David Rogers

Wow! I am a very proud geography teacher at the moment. The team that I have been supporting in the Linvoy Primus Enterprise Challenge have won the top prize! They beat over 100 teams to the prize, although only 32 made the end of the 5 month challenge. The prize? The students will travel to Goa to see where the money raised will be spent. Read all about their journey here and leave them a comment! Well done lads!

It's that time of year again!

Last Friday myself a few staff and 13 Year 10 students journeyed to Talybont on Usk and the Danywenallt study centre. The trip was a trial to see how a larger fieldtrip would work out. I have to say that the weekend was a great success and I would reconmend using the centre.

This picture shows the amount of erosion around the Danywenallt study centre. I think this is due to a large amount of the forest surrounding Talybont Reservoir being cleared and increasing the amount of surface runoff. A great way to explain river processes to young people in the field! Nothing beats seeing Geography in action.

The Sunday was a complete contrast to the Saturday. A number of activities were provided by Bikes and Hikes . A big thanks goes out to Keith for organising and running such a great day. He was very professional and developed an excellent rapport with the young people. The day included building a bridge over a river. The students were split into two teams that raced each other to succeed. I tested out the rope bridge of one of the groups - thanks for the rough ride gentlemen! The second activity took the students (and myself) through an old railway tunnel, complete with murder story! The best activity was the mini gorge adventure! I don't think the pupils quite knew how wet they were going to get! The photo shows me demonstrating how to fall backwards into freezing water in style! All in all the weekend was a great success. I am pleased with the balance achieved between academic studies and adventure. I really recommend including some kind of adventure activity into any field trip a...

The Saturday was spent examining the Geography of the local area around Talybont on Usk. I have to thank all of those involved: Ron from the Brecon Beacons National Park eductaion service and all those at Big Pit . After a huge breakfast (another thank you to the staff at Danywenallt ) the group tackled a 4km walk tracing the industrial history of the valley. This included the impact of tourism - for example one of the local villages has only 9 residents due to the effect of second homes. Pupils investigated the site of the old water wheel, the uses of the canal and also explored access and conservation issues. We visited Big Pit after lunch and the students saw the contrast between the agricultural and industrial valleys. A huge thank you to Pete the guide who really made the tour enjoyable.

The last weekend of April saw me in the New Forest training a range of staff to become DofE expedition trainers. The course run by Hampshire's Outdoor Education Unit.

The start of the expedition season saw the Bronze DofE group finally being tested in the New Forest. 21 students split into 3 expedition groups followed a 20km route over 2 days. For this first adventure we stayed at Tile Barn . This Hampshire run centre continues to expand its range of activities and I was impressed by their facilities once again. The picture above shows one of the groups in camp preparing the evening meal! I have to say that I was highly impressed by the ability of the groups. This has been the first cohort of Bronze participants that I have trained for a while as I normally focus on the Gold level of the Award. The weather was very hot for the time of year, with some participants getting through 4 litres of water each day. The anticyclonic conditions did mean that it got very cold at night. I especially suffered as I had decided to rely on my sleeping bag liner and left my full bag at home! The weekend wouldn't have been possible without the support of th...

Wow! What a few weeks it has been. I'm afraid to say that I have been too busy to post but have vowed to get up to date this evening. One of the issues that has stopped me posting is that I have been unable to get photos uploaded - I've now solved this problem by using Picasa 's 'BlogThis!' function. I'm probably behind with this but if you don't use this method to upload photos to your blogger weblog I highly recommend it! Right, well the last post was all about skiing. I thought I'd put a little more detail. This first image shows Poutine. It's chips, cheese and gravy and is a traditional dish of Quebec. I have to say that I felt my arteries closing as I ate this but it was very very tasty. It got me thinking about how I should be eating locally inspired and sourced food wherever I am in the globe. This next photo shows the conditions near the top of Jay Peak by the Thursday. I have to say that I have never experienced snow like it! On the Monday...