Student awarded national prize for A Level Geography coursework

A Bilborough College student was awarded a national prize for her A-level Geography coursework in a special ceremony that was held online due to current social distancing restrictions.

Charlotte Parrish, 18, won the Geographical Association’s NEA (coursework) Proposal National Award and was due to be presented with her prize at the GA’s Annual Conference in April.

However, due to the Coronavirus lockdown the conference was streamed ‘live’ on YouTube and her award was announced as part of the proceedings. She won a £100 Amazon voucher and will receive a certificate through the post.

This is the second year in a row that a Bilborough College student has won the prize and Simon Holland, Course Leader for Geography at Bilborough College, congratulated Charlotte on her award.

He said: “We were very proud that one of our students again won the Geographical Association Prize for the best Geography A-Level NEA Coursework Proposal for the second year running.

“Charlotte is an outstanding Geographer and a very deserving winner of the prize for her exceptional NEA on the topic of Urban Regeneration. We were very pleased that she was able to be presented ‘live’ to the world on YouTube as part of the GA eConference following the whole conference being moved online at the last minute due to the lockdown. The department’s teachers also presented a successful online session about running the NEA to other teachers around the world as part of the eConference.

“Charlotte is joining our growing ranks of Bilborough College students progressing on to study Geography at top universities, last year alone three of our students progressed to study the subject at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Geography is amongst the most employable subjects for graduates at the moment and we are very keen to support students in setting off on a Geographical journey that will last a lifetime!”

Charlotte is studying A-levels in Geography, History and Law at Bilborough College and is planning on studying Geography at university.

She said: “For our coursework we spent three nights in Shropshire where we took part in workshops and carried out surveys in the local community. I think one of the reasons that my work may have stood out was because I used Geographical Information Software and it’s a bit more of a modern tool compared to doing it all on paper maps. I was really shocked when I found out that I had won the prize. Taking part in the live stream was all a bit strange!”