Year 12 Geography Residential to Somerset Mar 2019

This March, Year 12 Geography students travelled to Somerset to gain some first hand experience of coast and places, invaluable for the A Level course and NEA coursework.  We stayed at Nettlecombe Court, a sixteenth century stately home, run by the Field Studies Council and equipped with everything we would need for a two night stay including a pool table.  

Day One: We arrived in Taunton to look at the city's regeneration project to see how effective the council were in completing it and whether they met their set criteria. We asked members of the public questions on what they through their local area. We also did an environmental quality assessment based on our own opinion about the environment. We did this in four areas: Castle green, Somerset Square, Station Boulevard and the Firepool. At the end of the day we created a presentation on what we found out during the day. This can help us with our NEA (non-examined assessment) for human geography.

Day Two:  We had a lesson in the morning on the risk assessment and how to measure beach profiles and gradients.  Later on we went to Hurlstone Point and the surrounding beach and measured the beach profile and looked at the sediment.  In the evening we went to a lesson and learnt how to use statistics to test the significance of the changes we had measured.  We also made a sketch of the beach profile.

Day Three:  We went to Minehead and looked at shoreline management.  We learnt that they managed the coast pretty well there as they attract a lot of tourists due to Butlin's being at Minehead.  They also put £6 million in to the management scheme.

Overall the trip has helped us learn and expand our knowledge on "Coastal landscapes" and "Changing places, making spaces" in order to complete our NEA.