Geography Outside of the Classroom

April 2019

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Geography students visited the enormous treehouse at Alnwick Gardens which houses a 50-seat restaurant and outdoor seating areas.

A-Level Geography students take part in a variety of learning activities outside of the classroom as part of their studies. Regular field trips to investigate topics such as population, tourism, impact of adverse weather and flood defences help students to put their classroom learning into perspective.

Most recently, Sixth Formers visited Alnwick Gardens, Alnwick Castle and the town centre, to study tourism and compare the local shops and facilities with those at Bishop Auckland. This trip formed part of their coursework for a unit of study called "Changing Places'. Students visited the stunning landscaped gardens, which surround the castle and are a highly successful tourist attraction. They also marvelled at the enormous and beautifully crafted "Treehouse Restaurant'', which is built from sustainably-sourced Canadian Cedar, Scandinavian Redwood and English and Scots Pine. The structure has rope bridges, walkways in the sky and one of the most unique restaurants to be found anywhere in the world with trees growing through the floor and handcrafted furniture.

Students also visited "Kynren' to consider the impact, both negative and positive, that this attraction has had upon our local area since it opened in 2016. They looked at the positive impact upon employment and local businesses and considered some of the negative aspects such as the implications for local residents in terms of parking difficulties.

Other popular field trips include visits to various towns and villages in the Lake District to study towns that have been severely affected by flooding in the past decade and look at the flood defences which have allowed them to recover and rebuild.