Geography Teaching Today

Is Guildford a clone town? An alternative urban study

Fed up with shopping surveys and urban transects? This is the fieldwork activity for you – an alternative take on the urban study. It can be applied to any town or city in your local area and features a number of tasks that you can select and adapt to suit your requirements. The activity, shown here through the example of Guildford in Surrey, would suit a high ability Year 9 class or a GCSE group, and involves the use of key skills such as the interpretation of census data alongside field-based tasks. It would tie in to an investigation into service provision, standard of living or crime in your local area, as well as a wider study of the British Isles.