On the last school day of the previous half term, the entirety of Year 10 had the opportunity to visit Eastbourne, a town in East Sussex by the coast. For the students who chose Geography as one of their GCSE options, the trip was a chance for us to carry out some key fieldwork surrounding coastal processes. Those who chose otherwise went on a long walk enjoying the beautiful scenery.

After the approximately one-and-a-half-hour trip down south, we exited the coach and (for the Geography students) picked up our necessary equipment and made our way to the beach. That morning, expecting warm weather, many of us had dressed in thin t-shirts and shorts, but found ourselves rather cold when confronted by a chilly, but refreshing, breeze - something that was actually helpful after the long journey. Thankfully though, it did warm up soon after, with the sky clearing up too.

Part of our fieldwork was carrying out several kinds of data collection, involving measuring the speed of longshore drift or mapping out the profile of the beach. This was all so we would have data to analyse and draw conclusions from back in class. In between data collection tasks, we had the chance to enjoy the, now warm and sunny, weather: skimming rocks or just spending time with our friends in a new setting.

After our lunch break, we moved to site two, where we had to repeat our fieldwork, enabling us to make comparisons between our data. Before doing this, a large group of us were able to relax, sit on the beach, and draw what we could see, which was my favourite part of the day as it was extremely therapeutic. This rather summed up our day: a welcome escape from the routines of school, yet still surrounded by friends and in an environment of learning. As the school trip drew to a close, we made the coach ride back to school, arriving around four o’clock, ready to begin our half-term holiday.

Shayen, Year 10