Staff accompanied 32 Lower 5 GCSE students to rainy Wareham in the Purbecks last week, to get very wet studying rivers in the rain to undertake their compulsory physical fieldwork enquiry. Undeterred by the torrential rain in the morning, Wellington boots and waterproofs were donned for investigations at the first site – PiddleTrenthide. Under the expert guidance of Mark from Leeson House Field Studies Centre the students enthusiastically waded into the river to measure channel width, depth and velocity. The impact of encroaching vegetation was noted and the sheep in the nearby field came to see what all the noise was about.
After a lunch break in Puddletown to dry out, everyone moved on to Wareham to see how the River Piddle had altered along its 30km course. Now in chest high waders, the students quickly noted the depth of the river varied across the meander and the velocity had increased. The floodplain now clearly visible the students used their class based knowledge to complete their booklets. By this point the sun had well and truly made an appearance and so a well deserved ice cream stop at Wareham Quay finished a brilliant day of fieldwork.
Thanks go to the Geography department for organising the visit.
