The Beecroft Art Gallery is now open Tuesday - Saturday 10am-5pm. Come visit us in our new home in the old Central Library building on Victoria avenue, next to Central Museum.
Engaging Pupils with History and Science
History
History
History tells stories about people, places and things to help explain to young people of any age why the world is as it is as they grow up and begin to question it.
Schools will choose different periods and settings and topics to cove during different Key Stages, but all of them are pretty well guaranteed to be rooted in actual places that can be visited, explored and enjoyed.
It has been a curious fact that for many years primary classes have studied the Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, while secondary school syllabuses have been more engaged in post-medieval periods. For a while secondary courses involved a great deal of ‘topic work’. While this discipline still exists, the recent examination syllabuses have returned to an emphasis on historical periods and links.
But all periods and topics provide fantastic opportunities for school visits. We are so lucky that so many general and specialist museums and visitor centres exist in the UK. The problem is not a shortage of possibilities but how one sifts through the available opportunities to make choices.
The Historical Association website carries information about course, conferences, study tours, and the Association has published ‘The Historian’ magazine for many years. Handsam is also happy to help, please contact us on 03332 070737 or email info@schooltripsadvisor.org.uk.
Most venues will have teaching materials and activities geared to students’ different ages and aptitudes whether at primary or secondary level. All of them will set out to develop students’ ability to understand, analyse and evaluate key features and characteristics of historical periods and events studied.
Some venues will be easy to identify because they fit neatly with the period and topic being studied but others may offer new possibilities, not least to the teachers themselves. Teachers need and deserve their own stimulation.
Over the next four years there will be an upsurge in visits to the First World War battlefields. Because of this there will be an increase in companies offering visits and requirement for battlefield guides, especially in northern France and Belgium. There are bound to be discrepancies in guides’ knowledge and experience. Close research into the credentials of the company you are contracting with, and the company’s guarantees about guides, will ensure that your group will not be disappointed.
Main organisations:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Inclusion: NASEN
Thought of visiting?
Roman Vindolanda and Roman Army Museum at Hadrian’s Wall
Viriconium, Wroxeter, Shropshire
The Jorvik Viking Centre, York
Offa’s Dyke Trail and Chirk Castle
The National Trust for Scotland
Clan Donald Visitor Centre, Isle of Skye
Bosworth Battlefield Visitor Centre
Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin
Exeter Cathedral Education Centre
The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
The Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth
East Anglia Railway Museum, Colchester
The National Tramway Museum, Matlock
Venues for this Curriculum
The Higgins Bedford unites on one site three previous cultural venues : Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford Museum and Bedford Gallery. The buildings themselves date back 200 years and have their own rich history of occupation and use, even before they became used for their more recent cultural past.
The Museum of Early Medieval Northumbria at Jarrow. Looks at the life and times of the Venerable Bede (AD 673-735,) one of the greatest scholars of his age.
The Tower is an extraordinary building that stands today as the only surviving example of William Beckford’s great architectural achievements.
A beautiful museum in the small market town of Pickering.
Perfect for visiting when the sun's shining to enjoy the outdoor farm courtyard and riverside picnic area and just as great to spend time exploring our 27 themed rooms during the occasional Yorkshire rain shower.
The Museum was founded in 1976 and for twenty years occupied two rooms at the Quaker Hall, Beccles. In 1996 it moved to Leman House in Ballygate, Beccles where it can still be found. The collection has mainly been built up through donations and concentrates on objects and information related to Beccles and the surrounding area.
This Victorian jail was built by Hansom (famous for the Hansom Cab) in 1829. The gaol features the only original tread wheel in situ in Britain and a gibbet is still fixed to the outer wall.
This building is full of sad memories and secrets providing a fascinating insight into the world of the prisoner during the 1800s.
Beatrix Potter's original artwork on display in a 17th-century house
Step inside this charming old building to enjoy an exhibition of Beatrix Potter's original drawings and watercolours. This year we discover what it was like to go ‘On holiday with Beatrix Potter’ and how her unique travels inspired her wonderful stories.
