My time at Juniper Hall

By Rowena

Hello! My name is Rowena. I have been at Juniper Hall for two years now as a tutor. However, now is the end of my time here- I am moving on to new things in the frozen North, at Newcastle University!

It’s going to be so cold.

As part of the tutor team, Juniper Hall has been a fantastic experience. From waking up every morning to this view…

View this post on Instagram

The cows are back in my front garden for the Summer #moo

A post shared by Jack Starbuck (@thatstarbuck) on May 11, 2017 at 8:20am PDT

I’ve taught some very interesting groups in my time:

• Students that have found the free U2 album on the ipads and played music while recording river measurements
• A-level biologists from London that have played hide-and-seek after class because they’ve never been to the countryside
• “Miss, can woodlice fly? I bet they can.”
• “Miss, is that a cow?” [Points at black & white horse]
• A KS2 group that had to almost run back to centre from Box Hill after a freak thunderstorm, getting drenched by the time we were back (It was actually in Reigate)
• A KS2 student that decided to make “leaf angels” with me (You rock!)
• Every single student that’s sung the Banana song the next morning after a campfire
• My last group that cheered so hard, and climbed on each other’s shoulders (in Bebbington. I feared for their heads)
• All the students that have tried to jump the River Tillingbourne at Crossways, especially those that have failed (especially the ones that failed on camera!)
• The students that have gotten stuck in Pagham Harbour with big muddy smiles
• The students that wanted to spray paint rocks to investigate longshore drift (always a good idea!)
• The KS2 children that made themselves beards out of burrs and stickyweed
• The children that have fallen in the River Mole at the Stepping Stones (or leapt)
• The Real Family Holiday families and children who have all been so curious- those that have climbed the starfish (I fear for you), the amazing red-haired super-mum who pushed a double buggy all the way to the shelter building area, the sweet kids that sat and made apple bird-feeders for hours last year, the huge set of families that made the most incredible shelter I’ve ever seen, that sat about 10 and didn’t leak a drop!
• All the lovely schools that have brightened my days with thank-you letters…

What a lovely surprise from @LingfieldND! Some lovely memories written and drawn about =) pic.twitter.com/DFk0P0uTOE

— Rowena Pattenson (@Syn_Sharptooth) November 15, 2016

It’s been said never to work with children and animals, and yet I’ve spent most days working with both (for better and for worse!)

 

 

 

• Once I found a mole in the River Tillingbourne
• I’ve been headbutted by the goats so many times
• I’ve spray-painted a chicken purple
• A student once just straight-up grabbed a lizard from underneath a log and it was awesome
• The horses at Crossways Farm have chased me around the field about 10 times in the last 2 months
• The students that, instead of picking up an invasive crayfish after they dropped it, jumped on it, then threw it in a tree
• The teacher that allowed me to scare their entire class with a pet stick insect (they all left the room entirely for 10 minutes)
• The school that drove me to Leatherhead Animal Rescue to rehabilitate an exhausted brown long-eared bat and got me in the newspaper!

 

Bat dudebro ❤ (Now rescued) pic.twitter.com/cMueW7fpp2

— Rowena Pattenson (@Syn_Sharptooth) October 11, 2016

I’ve had such a good time while I’ve been here (in all weathers- sun, rain, snow, thunderstorms), with so many incredible memories. Perhaps one day I’ll come back to teach again! After all, I haven’t yet had a pond named after me like Kate (one of our recent Education Assistants).

This is definitely the best spot to teach from

Thanks for all the great memories, Juniper!

Best geography & ecology resources

By Rowena

Over time, I’ve been collating a list of websites that are some of the best (or coolest) resources for geography, biology and ecology.

Geography

Datashine  -The 2011 census, geolocated and mapped for multiple different census datasets.

NullSchool  -Mapping of the world, showing meteorological flows and ocean currents.

Ventusky  -Similar to NullSchool, although on a flat projection. Generally slightly easier to use than NullSchool.

Windy.com  -Weather patterns emerging over the next 5 days, with forecasts and animated maps.

CO2 levels  -Looks at atmospheric carbon dioxide and the change over the past ~260 years.

Fairness on the 83  -Fascinating human geography on inequality in Sheffield, and the changes in life expectancy over the route of the 83 Bus.

GeoLibrary  -365 days of geographical books, covering all topics geographical!

London Tree Map  -London’s trees mapped, by species.

Ecology & Environmental Science

ISpot  -Citizen science project to identify and map species.

Hunt the Moth -A fun game where you have to find the camouflaged moth as fast as possible.

