OLIVIA N-B, TILLY M AND DAISY R, YEAR 12

On Tuesday 30 April all of the Year 12 geographers headed to Yorkshire for a week of field work, to give us the starting point to aid us in our NEAs, which make up 20% of our A-Level grade. 

Day one started with a dive into the water and carbon cycles, where we measured soil moisture, vegetation and the height of trees, using a range of equipment such as soil moisture metres and clinometers.

Day two began with a full English breakfast from the Cranedale Centre and a short drive to Scarborough, where we studied Human Geography, using our geography knowledge to assess a sense of place with lots of data collection techniques, such as word pictures, photographs and questionnaires. By the end of the day, we had come to an overall conclusion on a positive or negative perspective of Scarborough. The day didn't end there, with us working hard in the evening, trying to get our head around statistics, such as Spearman’s Rank.

On day three we quickly moved onto coasts, where we visited the fastest eroding coastline in Europe. We saw houses nine metres away from the cliff and roads that have fallen off of the cliff due to the powerful force of erosion. We spent the second half of the day in Hornsea, measuring sediment size on the north and south sides of the groyne, using techniques beneficial to our NEA. 

On day four, the sun came out, for a scenic visit to Flamborough head. Here we saw coastal landforms such as arches, stacks, cracks and caves. We ended the trip on a high with a final visit to Mr Moo’s ice cream parlour. 

Despite the unusually cold April weather, we had an enjoyable experience up North and have learnt critical skills in data collection methods, justifications and presentation, all of which will be a fundamental part of our NEA coursework.