Budding geographers enjoyed fine spring weather for field trips that took the 13s west to Richmond Park and the 14s east to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Our 13s geographers visited Richmond Park at the end of April to undertake fieldwork and investigate a small scale ecosystem as part of the GCSE unit entitled ‘Living World’.
The year group looked at food chains and food webs and compared a grassland (unmanaged) and deciduous woodland (managed) ecosystem and examined variations in plant height and variety, soil depth and moisture, environmental quality, age of trees and number of users.
While the 13s went west the 14s GCSE pupils were heading east to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park at Stratford on a geography trip that explored the legacy of the London Olympics in 2012 in reshaping the social, environmental and economic character of East London.
Pupils were asked to interview locals about the way that Stratford has changed in the years since and their tour took them both to areas of existing ‘Old’ Stratford and the Olympic village.
The village that housed athletes back in 2012 has now been redeveloped into housing for families and young professionals and the area that surrounds it has matured into a verdant landscape parkland through which flows the River Ley.