Year 7 Scholars Step Back in Time: Exploring Mottingham’s History and Local Geography in Twilight Session
The Year 7 Scholars had their first “twilight” session of the term, led by School Archivist and Geography teacher Mr Andrew Beattie. Beginning in the classroom, the students were taken back to the Mottingham of the 1860s and, using maps of the time, were able to compare the school and its surroundings with how things are today. Where has the “Smithy” in the village gone and how convenient not to have the challenge of crossing Grove Park Road? (It didn’t exist in those days – though Mottingham Lane did.) Many people may not have known that what is now Mottingham Station was Eltham station, but why and when it all changed the students were able to explore.
Leaving the classroom the group then moved outside; it was a little chilly but the variety of clouds in the sky (through which the sun occasionally shone) was great for our cloud-identifying exercise (complete with Latin names and translations)!
After exploring the mysteries of what is in a Stevenson screen, the group went to the far reaches of the school site to look at the hard engineering of the River Quaggy, which flows past the College Meadow pavilion and which has been channelised since flood-prevention work in the 1960s.
It was a fascinating session combining different disciplines and as with all aspects of the Scholarship Programme seeking to enthuse and encourage thinking outside the syllabus.
