On Tuesday 14^th March, Year 5 went to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve as part of their studies on rivers and coasts. They were greeted by the ladies from the Discovery Centre and walked down to the Education Zone, spotting different coastal features on the way. The morning started with a visit to the beach, past the bird sanctuary, spotting different breeds of birds on the Salt Marsh flats. Once they had reached the beach, they had to comb the site looking for any evidence of discarded sea life, as well as picking up any litter. The children worked in groups with buckets finding shells, shark and ray eggs and parts of crabs. They also found bits of plastic, metal and wood that had washed ashore and discussed the relative lifespan of rubbish depending on their materials.

After lunch, the children did some map work in the Education Zone and looked at the nature reserve map, labelling parts that they had become familiar with on their walk to get a better understanding of the land around them. They then went for another walk outside, noticing how the tide had risen and watched all the new boats entering the river mouth. Natasha, their group leader, taught them about water flow along the coast and demonstrated longshore drift, with a kinaesthetic exercise involving the children running in different directions towards various coloured flags. After that they all had great fun making sand and rock castles and throwing water at them to see which survived and continued to stand up.

After a particularly windy day outside, Year 5 walked back to the bus, tired but happy and much the wiser about coastal management!