10-acre walled gardens from 1680. The holly maze is similar to the one at Hampton Court Palace.
Education
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 Museum was founded in 1981. Funded by Greater Manchester Police, it not only collects and preserves archive material and objects relating to the history of policing in the Greater Manchester area, but acts as an important resource for community engagement, where visitors can talk to staff and volunteers about policing.
Education
NCCL delivers educational programmes at the Civil Justice Centre and Crown Court in Manchester and at Bolton Magistrates’ Court.
There have always been ideas worth fighting for. Join a march through time following Britain's struggle for democracy over two centuries
The main story of the museum is told in two purpose built galleries located on the first and second floor. The galleries have been divided into seven themes and roughly follow a chronological order over the last 200 years. The story starts with the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 and ends in the present day.
Relive the legend of Robin Hood, Nottingham's legendary favourite son
Welcome to Nottingham Castle - a magnificent 17th century ducal mansion built on the site of the original Medieval Castle - now the city's main museum and art gallery.
Bassetlaw Museum was created in 1983. Over the following years its collections have quickly grown due to generous donations by local people. The collections include local history, archaeology, decorative and fine art, agriculture, costume and textiles.
Numerous prints and photographs, artefacts from famous freemasons such as Winston Churchill, and displays detailing freemason hierarchy and everyday practices are guaranteed to keep you interested. The atmosphere of mystery around the assembly greatly adds to the excitement of the visit. Make sure you book in advance for the full experience!
The museum reconstructs the conditions in educational establishments that taught impoverished children in 1800s Britain. On display, there are numerous unique items, such as desks, ink bottles, and slate boards, as well as objects relating to contemporary leisure and work life. The museum’s crowning glory is its Victorian classroom!
Britain's oldest manufacturing company, having been established in 1570 (during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I) and being in continuous business since that date
The Whitechapel Bell Foundry is the oldest manufacturing company in Britain and was the birthplace of Big Ben, the great bell of the Palace Of Westminster. Founded in 1570, it still produces and supplies bells all over the country.
The Magic Circle headquarters hosts a remarkable museum and library dedicated to preserving the craft of magic.
Fans, their history and how they are made
The Fan Museum holds a world-renowned collection of fans and fan leaves which include the splendid Hélène Alexander Collection and further acquisitions, gifts and bequests which have been received since the museum opened to the public over twenty years ago.
If you’ve always dreamed of travelling in time, this museum is ideal for you
The Geffrye collects objects, images and texts in order to explore the history of English homes from 1600 to the present day.
See and hear the fascinating world of mechanical musical instruments.
That magical musical atmosphere that has been lost and forgotten in today's digital age.
In addition to our two theatre organs, the Organ Theatre contains a unique collection of mechanical (self-playing) musical instruments that our founder, Mr. Charles Hart, began collecting nearly half a century ago.
Visit one of Scotland's most impressive ruined castles
Visit Dunnottar Castle for an unforgettable experience. A dramatic and evocative ruined cliff top fortress in a truly stunning setting.
Eureka! is a unique place for families and groups to visit, where children aged 0 to 11 are inspired to learn all about themselves and the world around them by playing, imagining, experimenting and – above all – having fun, with the caring grown-ups in their lives.
Beadlam Roman Villa is a Roman villa situated on the east bank of the river Riccal in the North Yorkshire district of Ryedale between Helmsley and the village of Beadlam. The Scheduled Ancient Monument is the remains of a large Romano-British farm built in the third and fourth centuries AD.
Thornborough Henges are three neolithic sites where standing stones were sited. They are amongst the most important such sites in Britain and are aligned in the same off-centre alignment seen at other triple-circles in England.
A small local museum in a town once described as a full-flavoured fisher town. Buckhaven’s past importance in the East Coast Fisheries is reflected in the displays housed above Buckhaven Library. Free admission, open as Library.
The Bell Pettigrew Museum is the University's zoology museum. It is a rare survival of a Victorian teaching museum, and wonderfully atmospheric.
The displays, which include examples of several extinct species, are arranged to allow the evolutionary and taxonomic relationships between animals to be clearly understood.
Schools
Restored overshot watermill with threshing machinery and various agricultural artefacts. Set on a working farm. A 10 minute video shows the mill in action. The local history of the area and agriculture is displayed. Craft/souvenir shop. Toilets and tourist information point.
The Crofthouse Museum takes visitors back to a time where life’s essentials were of a bare minimum. The House, barn and byre are all accessible under one roof and everything, from the floors to the kitchen appliances, is made with materials found and collected.
Yell is the stepping stone island to Unst and Fetlar and is also home of the Old Haa Museum. Here, the history of the island, including the whaling years and shipwrecks are summarised along with natural history, genealogy and a picture and sound archive.
A dynamic community-run museum on one of Shetland’s remoter islands. Displays on crofting and the sea are complemented by early film and storytelling recordings, and interactive multimedia displays bring to life the island’s natural and cultural history.
George Waterson, the former Scottish Director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, co-founded the Bird Observatory in 1948. Dr Waterson’s Memorial is a fascinating museum in the former Fair Isle School, which studies local social history and particularly the famous knitting traditions and patterns, plus natural history and archaeology.
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