Written by Miranda, Year 13
“On the 22nd September, the Year 13 Geography class went on an exciting investigate journey to the North-Oxford suburb of Jericho. We left school at 10:30 in the morning, gladly accepting a lift in a P.E. department minibus – despite the lingering stench. The class of 12 students was then split up into groups of two and three, then assigned specific areas of Jericho to patrol and explore. The aim of our trip was to gather qualitative data on the character of Jericho as an area that has experienced much social change in the past: from being known as a red light district in the 1950’s, to one of the most popular and expensive areas to live in the city at present. To collect this data we sketched and took photos of our surroundings, while we strolled around Jericho, asking passersby to describe what they thought of Jericho and recording their responses. At around 13:00, after we had completed the tasks we were set to do in our allocated areas, we were allowed to grab lunch from a local café or deli. This was one of the biggest highlights of the trip.
While we were sitting, having an impromptu picnic on a bench outside The Jericho Café, our task was to observe the people walking around Jericho and try to draw conclusions about the character of the area from their appearances, along with the way they behaved, dressed and interacted with others. At 14:00 we sadly gathered to leave for school again, yet still managed to enjoy the relaxing walk back to school. When we finally returned, we collated the data from all the groups and analysed it together. Another highlight of the trip was our Jericho themed photo competition, in class later, with fun titles such as ‘best portraiture’, ‘best architectural image’ and ‘best abstract’. Just from that short trip we managed to learn lots about the character of Jericho and how the perceptions of it differed between residents and visitors, and even varied with how long the residents had lived there. The effects that lockdown had on the area were also visible, as a large number of people could be seen on laptops inside the cafés on Walton Street, after much work has remained online because of the pandemic. As a local resident of Jericho myself I found it very interesting to see another side to the area I usually walk through everyday on my way to school, as did everyone else.”
We also got to hear from other students on their experiences of the trip:
“It provided us with a great chance to develop our geographical skills, and it was so nice to transfer what we’d learnt in the classroom (or on Google Meet!) to a real location. It was especially interesting to delve deeper into the history and geography of an area that many of us know well, discovering new things at every street corner. Exploring Jericho with our small group was really enjoyable, particularly as it was so sunny!” – Lizzie
“As photography and field sketches are such vital fieldwork skills, I particularly loved taking photos of the Jericho area. Later we submitted the best ones to our Jericho Trip Photo Competition, including categories such as ‘Photo that best captures Jericho’s character’ and ‘Best image of a contrasting place’, which was a lot of fun!” – Izzy
“One specific activity that we particularly enjoyed was visiting historically significant buildings such as St Barnabas Church and Oxford University Press; this informed us of past and future changes and prompted us to explore how Jericho could be improved.” – Hannah and Eleanor