Cloud Atlas -An international atlas of different types of cloud, by the World Meteorological Organization. Used to describe and define different types of cloud.

And finally, data presentation…

FT Interactive  -Visual vocabulary, but interactive!

A day at Juniper Hall

By Rowena

The other day I was talking to a friend and they asked me “I’d really like to know what you actually did at work every day”, because I’ve  got interesting new stories every week. Well, as I run the blog (as much as I can, inbetween teaching), I thought I’d write up a standard day at the River Tillingbourne, where I spend most of my time.

A day at the River with a (big) GCSE group

8.45am– Turn up to the tutor’s office for our morning meeting. Check where everyone’s going (100 at the river? Fantastic.) Listen to Jack crack out some amazing jokes and have everyone laugh.

9.00am– Set up classroom with whiteboards, booklets and check equipment. Put morning tunes on the SmartBoard. Check in with other tutors they’re happy with the day & plans.

9.25am– Check school have arrived in the main office. Photocopy nominal roll and check numbers.

9.30am– Meet teachers & group. Try and organise 100 GCSE kids into 4 class groups. They get distracted by the goats fighting. Finally get them sorted with waterproofs and wellies in the cellar.

10.00am– Introduction to the river in the classroom, using ArcGIS and whiteboards and booklets. Give out equipment. Students get confused over hydroprops. Give out lots of pencils.

11.00am– Coach to the river. This is either 20 minutes of quiet, or utter raucous noise.

11.20am– Arrive at Crossways Farm. Give safety briefing and walk down road. Students scream at the muddy entrance. Horses sometimes try to escape. Give introduction to fieldwork and set students off.

When you can't get to the autolevel for gradient #fieldworkfails #yearoffieldwork pic.twitter.com/SvBy7IEagr

— Rowena Pattenson (@Syn_Sharptooth) March 5, 2016

11.45am– Stop horses from eating hydroprop. Watch student fall in river after attempting to jump across. Pick up 6 hydroprops from where they’ve been left discarded on the ground. Field sketches using SNOTT (Scale, Notes, Orientation, Time/Date, Title).

12.00pm– Coach to Abinger Hammer. Fieldwork first. Stand for 10 minutes watching last group mess around while rest of groups eat lunch.

12.30pm– Eat lunch now last group have finished. Hope nobody is dropping litter. Hope nobody has abandoned equipment in the river.

View this post on Instagram

River

A post shared by Rowena-Jayne Pattenson (@syn_sharptooth) on Mar 14, 2017 at 12:18pm PDT

1.15pm– Fish tape measure out of river. Coach to Gomshall 2.

1.30pm– Fieldwork at Gomshall 2. Students get completely soaked as it’s the last (and deepest) river site.  Find lamprey. Students scream more.

View this post on Instagram

Mist on the river

A post shared by Rowena-Jayne Pattenson (@syn_sharptooth) on Jan 7, 2017 at 3:33am PST

2.30pm– Return to Juniper Hall on coach. Students have break. Wrestle with data and printer. Also return waterproofs.

3.00pm– Methods game & methodologies in classroom. Give out more pencils. Students forget how they measured width. Remind them.

4.00pm– Cake break. Enjoy sunshine for 10 minutes.

4.20pm– Teachers announce they want to leave early at 4.30. Quickly wrap up.

4.30pm– Put away equipment in cellar. Send through data to school on Dropbox. Answer emails. Print for tomorrow- another rivers’ day? Great! Perhaps get a cup of tea (finally).

5.45pm– HOMETIME! Perhaps drop by the kitchen for some dinner if it’s something good. Chocolate pudding? Don’t mind if I do…

 

And then we do it all again tomorrow!

 

Coastal geography development

By Rowena

New specifications are coming for September, and we’ve been very busy putting together brand new days for them…

It’s a long way down to the coast from Juniper Hall, about an hour and a half to Newhaven or Pagham each, so we split it over a couple of days. Coasts is coming back in a big way to geography, so we headed down on Wednesday to update our fieldwork techniques and collect some secondary data (and some pokemon! Newhaven has loads!)

Newhaven is one of those places that seems to be always windy, but the beach is pretty nice when the sun finally comes out. The tide was really far out, so we explored down past a wooden groyne at the end of the beach, and the rockpools below the pebble beach. We also checked out a few information signs about the area for background information- along Seaford these were most helpful, showing a cross-section of the beach defences underneath the beach that’s been built up. Apparently there are 3 different sea walls hidden under there!

