Year 11 GCSE Geography Fieldtrip – Swanage October 2018
Fleur Marsland writes about the recent fieldtrip to Swanage.
It took an agonising 7 hours on a coach to get to Swanage. When we got we went to the rooms, had tea and chilled. At around 7 we had a lesson for an hour and a half, but it was very chill, and we were mostly preparing for the next day. Later, we had free time, so me and my friends went to the dome, a giant indoor sports area, and played football for a bit.
Next day, got up, had breakfast and prepared for a day of field work. We walked into the Swanage town centre and collected our human geography data. We went to specific areas, wrote down the businesses there, stated whether it was for tourists or residents, and surveyed the area. Later, we got on the coach to Lulworth Cove. We walked up to the Stair Hole, which looked beautiful, with 2 small coves and arches. We then made an annotated fieldsketch of the landform. We did this a Lulworth Cove before walking down to the beach and having lunch. Later we walked up a steep hill to see Man-o-War Cove and Durdle Door. We then had to walk back to the village, were we were allowed to go into the shops and get ice cream, then headed back onto the bus back to the Swanage Centre. We had tea, relaxed, then went to the classrooms for two hours before spending the rest of the night relaxing, going to the games room and playing pool.
The next day was bad weather as it was raining. we were dropped off by the coach and had to walk 6 miles back to the centre. We walked along Shell bay and Studland bay looking at the coastal landforms and various management schemes. We had to take notes and had to draw field sketches, backing up what we have learnt back in school. We then left the beach and walked along the headland to where you could see Old Harry and had are lunch there. We kept on walking back to Swanage Bay for another hour. When we got to the beach, we tried to do an experiment to see if longshore drift was taking place, but we only managed to do two measurements as the weather was bad. We each went into a group and measured a groyne on the north and south side to investigate whether the coastal management scheme was effective or not. Afterwards the teachers were kind and let up go into the town for food. We later had a lesson, which was very relaxful. Then we started packing, and relaxing and enjoying are last night in Swanage.
The next day we got up early, had breakfast, hung out in the games room and had a few games of pool, before getting on the coach and heading back to school.
In all, the trip was good as I got to miss 4 days of school. It was very relaxed, and I enjoyed seeing all the sites and landforms. It was also fun as I spent 4 days with my friends. Let’s hope for a great write up in preparation for the examination.
