Year 5 girls recently had a trip to Chiswick Pier to support their Geography investigations on rivers. They arrived in glorious sunshine and spent several hours exploring how the Thames has shaped this part of London. The girls were told how the pier rises with the high tides to keep a landing stage for the various users of the river and we saw how the local houses cope with flooding (a common occurrence at high tide). The girls caught a rather large crab amongst a multitude of snails, tiny shrimps, tube worms, elvers and the almost invisible to the eye flounders. The afternoon was spent discussing how the river has evolved since Roman times and how the buildings along the Thames have changed and been redeveloped. The girls discussed ecology (wasting water, littering and over use of plastics) which was a sober reminder to all of us to be better citizens and keep the river clean. What a great way to bring Geography to life.
