We set off from school at around 9:20am on Wednesday 12th October and arrived at Leeson house at around 12:40pm, which is where our accommodation was and where we slept over the 2 nights. On the first day we went to Studland beach to measure the retreat from the water caused by the sand dunes and our activity was measuring every 10 meters along the sand dunes to identify the angle change, soil moisture, soil pH, wind speed and what plants grew along the tops of the sand dunes. Before going back on the coach, we walked back along the beach and found “blowouts”, which is where the army blow-up old World War 2 bombs that used to be placed on the beach, they form open sandy spaces for people to go to, perhaps if the beach is to crowded, especially in summer. Then we had a lesson in the evening discussing what we found during the day.

On the second day (Thursday), in the morning we went down to Durdle Door and went on 2 of its beaches to do the same activity, which was first measuring how long the beach was from the end of the water to the base of the cliffs, then making notes of the angle change whenever the beach got more / less steep in gradient. We also on both beaches identified rock diameters (how long they were) and their shapes / sizes, so if they were rounded, sub rounded or angular. We finally went on a walk further down the coast to look at cliff / coastal formations and discussed what that area of coast might look like in 1000’s of years if erosion stayed at its current level. Again, we had a lesson in the evening discussing what we found during the day and made a box plot chart comparing the difference in the size of pebbles found on the 2 beaches at Durdle Door.

On the final day (Friday) in the morning we went down to Swanage beach and measured the width of the beach and the height of the man-made stumps, as they got closer into the water, then calculated the average height for all of them. We had a bit of free time around Swanage beach before collecting our bags at Leeson House and then went on the Coach, returning back to school.

Overall it was a very good field trip and very helpful and education to all of us and it greatly helped us get a better understanding on topics like coastal erosion and coastal land formations and I recommend future Year 11 Geography students do a similar trip in the future.

Tom Harverson Year 11