On Wednesday 25th September, Year 11 Geography had an extremely successful day by the coast where they visited Walton-on-the-Naze as part of their fieldwork requirement for their GCSE exam.

Their aim for the day was to investigate how management affects Longshore Drift at Walton-on-the-Naze and develop an opinion on the strategies in place.

On arrival, students could see the Naze tower and learnt about the history of the area, finding out that the coastline was at extreme risk of erosion due to its geology and position and therefore a variety of coastal management techniques were in place to protect it.

Students then worked in groups to compare the managed section of the beach with the unmanaged section. Starting with the managed beach, they conducted a beach profile using a dumpy level, ranging staff and tape measure.

Students also completed a groyne profile and a sediment analysis all in the morning. We then all had lunch together while looking out over the North Sea, and before doing the same methods on the unmanaged section of the beach in the afternoon.

Since returning to school, students have been working very hard presenting their results and writing up their findings in order to come to a conclusion ready for their exam in the summer.

Miss S Hollis