physics

RAF Shinfield Park

RAF Shinfield Park is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand RAF Shinfield Park rather than just read about it. In short: RAF Shinfield Park was a Royal Air Force administrative site in the south of Reading, Berkshire. It served as the Met Office residential training college from 1971 until 2002.

Key takeaways

RAF Shinfield Park belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect RAF Shinfield Park to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of RAF Shinfield Park from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

RAF Shinfield Park was a Royal Air Force administrative site in the south of Reading, Berkshire. It served as the Met Office residential training college from 1971 until 2002. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts was built on part of the site in 1978.

History The site is adjacent to the west side of the A327 road in the south of the Reading area, near the current roundabout with the B3270. Adjacent to the south is the former Shire Hall of Berkshire County Council, and the M4. Adjacent to the north is the independent Crosfields School, built on a former part of the RAF site. To the west is Whitley Wood. Although it was built as a part of Berkshire, the current site is in the civil parish of Shinfield, in the Borough of Wokingham. The RAF station was built on the Shinfield Lodge Estate. The site had been owned by Ebenezer Maitland in the 1700s.

RAF Flying Training Command For many years it was the headquarters of RAF Flying Training Command (HQFTC) from 27 May 1940 until 1 June 1968. From 1940 until 1945, it was also the headquarters of RAF Technical Training Command.

RAF Training Command From 1 June 1968 to 13 June 1977 it was the headquarters of RAF Training Command. In June 1977 RAF Training Command became part of RAF Support Command, situated at RAF Brampton in Cambridgeshire.

Meteorological Office College It became the Meteorological Office College in October 1971, who had moved from Stanmore in north-west London. The Met Office College, when under Peter Ewins, left in 2002, briefly staying at South Devon College, before moving to Exeter in 2004. The Met Office College trained not just British meteorologists, but TV weather presenters across Europe. TV weather presenters would receive an intensive 18-week course in meteorology.

ECMWF The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts was established next to the Met Office College in 1978. It is known for its Integrated Forecast System. It has around 100 staff. The site had been agreed to be built following a meeting of 18 countries in Brussels in March 1973. It looked at forecasts from four to ten days hence.

Recent development Most of the site has been turned into housing. Shinfield Lodge has Grade II listing.

See also Shinfield Grange Estate, 478-acre site on the other side of the M4, formerly owned by the University of Reading from 1949, and owned previous to that by Sir Eric Palmer of Huntley & Palmers List of former Royal Air Force stations

References

External links RAF Shinfield Park Archived 18 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine Met Office College history 2010 planning application to Wokingham Borough Council

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with RAF Shinfield Park

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what RAF Shinfield Park claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to RAF Shinfield Park before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about RAF Shinfield Park ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of RAF Shinfield Park

In research: RAF Shinfield Park appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses RAF Shinfield Park in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: RAF Shinfield Park is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1940 establishments in England, 1977 disestablishments in England, Education in the Borough of Wokingham, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for RAF Shinfield Park outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study RAF Shinfield Park in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what RAF Shinfield Park means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain RAF Shinfield Park out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is RAF Shinfield Park in simple terms?

RAF Shinfield Park was a Royal Air Force administrative site in the south of Reading, Berkshire. It served as the Met Office residential training college from 1971 until 2002.

Why does RAF Shinfield Park matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study RAF Shinfield Park?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on RAF Shinfield Park.