The winners of the 2018 Young Geographer of the Year competition and Rex Walford Award were announced on Wednesday 28 November, after answering the question ‘What makes the Arctic unique?’.
Young Geographer of the Year is a national competition run by the Society to encourage pupils to engage with geographical issues. This year’s competition gave pupils the opportunity to explore the geography of the Arctic and discover what makes this environment so unique. This year, we received over 1,100 entries from over 260 schools.
Steve Brace, the Society’s Head of Education and Outdoor Learning, said: “It’s over 1,000 miles from the UK to the Arctic Circle. This year’s Young Geographers of the Year have comprehensively spanned this distance to give us thoughtful and compelling entries which reveal why the Arctic is unique. By examining the Arctic’s people, wildlife, and its land, sea and icescapes our winners got under the frozen skin of this exceptional region and highlighted many of the challenges that it faces.”
The Young Geographer of the Year competition recognises the best entries across four categories: Key Stage 2 (pupils aged 9-11); Key Stage 3 (11-14); Key Stage 4/GCSE (14-16); and Key Stage 5/A Level (16-18). Pupils in the first three categories were asked to submit an annotated diagram or poster, while A Level pupils were asked to submit a 1,500 word essay, which could include illustrations, maps or graphs.
The awards were presented to the overall winners and highly commended pupils in a ceremony held at the Society on Wednesday 28 November.
The overall category winners are:
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9-11 years: Suraya Nurbhai, Croydon High School Juniors, Croydon
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11-14 years: Pau Ingles-Prats, Weydon School, Surrey
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14-16 years: Hannah Heus, St Helen and St Katharine’s, Oxfordshire
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16-18 years: Eve Russell, St George’s Academy, Sleaford
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Rex Walford Award (new or student teachers): Kathryn Crawshay, The Wellington Academy, Wiltshire
The Young Geographer of the Year competition and the Rex Walford Award are run by the Society in conjunction with Geographical magazine and are kindly supported by Esri UK, Ordnance Survey, Stanfords, Philip’s and Cotswold Outdoor.