The residents of Hemsby don't want to leave, but their houses are on the edge of a cliff. This is their story of surving one of the most dramatic cases of UK coastal erosion.
Wayne Hemingway has been involved in a number of regeneration projects over the years, including a flat block in King's Lynn. He has now been asked to get involved in the South Beach area of Hunstanton: an area I know well.
A consultation questionnaire is currently live on the Hemingway Design website (where you can see other projects they are, or have been, involved in)
We have also visited this area each year with Year 7s, to explore what makes Hunstanton a special place.
The South beach is the area south from the Green. Year 7s will be familiar with this area.
Hunstanton is a unique place with a distinctive character and rich Victorian heritage. The aim of the redevelopment is to enhance the seaside resort by re-enlivening its leisure and tourist attractions and restore its once-strong personality. This could be a driver of really positive change for the town, its economy, culture and profile and for us do this we would like your help.
I spent Thursday of this week on the first part of a journey around the coast of Norfolk from Wells next the Sea, visiting some of the communities that were affected by the recent storm surge. The surge affected communities much further up the coast in Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, then down into the Thames estuary.
I will be writing up some of the discussions that I had with people and the stories that I collected in further posts over the next week or so.
Beach Road in Happisburgh is shorter than it was the last time I visited, and the resources I used then will need to be updated.
The full detail, and more images, will appear in a range of resources, including a new GCSE textbook. Here's a selection of the images I took yesterday...
I was also particularly interested in this image, which shows the area of London that would have flooded in the surge if the Thames Flood Barrier had not been built.
Image copyright: Environment Agency
The Environment Agency has shared a range of valuable information, and I will be adding to that in further posts...
Chapter 6 of the book deals with the Controlled Assessment which is obviously of vital importance when it comes to determining the final GCSE grades that students receive. There has been a steep learning curve for teachers in ensuring that the work that is planned enables students to access as many marks as possible.
The book contains information and guidance derived from colleagues in many schools, as well as subject advisers from the main awarding bodies, many of whom I have worked with over the years.
As an example of how one school prepared its students for their CA task, you should head over to the Priory School Portsmouth, where the geography team there have recently been to Hengistbury Head and shared material in advance of (and after, and even during) the fieldwork days on the coast. As the school is near the coast it made sense for them to do that type of context - are you doing the same in your school ?
The materials that students had access to included:
- information and build up on the department's Facebook page (the book describes the importance of using social media tools in Chapter 10)
- a gallery of images on the photo sharing website Flickr - when I was teaching in Norfolk I made sure that there were plenty of images - in fact here's a slideshow from October 2007 of mine from Stiffkey SaltMarsh and Holkham Sand Dunes... You can get a free FLICKR account which will enable you to add up to 200 images...
- a student book shared on Slideshare - made by an NQT member of the team: Sam Atkins, and a rather splendid piece of work
The place of Controlled Assessment is uncertain, although what is clear is that there will be some element of coursework in GCSE related to fieldwork. Hopefully this will continue to involve a substantive piece of primary fieldwork.
It is important that students are taken on fieldwork which is carefully designed. This will have benefits beyond the obvious ones of helping with data collection. There are social benefits, as well as the way that physically visiting a place helps when it comes to the exam... It is easier to speak from personal experience than from a place that has also been seen in an image...
The Badger book features a section on preparing for Controlled Assessment to make sure that students make the most of it, as this is an area where a lot of marks can be lost.
Some further Controlled Assessment goodies will be shared here after publication...
As an example of how you may be able to support the students before and after the event, check out this little mini-site.
This Holderness websitewas created by Phil Wood: a teacher educator from the University of Leicester who is working with some Leicester schools to improve their Controlled Assessment performance.
Could you produce one of these for your CA ?
Why not try using POSTEROUS - the Badger book provides information on this easy to use blogging platform....
