Water way to end the term

29 June 2021

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Geography Field Trips (Years 9 & 10)

Year 9 and Year 10 Geography pupils have had the opportunity to complete the first of their fieldwork skills trips by visiting the Wycoller Beck and investigating river theories studied in class.

The main aims of the visit were to allow pupils to study a river landscape first hand and enable each student to develop skills in measuring, observing and recording how river features change along the long profile of a river.

In class, students have studied the Bradshaw Model of river theory and rather than just accepting what our Geography teachers in school have taught students, they have been given the opportunity to go out and test the theories. The work carried out will greatly enhance their knowledge and understanding of how a river works.

Wycoller Country Park offers the perfect spot for students to carry out a safe and accessible river study, whilst offering beauty in the surroundings. After testing river velocity, width, depth and rock size and shape at two sites along the river, students had a picnic lunch at the beauty spot next to the lake with the cheeky ducks before completing a third comparison site with an ice lolly on the way home!

Mr Watters, Lead Teacher of Geography, commented “It has been superb to be out of school again after recent events. Students adhered to the strict guidelines we implemented to help safeguard each other.

"The students acted with exemplary respect, and this has enabled seven successful field trips to run, which will in turn support their GCSE paper when the time comes.

Mr Watters added, "At Priory, we love to extend the learning of our students by giving them the opportunity to see Geography in action outdoors – and we have certainly facilitated this. The students were brilliant on all of the trips and showed real tenacity and maturity whilst working in the river environment. Well done to all.”

A big thank you to Mr Eccles, Miss Ackers, Miss Makinson, Mrs Simpson, Mrs Whalley, Mrs Ali and Mr Bullock for their support in joining us on our trips. A special thanks to Mr Bullock for some of the brilliant drone shots of the country park!!

As Head of Humanities, it is always great to see students out on any trip and being offered the opportunity to extend their learning in different ways. However, these trips felt particularly special after such a long hiatus from outdoor learning.

We welcomed the lifting of school trip restrictions and endeavoured to offer the GCSE trips to support the Paper 3 examination as soon as we could. Students were back out in the field doing what they love – learning from each other.

A fantastic result all round – except maybe for Mr Watters who took a couple of tumbles in the river!!

Mr Metcalfe
Head of Humanities