Broads Album 2018 and Ecology Practicals
Broads Album 2018
In May, 15 students performed the songs they had written for the project’s inaugural Broads Album at Lowestoft’s Marina Theatre. The quality and variety of the music was outstanding ranging from Classical to Jazz to Rock.
The journey to get to this point started back in late 2017. Music students from Pakefield High School and Lowestoft Sixth Form College were taken out into the Broads National Park to gain inspiration for their songs. Students visited drainage mills, grazing marshes, rivers and the Trinity Broads. Over the next five months, the students were regularly supported to help them turn their experiences and ideas into music.
Eleven songs were chosen for the album and recorded at Lowestoft Sixth Form College before being performed at the Marina Theatre. The Broads Album 2018 is available to listen and download for free on SoundCloud.
G.C.S.E. Ecology Practical
In October, we took 80 East Point Academy’s Combined Science students out to Carlton Marshes Nature Reserve to do their G.C.S.E. Ecology practicals. After an introduction to the Broads National Park followed by a walk around the main habitats of the Reserve the students got to work. Transects were run to investigate the impact of trampling on plant abundance and growth.
After lunch the aquatic fauna in two separate dykes was surveyed to observe the impact of nitrate pollution on species diversity. It was great to see the weird and wonderful invertebrates that live in the National Park’s dykes able to captivate and hold the attention of older students just as much as they do with the younger students we usually work with.