Wallace Pupils Worldly Wise

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13506.jpgStudents from The Wallace High School last week won the UK finals of the Geographical Association’s Worldwise Challenge, defeating seven other schools from throughout the UK. Last November a Wallace team (Year 12 pupil David Gilkinson, Year 13 Elaine Oliver and Year 10 Jamie Pow) won the Northern Ireland heat held in Queen’s University Belfast. Wallace pupils were then invited to the finals held in Malham Tam Field Studies Centre in North Yorkshire, and Year 11 pupils Alex Mobbs and Fiona Campbell joined Jamie on the trip.

Alex explained, “We arrived at the centre on the Friday afternoon and were welcomed by the Geographical Association. The theme for the weekend was ‘What makes Malham a special place?’ and as an introductory session we heard about special places such as New York from some of the leaders.”

Jamie went on, “On the Saturday morning we were divided into groups and we visited Malham Cove, Goredaledale Scar and some of the peatlands in the area, exploring in particular the limestone features of the area. Our team then took part in a series of really enjoyable fieldwork activities including soil tests.”

Fiona continued, “The three of us then worked together to prepare an oral presentation on our findings as well as a poster. We were all very nervous beforehand but we were absolutely delighted to win the overall competition. The weekend was great fun and the other finalists were really friendly. As well as the fieldwork activities we also had the opportunity to relax, play sports and get to know each other. We’d really like to thank Miss McKee for giving up her time to travel with us and to Mrs Singleton for her help in the Northern Ireland heat of the competition.”

Barbara McKee, Head of Geography at Wallace concluded, “Alex, Fiona and Jamie worked really hard throughout the weekend Their enthusiasm, team work and superb investigative approach led to their success and they were excellent ambassadors for Northern Ireland. We are delighted to bring back the UK Worldwise title to Lisburn.”

Last modified: February 24, 2016