A school trip to Serre Chevalier, French Alps


Dartford Grammar School has been travelling to the Alps for more than a decade, with the intention of providing our sixth formers’ with a consummate location in which to conduct investigations for their Geography coursework.

In the International Baccalaureate Geography course, the Hautes-Alpes is the perfect region which supplies our students with the ability to explore all areas of the course and to collect enough data for their chosen topics: Freshwater, Extreme Environments, Leisure and Tourism etc.

Day one

As soon as we arrived, we immediately assigned students’ to their respective rooms so that we could embark on our fieldwork in Villeneuve without further delay. The Year 12 students were immaculate in their approach to undertaking valley transects and land use mapping, much owed to the practice of leading them out of the hotel and teaching them in the open valley. Inevitably, the students learnt some vital observational skills which will be crucial for when certain students conduct their ‘tourism investigations’.

After a well-earned rest and wash, the DGS group retired for an evening meal, followed by a session of teaching and learning. We led the proceedings in guiding students through: an introduction to the Alps and the local area; an analysis of the valley transects relating to ubac and adret slopes; and tourism in the alps. Hotel doors shut and lights out early tonight in anticipation of a big day ahead of us consisting of a visit to the River Guisane for the student’s ‘river investigations’.

Day two

It was an early start for all staff and students as breakfast was soon followed by packing our bags and getting ready to leave for the Mountain tops. We departed from Serre Chevalier, the town in which the DGS hotel is based, and headed for the source of the River Guisane.

The teachers helped introduce the local valley area and gave the students a physical demonstration of all of the new techniques and equipment they would be utilising to collect data. For the river investigation, students were shown how to measure the gradient, width, depth, and velocity of a river.

The students showed vast amounts of enthusiasm and were clearly keen to get started in their groups. The teachers were merely on standby at that point as the students took over and immediately got to grips with the task at hand.

The journey of our trip down the course of the river would consist of visiting 7 sites (1 more than originally planned): from the source where water trickled out from the scree slope, into a ‘braided river channel’ where the valley opened wide, down over a waterfall as we followed over a ‘hanging valley’, and then progressed along the middle course of the river. The students will later revisit the River Guisane to collect more data in the week if they choose to do so for their investigations.

Despite possessing safety equipment, such as a ‘throw line’ in case any student lost their footing in the river due to the sheer force of the flow, none of the teachers were called into action. This is a clear demonstration of the carefulness and courageousness that DGS students possess.

Day three

The third day embraced the outdoor world to the extreme. The extreme tourist destination of the Ecrins National Park and a perfect example of an extreme environment. The students were well educated ahead of their climb of the glacier that the reason for the area’s fragile state consisted of climate, nature and human kind’s approach to coexist without harming said nature.

We departed much earlier than any other day in order to reach the destination which is one of only ten national parks that exist in France – five less than in the UK. Of an area which rises up to 4km (13.5k ft.) and covering over 900km2 of high mountain areas, glacier fields and valleys and alpine woodlands, the students knew that the task ahead of them would be a great accomplishment.

Upon arrival to the national park, it was clear to see just how well preserved the area was. The teachers made sure to cover an array of different material such as “what makes this national park extreme?”, “to what extent should national parks be protected?”, “who can tell me which direction north is?”. Although the latter may seem unusual, all of these questions and more apply to key geographical theory that are crucial in the Geography IB course. After a gear check and reapplication of sunscreen, we led the group of DGS ramblers up the mountain side.

Upon reaching the summit, it was evident that the students had been tested physically and enjoyed a well-earned rest at the glacier snout. There were some amazing opportunities for photographs of the surrounding area before our descent.

After our decline back down the path we had previously climbed, the students were set one last task of collecting data for their tourism investigation; this was in order to enable them to see how far afield tourists were travelling to visit the region and what was being developed to encourage rejuvenation, with regards to the Butler Model.

Further days of specialist data collection and a ‘Natural Hazards’ investigation (which explored the risks of flooding in Villeneuve and Le Bez) will inevitably provide invaluable skills to those interested in venturing into related career paths. Home bound, exhausted, but ultimately satisfied, the Alps trip of 2016 can be deemed to be a great success.

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