The Global Geography Academy Team
The Global Geography Academy was founded and is led by Dr Phil Porter and Dan Clark. Between them, Dan and Phil have over 50 years experience in the school and university sectors and, having both worked and lived in numerous locations around the world, they bring an extensive and rich experience to the classroom to truly bring geography teaching alive!
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Dr Phil Porter
Physical Geography Lead & Co-Founder.
Phil has worked in Higher Education since 1996, teaching geography and undertaking research into glaciers and climate, work that has taken him from the High Arctic to the High Himalaya to undertake fieldwork. Being a geographer through and through, Phil has a passion for the natural world and so it is no surprise that, like Dan, he is widely travelled, having visited over 40 countries and worked in the UK, Europe and Asia. His spare time pursuits link to his passion for the great outdoors and include mountain walking, long distance running, scuba diving and underwater photography and videography.
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Phil specialises in tuition for U.K. A Level, Cambridge International A Level and International Baccalaureate geography. With his extensive experience of the Higher Education and University sectors, he is ideally placed to run our 'next steps' sessions, designed to help you choose the right course at the right University, produce the best possible application statements and prepare you academically and mentally for success in your all-important first year of study and beyond.
Dan Clark
Human Geography Lead & Co-Founder
Dan has taught geography to all age groups for 20 years in a mix of private and state schools across the World. A seasoned globetrotter, Dan has lived in North America, Asia, Europe and Australasia and travelled extensively across 6 continents, visiting over 60 countries along the way.
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Dan leads on human geography, with a specialism in international development and demographics. He also leads our Key Stage 3 and GCSE programs of study.
Away from teaching, Dan spends his time with his partner and 2 boys. They spend a lot of time adventuring around the UK and abroad, and camping in a wide variety of locations and environments.
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Dan loves to offer interactive and engaging lessons and always has props to hand to help students engage fully, be it volcanic rocks or using honey to demonstrate the properties of lava! Dan believes in life long learning and has inspired many students to become intrepid geographers, with a global outlook and a passion for our natural and social world.
Karina Spooner
After achieving A*s in GCSE and A-level geography, Karina pursued the subject further in three universities across Europe, going on to teach aspiring geographers at A-level. Karina has now worked in the education sector for over ten years, teaching predominantly an international audience from KS1 to adult learners, as well as organising and leading both domestic and international field trips. Karina is also a qualified and highly experienced ESL specialist and has combined her passion for languages and the natural world by teaching English-learners physical geography in state schools across Italy. Karina believes that a teacher's ability to transmit their passion for their subject is paramount in engaging and enthusing students. Engaged and enthusiastic students are more willing to learn and her tutees have achieved top grades as a result.​
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In her free time, Karina enjoys playing tennis, running and is a competitive fencer.
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Karina supports Phil and Dan in the day-to-day operations of the Global Geography Academy and is excited to be part of a growing team of passionate geographers who genuinely care about their tutees' academic and personal growth.
FAQs
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Why choose the Global Geography Academy?You could choose from potentially hundreds of tutors who advertise online and elsewhere, so why choose us? Not all tutoring services are the same and we are so confident in the quality of our provision and our ability to improve grades, that we guarantee it!* Here are just some of the reasons why we believe we are a ‘cut above’ the rest: First and foremost you will be taught by tutors who are geography experts through and through and who have literally decades of experience helping thousands of students succeed and who are able to bring real world geography research experience into the classroom! Don’t just take our word for it, have a look at some of our testimonials on our home page! We only focus on geography tuition, so you can be assured that our expertise is fully and completely directed to success in our wonderful subject. With our extensive expertise of the higher education sector, not only can we help you improve your geography grades to get that university place you are longing for, but we are uniquely placed to support and advise students applying for further study and provide college and university bridging programmes on demand and as a free bonus for A level and IB students signed up for one of our tutoring packages. These programmes help you choose the right college or university and help ensure you succeed when you get there! We build student motivation, self-esteem and resilience into all our tutoring sessions, with a short section in every session devoted to personal development, helping all our students attain their best and fulfil their potential in their study lives and beyond.
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Why Group Tutoring?Group tutoring provides many proven educational benefits not associated with traditional one-to-one tutoring. Research has repeatedly demonstrated that, not only is group tutoring more engaging for students, but that educational attainment can be boosted. Despite always maintaining anonymity for students in an online setting, students in our group tutorial sessions benefit from the knowledge and contribution of their peers, as through tutor-led exercises that prompt student engagement (e.g. responses to questions posed in the online chat function), each student is able to bring a unique contribution to the sessions that fellow students benefit from. Students are also able to experience different ways of problem solving, reasoning and expression, as each student in the group brings that individual contribution. Group tutoring also enables use of engaging group tasks, such as problem-based learning, that facilitate a deeper level of learning, which simply would not be possible in a one-to-one tutorial setting. These are just some of the many benefits of tutoring in a group setting!
