I write this from the canteen at Aquinas College whilst Pete Loader teaches another very successful Summer School. The enthusiasm and vibe is wonderful. It gives us all hope for the future of Geology education.

We have set up a new website - or to be more precise, Matthew Martin has created a new website for us. This is being launched at the ESTA conference and hopefully will mitigate some of the issues we have had regarding ESTA when people Google us. Thank you Matthew for all your hard work this year! Linked into this is a whole set of new ESTA email addresses for Council members. I attach mine to the bottom of this report. Matthew has requested and achieved ESTA having an ‘.ac.uk’ suffix which reflects our position as the professional body for Earth Science Teachers in the UK.

I would like to thank Maggie and Peter Williams and Hazel Clarke for their wonderful contributions to ESTA. They are stepping back from their formal ESTA roles now but their enthusiasm, hard work and support of ESTA have made ESTA what it is today. Thank you!

Sydney Jones-Jackson has been nominated to be our new Secretary. For this I am delighted. Hopefully, you will all approve her appointment at the AGM. Stephen Davies has been superb stepping in and organising ESTA post-covid and we thank him wholeheartedly for his time, effort and energy, I would not have survived as Chair without him! Thank you! Stephen will still be Membership Secretary for the time being, having taken over from Joanie last December. Joanie has also now finished being in charge of the Newsletter. Thank you, Joanie for all your hard work.

This is Amy’s last conference and she has been a terrific Conference Manager - thank you Amy. We have decided to expand the role to an Events Manager to include supporting Pete Loader with the administration of the Summer School and the organisation of new and exciting events throughout the year. The role is about 250 hours a year with a remuneration of up to £6,000. If you know of anyone who would like to apply for this new post, please let me know by email at the address below.

Many teachers are saying that their schools will no longer fund them attending ESTA conferences. We need to get some kind of sponsorship to enable greater access to attendance - any ideas please let us know!

We need more volunteers, as always, to share roles so that ESTA continues to function effectively. The main trustee role that needs filling currently is Primary Coordinator. With all the changes occurring in education, this is a vital role and it is at primary level that we often hook students on to Earth Sciences. Thank you to Becky Gould for continuing with the social media role despite not teaching any more.

Thank you to Dave Turner who has agreed to be nominated as the next Chair from September 2025. The vote will take place during our AGM.

Thank you to Professor Phil Manning for a fabulous Presidency! Your enthusiasm for Earth Sciences is contagious! We are looking for our next President from September 2025.

ESTA has been running since 1967 and it is timely to make some changes in the post-covid world. A Working Group of Council Officers has met twice this year to discuss how ESTA can operate more efficiently and sustainably. There will be a few changes about which members should be aware and you are welcome to voice any concerns at the AGM or have a quiet chat with one of the Council Officers if you wish. Meeting papers and reports are available on the members' section of the website.

Our Council meetings are now all online, saving ESTA some £4000 per year in expenses. We feel that it would be beneficial for all Council Officers/trustees to attend the ESTA conferences. This gives us a space to be accountable and to be questioned at the AGM. As a result we have decided to use the saved £4,000 to fund trustees to attend Conference. Since Pete Loader and Mike Walsh are so important with their Summer School, and annually give up a week of their time, Council has extended this funding them as well.

ESTA is a learned society of professionals and our new website reflects this. This means members are elected and can also be asked to leave in the unlikely event that they bring the Association into disrepute. Election to membership will not impact on existing members. We have had to propose changes to our rules to accommodate this. There will be, prior to the AGM, an EGM to vote upon these changes. Please do look through the proposed new rules before the conference weekend so that you are aware of the changes that we, as trustees, would like to vote in.

The Newsletter and TES will be published online through the website and members will receive an email summary of the latest news on a regular basis. Consequently the title of TES Coordinator has been changed to Website and IT Coordinator - this is a trustee role.

We are keeping our fees the same this year - they have not gone up in some time but we do not feel the need to raise them. Michael Kelly is making some changes to our banking systems. We currently have two bank accounts but it is felt that one will suffice going forward.

Based on the success of the Chris King Award, we would like to set up some more ESTA awards. ‘Best photo at Conference’ will be one! We would like to launch a ‘Best SP Award’ - please bring to the 2025 conference your best SP from your A Level class. There will be a small cash prize for the winning student and all submissions will be collated and placed on the website which could give you some great ideas for your own SPs going forward. So do look out for our Awards page online for specific details and feel free to suggest other ideas for awards and competitions.

We look forward to this wonderful conference - thank you to Maggie Williams for liaising with Liverpool University. It looks to be an exciting and fun-packed event!!

We are already looking ahead to 2025 and the conference at University College London, and after that hopefully at Leeds. And finally, thank you to Gordon Neighbour for liaising with UCL.

Angela Bentley, ESTA Chair

July 2024 chair@esta.ac.uk