Year 10 Geographers took part in their GCSE Fieldwork. Students were split across 4 days with every student spending one day in Bournemouth town centre and another at Hengistbury Head in Christchurch.  

In Bournemouth, students investigated the urbanisation of the area and how it had been influenced by tourism. Students examined 4 sites completing the following fieldwork techniques; environmental quality surveys, questionnaires, pedestrian and traffic counts, land use surveys, service tally’s, accessibility surveys and place standards.

At Hengistbury Head, students investigated the effectiveness of coastal management strategies along the headland and spit. They completed the following fieldwork techniques and compared their results at sites with and without management strategies; beach profile, sediment analysis, longshore drift measurement, wave count, groyne drop, sand dune morphology and field sketch. All the students stayed strong despite a 5km walk and made it the top of Hengistbury Head where they got to see beautiful views across to Old Harry Rocks and the Isle of Wight Needles.

During students GCSE exams they will answer exam questions explaining their fieldwork. Students also got to embed their Distinctive Landscapes topic knowledge seeing geomorphic processes in action and lots of management strategies including groynes, rip rap, gabions and sand dune management.

Students positively engaged with the fieldwork days and it was great to see them becoming more confident and completing geography outside the classroom!