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Do you offer subjects other than Geography?No. Our sole focus is on providing the most exceptional geography tuition possible and this is why we devote 100% of our time and attention to ensuring our geography tuition is the best available on the market.
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Do you offer one-to-one tutoring?We much prefer to undertake group tutoring due to its proven efficacy as an educational method. However, should a student need intense one-to-one tutoring, for example in preparation for a final examination with which they may be struggling, then we will happily offer this, subject to tutor availability.
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Do you offer a guarantee?No credible tutoring company can or should be offering a guarantee of academic performance, as there are simply too many variables outside the direct control of even the best tutors. Therefore, although we do not offer a guarantee, we are fully confident in the quality of the educational services that we provide and our ability to support students to improve their academic performance. In our experience, the vast majority of students who attend all elements of a tutoring package and fully engage with associated exercises and homework witness an improvement in academic performance. Please see our testimonials on our homepage for further details. Should you be dissatisfied with our services, we have a formal complaints procedure. Please see our terms and conditions for further details.
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Do you offer subjects other than Geography?No. Our sole focus is on providing the most exceptional geography tuition possible and this is why we devote 100% of our time and attention to ensuring our geography tuition is the best available on the market.
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Are course fees refundable?Should you be dissatisfied with the services we provide, please contact us directly so that we may seek to resolve any issues and please also see our terms and conditions.
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Do you have DBS clearance?Yes, all tutors have enhanced Disclosure Barring Service clearance issued by the United Kingdom Government Please see: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/disclosure-and-barring-service/about
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Do I have to be at a school or college to join your sessions?No. We welcome students who are being home schooled to join our tutoring groups. We can also offer tutoring services to non-educational institutions; please contact us directly for further details.
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What are your safeguarding policies?The welfare of our students is of paramount importance and we have the following policies in place to ensure this: We will only ever communicate with students either verbally or by using the group chat function during our tutor sessions, or via writing to parental email addresses. No individual student contact details are requested or stored by us. Students should take part in tutor sessions in a communal location within the parent or guardians place of residence, such that all communications can be overheard by parents or guardians. All tutoring sessions are recorded. All tutoring staff have enhanced DBS clearance (see above). Should a parent or guardian have concerns about a student, they should immediately contact us directly here.
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How can I contact you?You can contact us by completing our contact form, which can be found here, or simply email us at: info@globalgeographyacademy.com
Sustainability
At the Global geography Academy, we are passionate about environmental sustainability. As Geographers, we know only too well how dependent we are on healthy, functioning natural environmental systems, how rapidly our environment is changing and therefore how important it is to minimise our environmental impact.
Helping you study sustainably
This is why we have teamed up with Ecologi to offset carbon emissions associated with studying online with the Global Geography Academy. For every student registered with the Global Geography Academy, we will offset 200% of the carbon emissions associated with the manufacture and lifetime use of your tablet or laptop, plus emissions associated with internet and computer use during all tutoring sessions.
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Ecologi are the UK's leading all-in-one climate platform for businesses wishing to reduce their environmental impact and to date have funded the planting of over 70 million trees and prevented almost 3 million tonnes of CO2 from being released to the atmosphere.
Supporting Geography Educators
Bespoke Fieldwork Support
We understand that there are many pressures on schools and teachers when it comes to providing a rich diversity of fieldwork experience for students. This is why the Global Geography Academy can offer to work with you in the production of fieldwork resources.
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With our wealth of fieldwork teaching experience, we are ideally placed to provide support for teachers through resources such as live teaching sessions from the field to your classroom, bespoke fieldwork videos, and instructional workshops covering fieldwork teaching techniques.
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To discuss your needs and how we can support you and your students with fieldwork, please contact us.
Referral scheme & CPD for teachers
With decades of experience in the school and university sectors, at the Global Geography Academy, we know what works to maximise the effective delivery of geography teaching, to keep students engaged in the classroom and maximise retention of knowledge and skills.
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We are able to offer bespoke workshops for teachers where we can provide practical advice and guidance on proven classroom teaching methods in geography to truly bring the subject to life! We are also able to update teachers with the latest research findings in the subject area to bring currency to your teaching. Workshops would normally be delivered online, but can also be delivered in person at UK schools, depending on location.
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We are also delighted to launch our teacher referral scheme; we will provide a £20 voucher for each student referred by you who signs up for one of our programmes, as a gesture of thanks for helping us to promote high quality geography education
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To claim on our referral scheme and to discuss your individual workshop needs and our pricing options, please contact us.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Our mission at the Global Geography Academy is aligned with the values and CSR policies of many businesses and organisations across the globe. We are passionate about developing values around positive societal contribution and environmental stewardship among our students and are always looking for commercial partners to work with us in developing these attributes in students.
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If you would like to partner with the Global Geography Academy as part of your Corporate Social Responsibility plans we would love to hear from you and discuss how we can work with you to help empower young people to become passionate and positive about environmental and societal responsibility.
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To discuss how we might be able to work with you, do please contact us; we would be delighted to hear from you and arrange to meet!
