Students visit the River Brett for Field Studies

One of the organisations we have welcomed to the estate is the Field Studies Council.

Education Team Leader, Charlotte Foster, wrote about one of their recent field trips to the River Brett:

Field Studies Council is a UK wide environmental education charity set up in 1943. Flatford Mill was our first centre to open and we have been welcoming guests here since 1946.  We are probably best known for delivering GCSE and A level fieldwork residential courses, but we also provide day courses and natural history courses, offering both leisure and learning opportunities for all ages and abilities.

As an environmental education charity, we campaign to make sure that every child has the opportunity to experience high quality outdoor learning and fieldwork, not just those that can afford it. Giving all young people this chance will develop those with the skills and knowledge that the UK needs to combat both climate change and the biodiversity crisis.

As we work to deliver this aim, we are very happy to be able to work with local landowners to share the wonders of the beautiful Suffolk countryside with our visiting students and for our river studies, we visit a stretch of the River Brett at the edge of Bildeston, owned by Heathpatch Ltd.

Students completing their GCSEs, A Levels and other courses are keen to see their river theory come to life and this river site certainly enables us to do this, with its riffle, pool, river cliff and meander sections! Formally, we take a number of river measurements to assess how hydraulic processes change downstream to shape the river channel and landforms, but it is the informal learning possible in the real world setting that really engenders a connection to nature and creates a firm foundation of understanding to support more in-depth knowledge. From the moment they tentatively wobble down the muddy slope to the channel, to standing in the stream, leaning into the force of the water on their boots and then marching confidently out with all their data: a transformation has occurred. Most of our students are from urban locations and studying a river in a working landscape, with the cows or sheep around them and discussing how the local people and river interact is a real novelty. Here we see a group of students exploring how best to design fieldwork to capture young people’s imagination.

Below is a schematic of data, with Bildeston included, showing a summary of how the River Brett changes downstream. We also occasionally conduct invertebrate sampling at the site. As the compound bar graph below shows, there is a good population of invertebrates in the channel, including some species indicative of very high ‘Pond Health’ such as Cased Caddis Fly larvae and Damselfly nymphs. Students can use this data to consider the importance of invertebrate populations within the ecosystem and how we can use rivers sustainably to maintain important ecosystem services.

Many thanks to Charlotte Foster of the Field Studies Council for this insight into their field work with students.

Please get in touch if you would like to use our estate for educational opportunities: info@dairyfarmoffice.co.uk