Beaminster Museum is a local history museum for Beaminster and thesurrounding villages and hamlets, including Broadwindsor, Burstock, Chedington, Corscombe, Drimpton, Halstock, Hooke, Mapperton, Melplash, Mosterton, Netherbury, Salway Ash, Stoke Abbott, South Perrott, Thorncombe and Toller Whelme.
Formerly the home of the Wright-Taylor family, Baysgarth House has been in public ownership since 1930. In 2004 Champ Ltd took over the management of the house including its buildings, museum, collections and archives. Baysgarth House Museum celebrates the lives of local people through permanent and temporary exhibitions and projects.
Set within the beautiful, originally Elizabethan, walled gardens of The Almonry, Battle Museum of Local History preserves and exhibits hundreds of fascinating artefacts from the town's past, including objects from prehistoric and Roman times to the world's oldest effigy of Guy Fawkes and items from the two World Wars.
Bath has played a vital role in the development of communications, and improving the British postal service. It can thus boast many "firsts" as you will discover when you visit this fascinating museum, which will illustrate how the postal service played a major part in linking areas of the world".
Schools
Jacobean house, home of Rudyard Kipling
'That's She! The Only She! Make an honest woman of her - quick!' was how Rudyard Kipling and his wife, Carrie, felt the first time they saw Bateman's.
Surrounded by the wooded landscape of the Sussex Weald, this 17th-century house, with its mullioned windows and oak beams, provided a much needed sanctuary to this world-famous writer.
One of the most magnificent collections of musical instruments in the world with over 2,000 instruments from the Western orchestral music traditions from the renaissance, through the baroque, classical, romantic and up to modern times.
More than a thousand instruments are on display, by all the most important makers and from pre-eminent collectors.
Basing House has a Museum with rooms dedicated to everyday life in the Tudor period and the Civil War as it happened here at the site.
School Visits
An 18th-century house, a 1950s home
Basildon Park, a Georgian mansion surrounded by parkland, was lovingly rescued by Lord and Lady Iliffe in the mid 1950s. The house you see today is a re-creation and restoration of the 18th-century mansion. They restored the elegant interior and scoured the country salvaging 18th-century architectural fixtures and fittings.
Britain's last surviving working Roundhouse
Whatever your memories of Britain’s railways you’ll be amazed at what you can see at Barrow Hill and its preserved Roundhouse.
Throughout each year the galas feature working steam and diesel locomotives, which are often joined by a variety of visiting steam and modern diesel locomotives off the main line.
This museum houses the agricultural and social history collections of Craigavon Museum. There are displays on domestic life in rural areas, blacksmithing, haymaking and local industries. The collections on display include the tools of a local blacksmith as well as items illustrating the area's links with the linen industry, apple growing and rose growing.
Barmouth Sailors' Institute is a unique building and is an important part of Barmouth's Maritime history.
Climb to the top of this 1000 year old Norman Castle for stunning panoramic views across Sussex.
The adjoining Barbican House is home to the Museum of Sussex Archaeology and houses local collections from the Stone Age to medieval times. A mini-cinema tells the story of Lewes from prehistoric to Victorian times.
Restored to its Edwardian glory, Bantock House is a hidden treasure set within 43 acres of parkland and surrounded by delightful formal gardens.
Bankfield Museum is housed in an imposing Victorian Mansion, set within an attractive park, less than a mile from the centre of Halifax.
This popular museum attracts thousands of visitors each year from across the world. The permanent exhibition contains remarkable and unique artefacts associated with the colourful history of this region.
The Ballycastle museum is housed in the 18th century courthouse and market building. The Collection includes the very important and fine Irish Homes Industries Workshop which was part on the Arts and Crafts Revival in Ireland. Much of this material was displayed in the Irish Pavilion at the St Louis World Fair in 1904 through F.J. Bigger and R.J. Welch.
Derbyshire Museum of the Year
Step back into Bakewells long and rich history. A 1 hr walk from the river Wye to the Old House led by knowledgable and enthusiastic guides. Discover hidden facts, myths and legends on this enlightening and entertaining tour.
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