Our Year 8 pupils set off early on a September Monday morning for an exciting trip to Juniper Hall, the Field Studies Council site near Box Hill, to collect data for their geography fieldwork and to develop their IT skills.
They eagerly jumped on the bus with their bags and bundles of energy, armed with waterproofs for the imposing weather forecast. Having sung their way to Surrey, they arrived full of anticipation.
Once at the first study site, close to the source of the RIver Tillingbourne, they were taught how to take measurements for the width, depth, velocity and sediment size and they jumped in the river to try it for themselves. It didn't take long for the weather forecast to come true and the downpours began. However, they showed great resilience and it didn't dampen their enthusiasm (excuse the pun!). They then repeated the experiments at three further sites, including next to the church used for filming 'The Holiday' and 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'. Fortunately, the thunderstorms didn't materialise and blue skies were spotted later in the afternoon. During the day, they even found a poor unsuspecting cray fish, much to the excitement of children and staff.
After a full day out in the field, the pupils re-fuelled with supper, but worked late into the evening to start their write-ups. With a good night's sleep, to rest and invigorate their weary minds, they set to work, maximising their time to focus on their fieldwork reports. They worked extremely hard and deserve praise for their attitude, resilience and application. After two days of hard work, they returned to school having made excellent progress, learnt about geography projects, developed their IT skills and ready to add the finishing touches to their fieldwork.
Mr Kimber, Head of Geography