As part of the AS Level Geography syllabus students are required to participate in field work. This is an exciting part of the course that develops practical skills in order to gain a better knowledge and understanding of field work techniques and to bring life to areas studied in class.

The Alton Convent group set off on Sunday morning and travelled to Swanage, Dorset, to begin our three day trip. The girls explored a variety of local villages to study how rural areas are managing to rebrand themselves to cope with changing circumstances in work and demographics. It was interesting to visit farms that had diversified and see community initiatives created to attract people back to rural areas. We also spent time studying coastal process, management strategies and conflicts of interest that arise in coastal environments.

The Community Liaison Officer from National Trust in Studland gave the group an excellent tour of the beach exploring current management issues at Studland in particular the escalating problems associated with increasing rates of erosion due to natural processes and Global Warming. The girls were full of enthusiasm and responded with challenging and thought provoking questions. They were also very confident with their cameras resulting in plenty of photo evidence for the girls to analyse and annotate back in the classroom.

We were very thankful for the hospitality provided by the Townsend Field Centre in Swanage and were proud to wear our matching T-Shirts, that the girls secretly bought us, to remember the excellent experience.

Mrs Kellett