Year 12 Geography Field Trip to Wales 2026

Noah, Luke and Freya:

‘Day 1 - We left Arthur Mellows full of excitement and anticipation, only heightened by getting to experience the new minibus. Mr Pepper’s tunes kept us entertained; we were “blessed” by a selection of indie tunes from the 90s and 2000s.

We arrived at Porthcawl where we got some practice doing our questionnaire, joined by the entire Welsh population, it was their first time seeing the sun in 2026! Luke failed to read the labels and had to pay too much for a meal deal, and then we went to the beach to choose which type of clinometer we were going to use. Rowan and Freya jumped into Luke’s arms after being scared by a dog. This gave us some excellent practice ready for the days to come.

For dinner we had a chicken curry, except Rowan who had a jacket potato with no potato! We caught up on ‘The Chase’, watched some ‘Repair Shop’ and found out I can’t play cheat.

Day 2 - Rowan discovered the greatness of hash browns during breakfast. We made the move to Cardiff Bay where we completed the EQS, questionnaires and pedestrian counts. The lack of toilets in Bute Town led to an unnamed group being late…

During our free time, the boys took a different route to the girls, having lunch at ‘Spoons’ and partaking in some bowling. Leon spent £15 on a claw machine to not win anything and Ethan got battered by Illya at pool. Once back at the hostel, burgers were eaten - Rowan was not impressed by the cheese…. the waffles were great, and Mr Pepper approved. After dinner, we discovered no one understands hide and seek rules!

Day 3 - We woke up to find a rogue bagel in the room, unknown of where it came from. Ethan ate his body weight in breakfast and there was more ‘hash brown love’ from Rowan. We were again serenaded by Pepper’s songs while on the way to Port Eynon. Here we collected the data for the Physical Geography, including the gradient of the beach, shapes of rocks and the amount of vegetation. This managed to test the group dynamics.

Once back at the hostel we had chilli and the best pudding of the week, cookies and ice cream, which Leon had chosen to have rather than his usual fruit.

Day 4 - The final day once again began with a huge breakfast. we made our way to Blaenavon excited to get the last jobs done. While in the Big Pit mine, Leon found being tall has its downsides as he repeatedly hit his head on the mine roof. We all thoroughly enjoyed the tour in the mine. Once in the centre of Blaenavon we completed the data collection, while struggling with the large hills.

For the last time we boarded the bus and began to make the long journey home. Once home we were glad to escape Mr Pepper’s music. A wonderful trip!’

Stephanie, Anita, Chloe and Diana:

‘On Wednesday 4 March, the Year 12 Geogs alongside Mr Pepper and Ms Veale travelled to South Wales. On the way there we were subjected to Mr Pepper’s terrible, repetitive playlist!

We went to Porthcawl and practiced our physical data collection techniques where we gained confidence and helpful feedback on how to be more effective geographers.

Every night, in small groups we presented what we did in the day and gathered feedback.

The next day, we went to Cardiff Bay to compare the regenerated and non-regenerated areas. We completed questionnaires, EQSs and pedestrian counts. The best part of the day was shopping in Cardiff city centre, slim chicken and hide and seek at the youth hostel.

On the Friday, we went to Port Eynon to measure the beach angles, about a million pebbles, longshore drift and the sand dunes.

On Saturday we went down the Big Pit mine which was interesting, because we learned about how hard life was for the miners and about the horses they used to keep underground.