A Level NEA Covering Glaciation at Blencathra (Small Group Course)

This course provides an opportunity for schools with low student numbers to prepare and plan for their individual Non-Exam Assessment for A Level Geography.

Blencathra Field Centre is situated 300m up, on the south facing slopes of Blencathra in the Lake District National Park. It sits just one mile outside the Lakeland village of Threlkeld, with panoramic views of the Lake District fells. This impressive setting has a true sense of space, giving the site a unique quality, which many visitors enjoy year after year.

Small Group or Individual Student Days are designed to bring together individual students, home educated students, schools with small cohorts, or students who were unable to attend a residential or alternative trip. By bringing groups together you do not have to pay for a minimum number of students.

These courses are for groups of 9 or fewer students from any one school.

To ensure the safety of all participants on our day and residential small groups courses, any child, or group of children from an individual school or home-education group, aged under 18 years must be accompanied by a responsible adult, eg teacher or parent. Other adult learners eg mature students or those who have recently turned 18 are welcome to join the course.

The price of the course includes

Accommodation in shared rooms (single rooms for adults where available but cannot be guaranteed
Food from dinner on day 1 to packed lunch on day 5
In-course transport to fieldwork sites during the course
All course teaching
Equipment, wellies and waterproofs if required.
Accompanying staff and adults are charged at half the student rate plus VAT.

View across the Lake District from FSC Blencathra — Blencathra

Example Timetable

Groups arrive around 12:30.
Introduction to the centre.
(Please bring your own packed lunch on the first day.)

Day 1

Keswick, Place studies

We will visit Keswick, where students can apply fieldwork methods to an ‘urban’ or place environment. Students will try out a range of methods, dependent on topic, such as:

Qualitative methods
Quantitative methods
Analysing models
Designing sampling strategies
Questionnaires and non-participant observation

Follow up

Question forming workshop

Day 2

Morning

Glaciation

We will visit Easedale, where students can apply fieldwork methods to depositional and erosional landforms. Students will try out a range of methods including:

Measuring the geometry of corries
Geo-locating data for GIS
Geomorphological mapping
Collecting a set of bearings of glacial features
Sediment analysis (clast orientation, size & roundness, geology)
Field sketching and annotated photographs

Afternoon

We will return to the centre mid afternoon and students will start planning for their data collection the next day.

This session will allow students to make the final decisions on their investigation methodology and sampling strategy, taking into account the skills, experience and knowledge they will have gained throughout the field course. Students will prepare data collection sheets, complete a risk assessment and list their fieldwork equipment. The Field Studies Council tutor will confirm site locations and logistics and ensure students are working in suitable fieldwork groups for safety and efficiency of data collection. We encourage teachers to use this session as an opportunity to finalise NEA proposal forms.

Day 3

NEA data collection

Students will collect data in their chosen environment. The number of sites available will be determined by number of teaching groups; your transport situation and the ability of school staff to supervise students under our GURS procedure. Please confirm NEA data collection locations with your Field Studies Council tutor before commencing question planning with students.

Follow up

GIS workshop

Day 4

NEA data collection

Students will return to their data collection site and complete their fieldwork.

Follow up

Statistical analysis

Day 5

Data collation and processing.

Students will be able to spend time collating data and practicing data presentation using GIS and statistical tests with the assistance of the Field Studies Council tutor.

Course finishes at 12:30

A typical day at Blencathra.

We make the most of your time whilst at the centre. Your course will include up to 8 hours 45 minutes of contact time with your tutor. Whilst exact timings will vary depending on weather, pace, individual, a typical day would normally involve activities starting at 9.15am. On return to the centre in the afternoon, students will have a break and complete fieldwork follow up.