Aims: Learning with a Changing Coast Develop understanding about the changing coast for families living in Start Bay. Provide education for 2 generations of children in Start Bay over the next 50 years. The Educational Experience Students will do fieldwork, use photographs and roleplay to understand the characteristics of Start Bay as well as the processes and issues affecting it. They will investigate Key Questions: What are the main land uses and features? What processes are affecting it? How does human activity affect the coastline Who decides what happens to coastlines? Linked to the Geography National Curriculum and QCA Schemes of Work, Unit 23: Investigating Coasts www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/geography/geo23/?view=get Who benefits? The educational experience will be provided for Yr 5/6 children from 7 Junior Schools in Start Bay (Stokenham, Stoke Fleming, Blackawton, West Charleton, Kingsbridge, Dartmouth, St John s RC). Assuming there we 28 children in each of 7 classes, the project will provide education for 196 children per year and 8750 students and 9800 over 50 years. Key Partners: FSC Slapton Ley (Lead education providers in Start Bay) Slapton Line Partnership (part of DEFRA pathfinder project) DEFRA Pathfinder Dartmouth Golf Club (already committed to visitor payback scheme) South Devon AONB (part of 50 year celebration) Tally Ho Coaches (could be approached to provide/support transport)
Learning Objectives: - To explain the history of the Slapton line and how the bar formed. - To understand how the climate has changed in the past and the impacts this had on the local area. - To understand that the beach and coastline are dynamic features which have changed in the past and will continue to change in the future. - To consider the opinions of different people that use the A379 - To think about what might happen to the A379 in the future and discuss the positive and negative impacts of a future without a road. School groups in Summer 2010: In the initial pilot 82 students aged 7 10 from 3 local Primary Schools took part: - Stokenham Primary School Yr 5 - East Allington Primary Yr 3 - St John the Baptist R.C. Primary School Yr 3-5 What did the students know at the start of the day? At the beginning of the day we assessed the local children s knowledge of the area with a true and false activity and map work. Most students had a good sense of local geography and knew where the road went and could recall when they had used the road and why. Using an OS map they were able to label the villages of Torcross and Slapton, mark the road, label the lake and sea on an outline sketch map. Some children were very well informed about the D-day landings and a few in each class had grandparents directly affected or knew of elderly people that had told them about the area being evacuated and Operation Tiger. Most knew of the storm in 2001 which had resulted in the road being temporarily closed. What did the students know at the end of the day? All the children remembered that a long time ago it was really cold and the sea was a long way away and that the bar has not always been here. In their letters they recalled key facts about the tank and the number of visitors. They appreciated the value of the wildlife and habitats and some plans for the future contain reference to protecting the lake to stop the sea water getting in. Pupils from St John the Baptist R.C. Primary School, Dartmouth walking the Slapton Line It was great when there was a giant map on the beach and we put the toys on the map. Aaron At the end of the day the children gave presentations. In the role of a particular character they had to imagine how that person would be affected and what they wanted to happen to the road. The responses were very mixed.
