Year 12 Geographical Skills Residential

At the end of the spring term the sixth form Geography students went on a residential trip to bright and sunny Slapton Ley, Devon! Fortunately it only rained for 1 day of the 4 we were there. We went to do coursework for our A-Level exams, both AS students and A2 students.

After an exhausting 4 hour ride on the minibus to the South of England, which was extremely fun, we were glad to unpack our belongings, but before long we were asked to walk to a nearby shingle beach where we did a bit of geology and studied some rocks. After taking a long trek back to our resort we were left to relax for the rest of the evening, or so we thought! After a little break we headed back to the classroom and analysed all of the data we had gathered.

Over the course of the next 3 days we went to the Harbourne River to try and investigate river characteristics such as depth, width, and volume to see how the river changes downstream. We practised the River Dance to keep warm and learnt our key terms (see photo). We also looked at the impacts of flooding and the solutions that have been implemented to try to reduce flooding in the future. Contrary to what you may think, walking in the river proved rather fun, though it’s a shame no one fell in! We also visited parts of Plymouth that recently underwent regeneration. AS students conducted surveys relating to the environment and visual quality of life apparent in the surrounding area to determine the differences between areas. An area that had received extensive regeneration, called Gun Wharf, was an amazing sight and enabled its residents to protect their houses much more easily than normal areas.

So all in all geography is not just staring at a bunch of rocks and colouring things in (although we did do quite a lot of that!) we had fun even with all the rain and a certain sixth formers (loud) singing!