Supporting their study of rivers this term, Elements recently enjoyed an outing to the Thames Explorer Trust at Chiswick. The Trust is an environmental education charity that raises awareness of the river through a range of activities that investigate river wildlife, geography, history and environmental issues and how the Thames has inspired artists for many generations.

The boys had two sessions in the day: one to experience field work on the foreshore, where they river dipped to gather evidence to assess and record water quality through water and invertebrate sampling; they recorded river features; measured river speed and depth on the jetty and then went on a riverside trail to look at the effect of past flooding in the area and the defence strategies that have been employed. The second session indoors involved a ‘river of life’ game to investigate the changes to the Thames over the past two thousand years. This session also involved the boys in role play.

A thoroughly enjoyable day.

Mrs Owens and Mrs Slemp