Stokenham Primary School children were very technology focused and determined to protect the road at all costs. They had many different ideas to overcome the power of the sea including giant sea walls, tunnels with windows and a huge bridge spanning Slapton Sands. Pupils from East Allington Primary School overlooking Slapton Ley Children from East Allington Primary School all imagined a future without a road. Some were positive about the idea of an area with no road so they could play, ride bikes and use a horse and cart to travel from Torcross to Strete along the shingle. Although a younger group some children considered the problems created by the loss of the road and wanted to build services such as a supermarket in Slapton which people would still be able to reach if they couldn t get to either Dartmouth or Kingsbridge. One group from St John the Baptist school thought we should keep rebuilding the road every time it washed away. Some groups considered and came up with suggestions for a future without the A379. Overall, they were very imaginative and came up with a range of innovative solutions to a problem that adults have yet to solve! The children enjoyed imagining they were different characters and tried to consider different points of view. Most children designed far-fetched technological solutions to an impossible problem. One of our objectives was to raise awareness of the fact that the A379 will at some point in the future be destroyed by the sea. Many children found it hard to accept that, in reality, it may be impossible to build a wall or tunnel strong enough to stop the sea from washing away the road. This could be that these children cannot imagine a future without the road or it may be due to the different emphasis (either consciously or unconsciously) each tutor placed on certain aspects when they explained the task. Follow up and feedback from the tutors delivering The fieldwork went brilliantly. The activities worked well and all the children learnt something new about the area and enjoyed the day. We could focus this to ensure consistency and highlight the key message for the day i.e. the children remembered more about the past than understanding the current issues My favourite bit of Slapton Sands is acting out the play about how the road broke. affecting the future of the road but this varied depending on the individual tutor delivering the day. With this age group it is quite a challenge for them to consider different viewpoints and develop an argument. Perhaps we could consider reducing the
content to focus entirely on the current issues. In contrast, a nice day out on the beach, learning about their local heritage could help children to appreciate the Slapton Line and in the long term lead them to value it more. Assessing their prior knowledge was difficult as we didn t want to do a paper based activity that required a lot of writing because the age range and ability varied so much with the different groups. Also with different people delivering each group it was hard to collate the information and ensure consistency. The schools follow up work had varying success. St John Baptist R.C. School sent beautiful letters of thanks which did not really help us ascertain what they had learnt. However, the teacher mentioned in a note the older children did a written piece on debating the pros & cons of rebuilding the road. We have not yet received copies of this but will contact the school again in the autumn term. East Allington drew pictures of the Slapton line in 50 years. Interestingly when they left Slapton they all did presentations with no road but 8 out of 10 pictures they sent two weeks later had a road and wall/ tunnel to protect it! We have not received any work from Stokenham Primary School. In the future the follow up task needs to be made clearer to the children and staff from each group and the centre could maintain better post-course links with the school. None of the schools filled in an evaluation form. A specific evaluation form could be developed for this project and teachers could be asked to fill it in on the day to ensure we get this valuable feedback in the future. Lessons Learnt from 2010 The pilot year in 2010 and the following changes were completed as a result: 1. One member of staff was given clear responsibility for planning, delivering (in coordination with colleagues) and reviewing visits. 2. A more thorough evaluation process is planned to review the visits. 3. Support material for teachers about Slapton Line is available on the website. 4. A similar day for older students, years 7 9 is being offered. 5. For primary groups the visit will be simplified by either: Focussing on one key objective and aim to raise awareness of the issues. Providing different scenarios for the future (all with no A379) to support learning. I especially liked banging the flint pebbles together to make sparks. Marley
School groups in Summer 2011: 5 visits are planned and so far 2 schools have confirmed bookings: - Stokenham Primary School Yr 5 (2 classes) - Kingsbridge Primary School Yr 5 (4 classes) Website Resources Slapton Line resources including the Slapton Time Line, photos and reports for educational use are available on www.slnnr.org.uk/education-visits/slapton-lineeducation-resources.aspx. In addition to this a series of stakeholder videos demonstrating the different perspectives is also available on www.slnnr.org.uk/education-visits/slapton-linestakeholder-videos.aspx. The videos have been regularly used by groups staying with FSC at Slapton Ley Field Centre and have become a very useful resource for GCSE and A Level groups studying the Start Bay coast. Feedback from FSC geography tutors includes: Looking at coastal management and processes along Start Bay... One hurdle that tutors at the Field Centre need to overcome is the dislocation of students from the local environment. To put students in touch with the human element of the Start Bay community is crucial. A typical student may have very little or no understanding of the way a rural community functions. To understand the importance of Slapton Line to the local population can usually be comprehended on a basic level. The videos provided by the Slapton Line Partnership take a positive step to bridging this issue. The ability to put a human face, to a complex issue has been extremely useful. It also allows students to see the conflicts between the different groups of stakeholders (ie. locals and Devon County Council) as well as the environment. Peter Dixon (2011). Conclusion and the Future This successful project is now a core part of the education provision available with FSC at Slapton Ley Field Centre. This includes a dedicated fund established to provide free visits for local schools, resources integrated with existing visits for GCSE and A Level groups from across the UK as well as website resources available globally.