Lower Sixth Geography Fieldtrip Castlehead 2006
In April, 24 excited Lower Sixth Geographers and two members of staff travelled to the Lake District for five days worth of ‘extreme Geography’ al fresco style! We resided at Castlehead Field Studies Centre, near Kendal, aiming to complete the syllabus requirements for the AS Investigations paper and the accompanying 1000 word report. What hadn’t been anticipated was that the great outdoors could be such a pleasant classroom and that there would still be time for laughter and play.
After we had settled into our base (an old Catholic boarding school!), we meandered up to the River Kent and investigated the ways in which the river had been managed to accommodate floods. Enthused by the opportunity of swapping textbook theory for practical hard-core geography we visited the Sandscale Haws sand dune system to investigate signs of succession on a psammosere. Measurements were taken, technical equipment employed and results were gathered; AS coursework was proceeding smoothly! We also invaded Kendal, not for a bit of shopping but to try and delimit the CBD.We took classical measurements of traffic, pedestrian and environmental surveys. Overall the trip was highly entertaining, the company was good, and we worked hard, and learnt a great deal.
Mr M J Covill