Kilham Church Of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School
Class 2 Coastlines Fieldwork Trip
Our focus this term has been all about the coastline, particularly coastal safety and coastal erosion. We researched sea defences, coastal warnings and the processes of erosion; crack, cave, arch, stack and stump.
In light of all this work, on Tuesday, 1st April, we went on a coastal adventure! We took a coach to Bridlington North Side Beach, first taking note of several coastal safety signs, sea flags, recycling notes, key and icon maps and sea defence methods…all before touching a grain of sand. One foot on the beach and we were off! The children found seaweed, a natural waterfall and chalk stones of all kinds (which we determined had fallen from the cliffs during the process of erosion and had been washed onto shore with the tide). We were concerned for some brave paragliders when we saw three exploring the skies as they did not take note of the windsock, which was blowing like crazy. The children were worried they may end up in a tree! The children considered the stages of erosion and made stacks, arches and stumps with the chalkstone. We walked further north, saw examples of erosion and discussed the damage and dangers of this process, seeing a natural waterfall on the way (discussing nature's beauty). It was clear where the erosion has worn away at weaker stone and created a slant with much softer crevices and inclines.
At lunchtime, we travelled to Mr Moos and Skipsea beach. Lunch and ice cream reenergised us for the afternoon, ready to conduct our geography fieldwork. We had discussed that along the Bridlington and Holderness coastline, the average erosion distance per year is 2 meters. We took a tandem wheel to measure the distance from Mr Moos to the coastline (Moos beach), approximately clicking 1000 times (1000m).
Whilst walking to the beach, we observed WW2 bunkers and lookouts, not only on the land track but still in place on the beach itself. Emersed now in shrubbery and tide, we discussed their purpose all those years ago.
All very tired and hot, we travelled back to school – still feeling the coastal air coursing through our veins, big smiles on our faces!
The next day, as well as working on an English recap, and drawing our experiences, we mapped our walking route on google maps and worked out that at a rate of 2 meters per year it would take 500 years to erode the 1000m up to Mr Moos, knocking Mr Moos Ice cream parlour into the sea by the year 2525!