Investigating information boards

While we were at Newhaven, we had a go at some beach and cliff profiling, collecting some secondary data for groups to use and compare their own data to in the future. Out with the clinometers and the ranging poles!

Cracking out the ranging poles

After Newhaven, we headed down to Seaford, for both chips on the beach (lunch!), and a look at the terminal groyne. This prevents longshore drift removing all the sediment from the beach (ie, the whole thing).  We measured the beach profile beyond the terminal groyne as well, to give a bit of a comparison to Newhaven- which is in front of the harbour arm, so a little different. Did a spot of bird watching as well- lovely fulmars flying round the cliffs, and cormorants drying their wings on Seaford’s stack.

360 view from Seaford’s terminal groyne

Next we headed off to Birling Gap, famous for its slowly-diminishing number of houses. There are only four left now after they knocked the fifth down a couple of years ago, and it’s a really good example of what happens when there’s no coastal management along a piece of coastline.

We had a quick stop off at Cuckmere Haven on the way back to look at the meanders, before hitting the road to get back to JH for the weekly Stepping Stones quiz!

Juniper Hall’s education team (Missing Denham D:)

Lowland Leader Training

By Rowena

It’s been a really busy week, so I’ve only just managed to get round to writing about this now! Last weekend, from the 26th to the 28th February, Ruth and myself travelled to Orielton Field Centre for three days of training in our Lowland Leader Award. It’s about a 5 hour journey to Orielton by car- to use their tagline, it’s not as far as you think! It wasn’t too bad in all honesty. The worst bit was that we had decided to travel over that morning, so we found ourselves with a 5am wake-up call.

7am at the Severn Bridge

Obviously, the instant we got to Wales it started to rain, but by the time we had got to Orielton (which is in Pembrokeshire), it had amazingly stopped! What was this, a weekend in Wales and no rain?! Somehow, the impossible came true, and we had barely a speckle of rain at all.

After being introduced to the course, the first thing we did was plan our walk for the afternoon with trainer Chris. Tom and Steve had come over from Dale Fort Field Centre (about a 45 minute drive from Orielton) to also attend the course, and knew the area much better than we did, so suggested we went for a 6km walk around Stackpole. There was a picture on the wall of some of the coastline, but it was even more amazing than it looked in a photo.

Barafundle Bay and Stackpole cliffs

Orielton are really lucky to have perfect coastal formations right on their doorstep. It’s very different to the Dorset coastline I got used to living by the sea for a few years. Also fantastic, the birdlife we saw- a kingfisher, goosander and (most excitingly), a pair of chough perched on the clifftops.

Returning to Orielton, we planned our walks for the next couple of days, up in the Preseli Hills. We chose a slightly longer walk for Sunday of 9km, and a walk up the highest hill in Pembrokeshire on Saturday, to the top of Foel Cwmcerwyn. Most of my photos from Saturday are on my camera (perhaps I’ll upload them another time), but I have a few from Sunday, when we went for a walk to Carn Ingli, an old hill fort with spectacular views.

Planning our route

I’ll let the photos speak for themselves, as it was amazing to see. The weather was perfect- very cold, especially being up high, but so clear you could see over to the mountains in north Wales.

Looking towards Newport from Carn Ingli

Steve, font of all knowledge of the area, told us the story of Carn Ingli while we sat in a sheltered spot behind some rocks for a cup of tea before moving on. Who would want to live up so high?!

Carn Ingli

The weekend was really awesome, and I for one learnt a lot about how to plan routes, how to pace a walk and how to use a compass to measure distances. I’ll be putting my new knowledge to use when leading groups out back at Juniper in the future- there was lots of consolidating time on Monday to make sure I knew everything inside out on my 7 hour train journey back to Surrey. Thankfully, I had a spare hour before heading to Pembroke station to run and find a geocache local to Orielton though…

Treasure!!

Broadwood’s Folly

By Rowena

Big changes have been happening up at Broadwood’s Folly today! Sitting in the office halfway through the morning, we were surprised to see someone scaling the side of the tower, a dark blob halfway up the masonry. Then, what should have perhaps been somewhat more obvious, we spotted the rather large cherry picker rising up out of the woods next to the tower. What was going on? A quick scour of the internet popped up the following result from the National Trust:

We’ve had to make the difficult decision to remove the tree growing through the tower known as Broadwood’s Folly at Box Hill.

We have long known the tree was having a detrimental effect on the tower, but on balance thought the tree within the tower offered our visitors a unique experience.

Read more here

Wow- bit of a surprise from the National Trust there! Over the course of the morning the tower started to change from it’s normal furry outline to one a bit more bare, so at lunchtime three of us decided to take a quick walk up to the top to see how it had changed.

