challenge of maintaining academic rigour when using music in Geography.

Participants will learn how to use music as a focused and effective stimulus for discussion, grounded in the cultural zeitgeist of the 1990s, and aligned with the Key Stage 5 Changing Places curriculum.

Aims of the course:

• Apply the nexus of music, sport and politics to explore the socio-economic, political and cultural landscape of 1990s Britain
• Examine how Britpop reflects cultural identity, lived experience, and sense of place

This course is for:

• Teachers delivering Changing Places at Key Stage 5
• Teachers seeking to enrich their teaching of place, identity and cultural geography
• Teachers interested in using cultural material (e.g. music) to deepen geographical thinking

The guest speaker is Miranda Sawyer. Miranda is an English journalist and broadcaster. Besides her features and radio criticism for the ‘Observer’, her writing has appeared in ‘GQ’, ‘Vogue’ and the ‘Guardian’. She is a regular arts critic in print, on television and on radio. She broadcasts on Radio 4 and for The Culture Show (BBC TV) and was the host of the popular podcast, Papercut. She is on the board of Tate Members, the South London Gallery and Sound Women. 

Her latest book, Uncommon People, was published in 2024.

It's a good book. I got it out of the library and a review is forthcoming in a future post.

Book using this link.

Free for PTI Unlimited schools & PTI member departments. Just £20+VAT for non-members.

Jan 8: John Wilkinson's record collection

There are several teachers who I feel are always pushing creative boundaries and challenging themselves, often by adding a personal touch to their schemes of work. 

They're the teachers I continue to draw personal inspiration from. I've already mentioned Matt Podbury on the blog within the first week of the year and as we enter the second week, here's another: 

John Wilkinson 

John is the Head of Geography at St Edwards College, West Derby, Liverpool, and an Honorary Lecturer in the Geography Department at the University of Liverpool. 

John started his career tutoring at Lochranza Field Centre on the Isle of Arran. He is currently studying for a part time PhD at the University of Liverpool

The St Edwards College Geography department won The PTI’s Bernice McCabe Award in 2024. John regularly presents CPD for the Prince's Teaching Institute, and also at the GA Conference.

In Autumn of 2023, John contributed an excellent article on his vinyl revival scheme, and even made the front cover of the 'Teaching Geography' journal.

I saw him speak about this at a session at the GA Conference in Sheffield that year. It was great.

Subscribers can download the article from this link.

There are lots of geographical connections that John makes, starting with an album from 1995 to raise awareness of global issues.

This was the War Child Help Album.

It was noticeable that students weren’t entering the classroom to learn about geography, but embarking on a geographical learning journey: they developed as geographers through cultivating the power of popular music. The only non-negotiable is investing in a cache of vinyl records to supply authenticity, awe and wonder to the learning experience.