THE numbers of students taking geography at Beaminster School has doubled in the last few years.

The subject’s popularity has been partly due to the past five years of field trips organised by head of geography Matthew Curtis-Dyke.

His latest excursion saw soggy but enthusiastic Year 10s braving the weather on the Somerset coast at Porlock Bay.

This was no mere sightseeing trip as the students got to grips with their fieldwork assignment investigating the process of longshore drift along the beach.

In wet conditions each student collected data on stone size and angularity, and completed beach profiles at two sample sites.

In their coursework students used their data to complete a range of presentation and statistical skills such as proportional symbols, interquartile ranges and the Mann Whitney U Test.

Mr Curtis-Dyke said: “I would like to thank all parents, guardians and the other members of staff who took part for their support, and to thank the students for their excellent efforts. It was a great trip, despite the terrible weather.”

David Solly, chairman of governors at Beaminster School, also attended and was impressed with the department’s fieldwork equipment and Nettlecombe Field Studies Centre’s facilities.

Sixth form academic tutor Amanda Graham and cover supervisor Karen Dungate also took part in the trip and assisted the students with their studies.

Geography has become more and more popular at Beaminster.

Last August student results in Geography at GCSE were 89 per cent A* to C and 50 per cent of the students achieved an A* or A grade.

Mr Curtis-Dyke has taken a range of year groups on field trips.

These included Studland, Swa-nage, Minehead, Chesil Beach, Lulworth Cove and Holford Brok in the Quantocks.

It’s bronze award for students

A GROUP of Year 10 pupils from Beaminster School have just completed their Bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award.

It has taken them a year to complete.

The group has had to complete four challenges – voluntary work, learning a skill, a physical recreation activity and an expedition. Pupils acquired a wide range of skills, with students learning instruments, photography, sketching, touch typing, fencing and marksmanship.

For their physical recreation activity the students completed activities such as netball, running, taekwondo, horse riding, cycling and tennis.

Students have worked in Bridport Museum, a range of charity shops and worked in school helping younger students with their literacy and numeracy skills for the voluntary section of the award.

The Duke of Edinburgh Award has been running at Beaminster School for the past five years and due to its success, the school has also started to run the Silver Award.

Rachael Randall, Matthew Curtis-Dyke, Gilly Poulten and Steve Everington have helped to run the course, working with students in small teams as mentors.

The fourth part of the course is the expedition.

Students are expected to plan and navigate a route through open countryside. They also have to camp and cook out for one night.

This year the students walked around the Marshwood Vale area in very wet conditions.

As part of their expedition students have to complete an aim and present their finding back at school, and one group researched the Monarch’s Way, while another group looked at animal tracks.

Parents, assessors, governors and students recently attended a DofE presentation evening at Beaminster School.

Students presented their projects, discussed their overall experiences and laid on food and drink for their audience. All students took to the stage to thank their assessors, parents and teachers, and are now keen to go on to complete their Silver Award.