Cherry picker on the move

It was quite evident that the tower is not going to look like it has for the past decade. The tree, a holm oak, was starting to look a bit unwell, so the National Trust have decided to remove it from the tree to save the tower. A look at some of the wood they cut down does show there was some pretty nasty rot going on in parts of the tree, which probably wasn’t helping its health…

Sections of wood cut from the holm oak

Holm oak is an evergreen oak from the Mediterranean region, with leaves that are spiky like holly. Sometimes it’s called holly oak, because of this strange feature. Coming from the Mediterranean, it’s obviously non-native, so probably was dropped by a bird as a seed, and has grown up since. In the heartwood there are amazing radiating lines from the centre, which are much paler than the rest of the wood- which has a lovely pinkish tinge in the very middle. The tower is Grade II listed, so the National Trust have decided to cut the tree so that it is not impacted by the tree. It’s a popular walk from the National Trust visitors’ centre on Box Hill, out to the tower and then back via Happy Valley, so the National Trust want to keep the popularity of this walk by preserving the Folly.

Then and now

It’s not quite the same without the tree growing out the top though! Watch this space for some more pictures when they cut down the tree completely, and we get a very different tower from the one we’ve known…

Jason and Michelle check the tower out

South East Regional Training

By Rowena

On the 11^th and 12^th of January, staff from Field Studies Centres all over the South East region came to Juniper Hall for regional training. Very exciting! Two days of lectures (and lots of FSC fun) lined up, with speakers from Juniper Hall, other centres and outside guest speakers too. All fun for us at the centre, and visiting staff from the other London centres (Amersham, Epping Forest and the London Projects), Flatford Mill, and Slapton Ley.

Tasty insect snacks on the tables- Yum!

The day kicked off at about 10am with an overview of the geography specification updates, and sharing of resources for new A-level biology. Everything’s changing this year in the exam specifications, so we’re updating all our teaching resources. We’re trying to get away from using powerpoints, as they’re a little overused at the moment, and instead trying out programmes like SMART notebook, and apps like Popplet and FreezePaint. With any luck I might get a chance a bit later on in the term to write another blog post about those!

Next, Jo from Flatford Mill talked about “Immersive Ecology”, an exciting new session to engage students with ecology. We’re very excited about this, and eager to implement it at Juniper Hall- it’s a new session at the start of residential courses, designed to get students thinking about ecology and how amazing a topic it is, rather than throwing them right into hardcore coursework or controlled assessments. Hopefully we’ll get to teach it very soon!

After, we had a look at some of new resources, we moved on to looking at Field Network Systems, which allow immediate upload of data collected in the field to the web, using a remote wireless network that can just be put in a safety sack and turned on. This was very exciting to investigate by the ponds- we did a little data collection ourselves, recording the water boatmen, daphnia and flatworms wriggling around in our nets.

Heading back inside for a while, we investigated some new apps to use with tablets (such as freeze paint, like I mentioned before). There are some really cool teaching tools I’m excited to use in the future.

After lunch, we took a walk up to Broadwood’s Tower as a group and back down through Happy Valley, slipping and sliding our way through the woods. It’s quite muddy at the moment, but thankfully outdoor tutors are always prepared with their walking boots!

Looking out over the Burford Spur

Back in the Templeton Room, we covered peer observation and how it can be used for personal development, how courses can be reviewed effectively to make them more engaging and relevant, and how to implement questioning in sessions to get the best out of students. This session was led by external speaker Caroline Upson, who gave us valuable advice on illustrating standards of work. In the future, we intend on making “success criteria” for different presentation methods, to show the level if detail required to achieve different grades.

 

Success criteria for drawing cross-profiles

It was a good high to end the day on, having created some useful new resources to use in teaching. After dinner, we headed as a group to the local pub to catch up on news and enjoy different company. The hardier of us headed later to the Ice House for a campfire under the stars- I was told it was lovely, but very cold!

 

 

Day two started off with something a little different; guest speaker Lisa Minshull came in to update our maths skills beyond the statistics we all know (and love!!) to teach. It was pretty tough at times- my maths is not quite as good as it’d like to be- but very rewarding when even I managed to get some of the answers right! Hooray!

The maths wall

The last session of the day pulled together everything we had learned over the past day and a half. Working in our centre groups, we looked at what we could take from training to put into resource development and teaching. There were a lot of really great ideas flying around, and I think we all got a lot out of two days of training- certainly I did!

Working hard!