Rotarians funded a visit by Dartmouth Academy students to the Slapton Ley Educational Project.

Dartmouth Rotary Club successfully applied for a Rotary Foundation grant of £1,600 to fund the educational visit to the National Nature Reserve and Site of Specific Scientific Interest.

Fifty-two year nine pupils and 28 year 10 pupils, along with four tutors, made the special trip to undertake field work focussing on the past, present and future of Slapton Sands, including a mix of geography, history, team games, and a focus on the effects of climate change.

Activities included mapwork to link maps to the landscape; a lithology survey to help understand how the beach was formed, linking to sea level rise and current challenges linked to climate change and rising sea levels; storm events and their impacts and how communities are adapting to this - students will come up with an assessment for the effectiveness of the sea defences at Torcross; World War II history storytelling about Exercise Tiger; and a beach scavenger hunt.

Students also looked to the future and asked the area might change; the challenges and opportunities of those changes; and discussed stakeholder viewpoints and why these may vary.

A Rotarian spokesperson said: “The students will now write a field work report for Rotary after their end of term assessments, to remind them of their studies at Slapton. It will be perfect for their GCSE Geography work.”

Dartmouth Academy tutor Hattie Eggleton said: “We’re deeply grateful for the opportunity. We do feel our pupils have missed out a bit with Covid, but opportunities like this really help to motivate them. Thank you to the Rotary Club. My daughter was in this group too, so thank you from a grateful parent.”