The classic Neolithic 'causewayed enclosure', with three concentric but intermittent ditches. Large quantities of animal bones found here indicate feasting, animal trading or rituals, or perhaps all three. Part of the Avebury World Heritage Site.
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
Our magnificent historic home and garden is a venue for all seasons. The surroundings are magical, punctuated with an array of eye-catching mystical follies, temples and lakes.
The house has a timeless elegance, whether you choose to bring a picnic and attend an outdoor theatre production, or merely come to stroll through the wonderful gardens.
Sentry Hill is a 19th century farmhouse in the Parish of Carnmoney, County Antrim. The house and its contents provide a rare insight into life in rural Ulster during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
A day out at Marble Hill is a real treat as this beautiful Palladian villa is set in 66 acres of outstanding riverside parkland near Richmond in West London.
Ride our extensive twin track Miniature Railway supporting all gauges and boasting a fleet of cute miniature locomotives! Broomy Hill Station has a great hands on railway for the kids to play with and a museum too.
Entirely hand built by a local society since 1962, the Broomy Hill Miniature Railway is a charming treat for your little trainspotters, provided you can find an open day!
Nesscliffe hill is a sandstone escarpment & is now a country park with various footpaths through the woods. To the north of the hill the ramparts of an old hill fort are present. An old sandstone quarry face forms a spectacular cliff, popular for rock climbing. Cut into the cliff face is a cave reputedly the hideaway of the highwayman Humphrey Kynaston & his horse.
Iron Age hill fort with far-reaching views and spectacular wildflowers
Hambledon Hill is one of the most iconic sites in Dorset, rising steeply to 190 metres above the Blackmore Vale and the river Stour with fantastic views into the neighbouring counties of Wiltshire and Somerset. The site is of exceptional archaeological and ecological value and provides important accesss opportunities as well as being of nationally important landscape value.
Segedunum Roman Fort is the last outpost of Hadrian’s Wall. Home for 300 years to 600 soldiers guarding the furthest reaches of the Empire. Today it has an interactive museum, viewing tower, excavated remains and reconstructions.
Early in the 12th century, Donal Mor O'Brien, founder of St Mary's Cathedral in Limerick , built a church in Killaloe. Between 1195 and 1225 it was replaced by the present cathedral which was dedicated to St Flannan, an 8th century ancestor of Donal Mor.
Set immediately north of the Tower of London, right in the heart of Tower Hill, stands one of the most substantial and impressive surviving sections of the London Wall. Built c. AD 200, the Roman wall not only provided defence and security to the citizens of London, but also represented the status of the city itself.
Visit this 'tower' mill and discover how the windmill works.
The Windmill is currently closed for restoration.
Please join us in November for our grand re-opening and our 200th birthday celebrations.
The remains of one of a network of signal towers predating Hadrian's Wall, Pike Hill was later joined to the Wall at an angle of 45 degrees.
Stands alongside the route of Hadrian's National Cycle Network cyclepath.
The largest man-made mound in Europe, mysterious Silbury Hill compares in height and volume to the roughly contemporary Egyptian pyramids. Probably completed in around 2400 BC, it apparently contains no burial. Though clearly important in itself, its purpose and significance remain unknown. There is no access to the hill itself.
Danebury Iron Age hill fort is in Hampshire, north west of Stockbridge and close to Nether Wallop.
Bank Hall is not one of the most well known buildings in the country, but it is one of the most beautiful and interesting. Its location could be passed every day without realising its existence as the lofty chimneys and the remnants of the clock tower only faintly glimpse over the tree tops.
The distinctive and highly decorative gatehouse-tower of a castle built by the wealthy Sir William Hylton, shortly before 1400.
Originally containing four floors of self-contained family accommodation, its entrance front displays royal and family heraldry, including Richard II's white hart badge.
York Minster invites everyone to discover God's love through our welcome, worship, learning and work. For over a millennium, people have come to seek inspiration in this place of wonder.
Longthorpe Tower displays one of the most complete and important sets of 14th century domestic wall paintings in northern Europe. This varied 'spiritual encyclopaedia' of worldly and religious subjects includes the Wheel of Life, the Nativity and King David.
The award winning Tower Museum is located within the city's walls at Union Hall Place. The Museum has two main exhibitions ("Story of Derry" and "La Trinidad Valancera- An Armada Shipwreck ") and hosts a wide programme of touring exhibitions and events throughout the year.
This early and well-preserved example of a small free-standing Norman tower keep is located on a natural sandstone ledge near the head of a narrow valley. Rising almost to its original height, this mysterious survival takes its name from a chapel of St Leonard which once stood nearby.
Our historic lighthouse is more than 250 years old and is one of the city's landmark buildings. Climb the 93 steps to the top and enjoy panoramic views of Plymouth and beyond.
A centrepiece on Plymouth's Hoe, Smeaton's Tower has become one of the South West's most well known landmarks.
The Control Tower of this historic air base houses a living memorial to the American airmen and their planes, based here during World War II.
Tells the story of Buckingham and north Bucks rural life, including the Flora Thompson collection (Lark Rise to Candleford author) and Buckinghamshire Military Trust exhibits. A number of the original cells form part of the museum visitor's experience.
The Jewel Tower dates back almost 650 years and is an intriguing visitor attraction in the heart of Westminster. It was built around 1365 to house Edward III’s treasures and was known as the ‘King’s Privy Wardrobe’.
One of only two buildings from the medieval Palace of Westminster to survive the fire of 1834, the tower features a 14th century ribbed vault.
One of the earliest purpose-built artillery blockhouses in England, this brick tower was built in about 1398-9 to command a strategic point in Norwich’s city defence.
The tower was intended to house guns and a garrison of gunners to defend the approach to the city across the River Wensum. Its height of nearly 50 feet was necessary to overlook the high ground on the opposite bank.
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