After an absence of three years, the much-missed enjoyment of urban fieldwork has made a welcome return for Year 11 students at Withernsea High School.

The school’s GCSE Geographers recently visited Beverley where they completed the second of two fieldwork assignments, both of which form a crucial element of their continuing studies.  

Currently focussing on Human Geography, the students were tasked with investigating the opportunities created by the £125-million-pound Flemingate retail and leisure development. They created a land use map to chart the usage of space within the development, categorising each unit of land to assess the range of opportunities that are available to its visitors.  

Opened in November 2015, the Flemingate shopping centre occupies the site of a former chemical works. The area’s total transformation from industrial to leisure use provided students with the perfect platform to develop their knowledge of urban redevelopment and planning as they explored the question: ‘To what extent has the Flemingate development increased opportunities for recreation and entertainment in Beverley?’.

The students spent the first part of the day in Beverley town centre where they carried out pedestrian flow counts and canvassed shoppers. The group then made their way to Flemingate where they compared footfall and sought opinions on the success of the development as an urban redevelopment project.

Early findings revealed that despite some big retail and restaurant changes, which are attracting a great number of visitors, the centre of Beverley itself still remains a popular destination for shoppers. 

The data collected during this fieldwork opportunity will be used as part of the students’ continuing preparations for their ‘Paper 3’ exam – half of which will assess what they understand about fieldwork; the processes they used to collect data and how they will use the data effectively. 

Commenting on this element of the course Sarah Harris, Progress Leader for Humanities, commented: ‘Fieldwork is an essential part of studying Geography as it helps to bring the subject to life outside the classroom. It inspires independent learning and increases understanding of the topics being studied.

We could not be any prouder of our students, all of whom behaved exceptionally well. They were confident, methodical in their work and were fantastic ambassadors for our school.

For many students, this was the first time they had stopped a stranger in the street to ask questions and they were pleasantly surprised by people’s willingness to help.’

Feedback from the students themselves was equally positive, with one commenting: ‘Our Geography trip was incredibly interesting and the best part was talking to people and finding out their opinions of Flemingate as a regeneration project. I was surprised how popular it has become since my last visit, before the pandemic.’ 

Over the coming weeks, the students will process their findings as part of their continuing preparation for the exams in summer. The data collected will be used to assess the extent of the leisure and recreational opportunities that have been created by the Flemingate development.

This work will sit alongside their exploration of the East Riding’s contrasting coastline, conducted during their first fieldwork experience back in June, which saw the students visit Hornsea beach and Flamborough Head as part of the ‘physical’ element of their GCSE Geography course.    

Data collected from Hornsea has been used as the basis for an investigation into the success of existing coastal management strategies, giving students the opportunity to draw their own conclusions as to their overall effectiveness, and to explore whether or not, in their opinion, improvements could be made.   

Meanwhile, the visit to Flamborough Head, provided a good grounding for the revision of erosion and the contrasting erosional rates between boulder clay and chalk.  

ABOVE: Students Jake Green, Rebekka Fores and Jessica Selby in Beverley town centre. 

ABOVE: Jessica Selby interviews a member of the public, which coincidentally happened to be former WHS teacher Sandra Williams.

ABOVE: Student Logan Hornsby with two members of the public in Beverley.

ABOVE: Tom Pindar, Lewis Ridsdill, Ben Moore and Jason Jones take a break from canvassing.