Year 11 Geography Trip to Reading Station

Year 11 Geography students have been trekking down to Reading station this term as part of their human Geography fieldwork opportunity that they are required to undertake for their examinations in summer 2020.

They have been investigating whether the regeneration of Reading station, completed in 2014, has had a positive impact on the area. This involved students completing environmental quality surveys at three sites around the station to decide whether the built environment has been improved and whether it is attractive to customers. Most students decided that the station has a very positive environmental quality score due to the quality of the regenerated pedestrianised area and the new station building itself. Additionally, students completed a land use map to assess how attractive the area is to businesses, and finally they asked members of the public to complete an ‘emoji questionnaire’. This is a relatively new interview technique which asks members of the public to pick the emoji that best describes their feelings, in this case regarding the regeneration of the station. The Geography team of Mrs Ellis, Miss Harrison-Smith and Mr Tomsett were extremely impressed by the students; they took the questionnaire very seriously and showed great resilience to keep asking their question despite frequent rejection from members of the public. Overall, the fieldwork has been extremely successful, we avoided most of the rain and the students represented the school extremely well on the walk to and from the station. Now the hard work begins as we write up our findings in class so that students are fully prepared to answer questions on the fieldwork in their summer examinations.