Field Studies Trips

Field Trip Residentials or Day Trips in Swanage

Located on the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site (along with the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon!), with Studland beach, Old Harry Rocks and Lulworth Cove right on our doorstep, Swanage is an unbeatable location for all levels of fieldwork.

Common Entrance Exam prep in Year 8 to A Level Independent Investigations plus Common Entrance fieldwork with great locations for a river study, longshore drift study and sand dune study – plus opportunities for human geography such as the Poole / Bournemouth conurbation, providing an excellent opportunity to study urban regeneration, urban inequalities and land use.

Cumulus Outdoors Residential Centre is a short 10 minute walk from Swanage town, beach and pier, providing the perfect base for your Fieldwork residential trip or day visit, ideally placed to educate and inspire your students! Classroom facilities include whiteboards, plenty of space and wifi plus minibus transport is available as part of your field studies package.
And of course, being situated on the south coast means the weather down here makes fieldwork possible even in the winter season!

  • Accommodation for 93 students and up to 10 staff across 3 dormitories with en-suite bathroom facilities, set in 7 acres
  • Self-catering bungalow that can sleep 12 students and 2 staff, providing a total capacity of 105 students and 12 staff
  • Bespoke programmes with expert tutors, tailored to your Learning Objectives and exam board specifications, providing a mix of sessions with  fun evening sessions to engage the students
  • Expert Teaching Team and Programme Coordinators are on-hand throughout your stay
  • On-site free parking for coaches, minibuses and cars
  • Inside space for inclement weather
  • Optional provision of meals and snacks

FIELDWORK FOCUS – Years 7-9

  • Preparation for common entrance exams and the opportunity to consolidate classroom learning
  • Combines Geography, Biology and History
  • Fieldwork techniques blend with outdoor activities such as team building to engage the students and promote the subject

GEOGRAPHY UP CLOSE

  • Students get closer to the subject by studying fieldwork sites from different angles, such as abseiling down through geological and industrial history at Dancing Ledge or orienteering across Ballard Down using map skills and GPS navigation
  • Experiencing the coastline features and geomorphology provides a different emphasis and understanding of the geology, coastal processes and the impact of tourism

GCSE

  • Complete Fieldwork in two contrasting environments, exploring physical and human processes and the interactions between them
  • Geology Fieldwork: lots of nearby locations that are ideal to teach and assess practical field skills, such as Kimmeridge Bay and Durdle Door
  • Link to the enquiry process and encourage critical evaluative thinking, helping students to prepare for fieldwork data they may encounter in an exam question
  • Sessions designed to cover a range of quantitative and qualitative methodology such as beach profiling and land-use surveys, with all the tuition, equipment and workbooks provided, plus follow-up evenings

AS/ A-LEVEL

  • The key to being a successful A-Level student is being an independent learner, we aim to be flexible and accommodating to support your studentsWe provide support for their NEAs or simply support with equipment and logistics – lots of easily accessible and safe locations for students to undertake data collection for their NEA projects, topics can include coastal landscapes, carbon and water cycle, place studies in rural and urban settlements
  • Geology Fieldwork: lots of nearby locations that are ideal to teach and assess practical field skills, such as Kimmeridge Bay, Durdle Door and Osmington Mills
  • Evening sessions to encourage imaginative and creative thinking when planning their NEAs and different ways to approach the enquiry process, coaching is provided to students before facilitating Primary and Secondary data gathering
  • The Isle of Purbeck, and the broader Dorset area, provide ideal locations for fieldwork and can be used by both AS students to cover the two days of Fieldwork required and by A-Level students completing their NEAs
  • We will offer guidance on logistics, locations, equipment, theory and opportunities available to your students, at whatever level require

To discuss programme options and exam specifications for your group, please contact us.