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
A centre that allows people from all backgrounds to explore the history and implications of the Holocaust. The small but significant collection is designed to tell the stories of those affected and ensure their experiences are not lost.
This would be an especially valuable experience for kids of school age who are covering this subject in their lessons.
A particularly fine example of a Neolithic long barrow of c.3800 BC, featuring a false entrance and side chambers. During excavations in the 1860s, the remains of 31 people were found in the chambers.
A partly reconstructed Neolithic chambered mound, 37 metres (120 ft) long, atmospherically sited overlooking the Severn Valley. 'Hetty Pegler' was its 17th century landowner.
The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to over 54,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres salient in World War I and whose graves are unknown. The memorial is located at the eastern exit of the town and marks the starting point for one of the main roads out of the town that led Allied soldiers to the front line.
A square prehistoric burial mound with an earthwork ditch and outer bank. It was named after a local goblin.
This site lies high on the gritstone moorlands of Harland Edge, above Beeley in the Peak District, reached from the nearest road by a stiff uphill walk of about 2km (1.25 miles).
Winster Market House was the first property to be acquired by the National Trust in the Peak District in 1906 for £50.
It's a lovely brick built listed building and on the first floor is an unmanned information room with interpretation panels detailing the history of the village and a scale model of Winster.
Beautiful Elizabethan manor house restored by John Cadbury in 1936. Even though the interiors are unfurnished, the architecture and charm of the manor are still a sight to behold.
Surrounding farmland managed for landscape and wildlife has permissive access.
Wilderhope Manor is run by the Youth Hostel Association so there may be limited access to some rooms.
The most important prehistoric site of the East Midlands, Arbor Low is a Neolithic henge monument atmospherically set amid high moorland.
Within an earthen bank and ditch, a circle of some 50 white limestone slabs, all now fallen, surrounds a central stone ‘cove’ – a feature found only in major sacred sites. Nearby is enigmatic Gib Hill, a large burial mound.
Castle established by William fitz Osbern in the late eleventh century. The remains of the great tower date to the first half of the twelfth century. Later remodelled by the Lancasters. Birthplace of Henry V.
This is an unstaffed open site, so there's no booking required!
Built in the 1720s, Derwentcote is the earliest and most complete steel-making furnace in Britain.
It produced high-grade steel for springs and cutting tools.
It is one of the few complete examples of the cementation type of furnace, and is the last surviving piece of evidence of cementation steelmaking in the north-east.
Unstaffed open site November to March, no booking required. Self-led dressing up activity.
Discover 300 years of history and over 1 million objects that changed the world in the UK's largest railway museum.
Includes a huge array of locomotives, including the Mallard, a replica of Stephenson's Rocket, Hogwart's Express, the Queen's coach, the Duchess of Hamilton and Japan's high speed train Shinkansen.
The Bushcraft Company offer residential school trips with a difference, taking students into the wild and giving them real back-to-nature experiences they will never forget.
A 15-year-old boy fell 60ft over the edge of a cliff whilst on a geography school trip, miraculously only suffering minor injuries.