Houghton House today is the shell of a 17th century mansion commanding magnificent views, reputedly the inspiration for the ‘House Beautiful’ in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
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
Explore the history of medicine. Be terrified by our death masks and find out what an amputation looked like in the 19th century! Stop at the apothecary for a cholera remedy and have a go at our mystery object game.
Chalice Well is one of Britain's most ancient wells, nestling in the Vale of Avalon between the famous Glastonbury Tor and Chalice Hill. Surrounded by beautiful gardens and orchards it is a living sanctuary in which the visitor can experience the quiet healing of this sacred place.
We welcome thousands of children from schools across the world to the Cathedral every year. Many hundreds visit during our annual schools’ festivals: Church Schools Festival, Infant Schools Festival, Secondary Schools Festival and Special Schools Festival and we offer schools’ tours and trails throughout the academic year.
Pilgrims and visitors have been made welcome at Bath Abbey for hundreds of years. As one of the most visited places in the South West, we welcome over 420,000 people through our doors each year, but are fully aware that every visitor comes with their own expectations, beliefs and purpose.
Early 18th-century riverside house with small garden
This 18th-century house has a small walled garden, and is situated on the banks of the River Thames.
Home of a Community of Roman Catholic Benedictine monks
The monks are pleased to welcome school groups to their Abbey.
We have a long established Education Department (over 25 years!) with full-time education staff. This means that we can provide facilities and resources for all ages and ability levels covering a wide range of subject areas.
In Washford lies one of the undiscovered jewels of Somerset, providing an interesting day out for families and budding historians alike. The Cistercian abbey of Cleeve is a haven of peace and tranquillity, said to contain the finest cloister buildings in England.
Discover the story of the original Salisbury and take your students of any age for a day out to Old Sarum, two miles north of where the city stands now.
The mighty Iron Age hill fort was where the first cathedral once stood and the Romans, Normans and Saxons have all left their mark.
Muchelney Abbey, which lies two miles south of Langport, was once a landmark in the Somerset Levels and still has much to offer its visitors – history lovers in particular will enjoy this fascinating site but there is also plenty for families to do.
Built by the royal masons in 1250, the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey was originally used in the 13th century by Benedictine monks for their daily meetings. It later became a meeting place of the King’s Great Council and the Commons, predecessors of today’s Parliament.
The extensive remains of an Augustinian abbey, including its abbots' quarters, refectory and cloister.
The substantially surviving chapter house has a frontage richly bedecked with 12th and 14th century carving and statuary, and a fine timber roof of around 1500.
Pictorial interpretation boards guide the visitor, and an introductory exhibition displays archaeological finds.
Alton Castle is a Catholic Education Centre in rural Staffordshire, just up the road from Alton Towers.
The Clink Prison Museum is built upon the original site ofThe Clink Prison, which dating back to 1144 was one of England’s oldest and most notorious prisons.
Originally 5 metres (16 feet) high and weighing some 16.75 tonnes, this is Cornwall's largest and heaviest prehistoric monolith.
This massive stone stands near the summit of the St Breock Downs, offering beautiful views of the surrounding countryside and across to the sea.
The Cistercian abbey of Hailes was founded in 1246 in Gloucestershire by the Earl of Cornwall in thanks for surviving a shipwreck.
The impressive remains of an abbey of Cistercian 'white monks', including towering fragments of its 13th century church, infirmary and 14th century abbot's lodging.
Bertram de Verdun, Lord of Alton, an important local nobleman at the time, founded a Cistercian monastery in 1176 for the salvation of the souls of his family.
Among the most complete and impressive monastic ruins in Norfolk of a Benedictine priory with a well-documented history. The nave, with its splendid 13th century west front and great bricked-up window, is now the parish church, displaying a screen with medieval saints over painted with Protestant texts.
This great abbey, marking the rebirth of Christianity in southern England, was founded shortly after AD 597 by St Augustine.
This 19th-century cross of Saxon design marks what is traditionally thought to have been the site of St Augustine's landing on the shores of England in AD 597. Accompanied by 30 followers, Augustine is said to have held a mass here before moving on.
Remains of a grammar school for church choristers, founded in the mid-15th century by Ralph, Lord Cromwell, the builder of nearby Tattershall Castle (National Trust).
Tattershall College was built in 1460, four years after the death of its patron, Lord Cromwell, and was completed by William of Wainfleet, Bishop of Winchester.
The guest house and other remains of a Benedictine priory: much of the fine 12th to 14th century monastic church survives as the parish church.
The Benedictine priory of St Mary the Virgin and St Blaise was founded in about 1117 by Robert de la Haye, Lord of Halnaker. It was a cell of the abbey at Lessay in Normandy in France and, when founded, had a community of only three monks.
Wolvesey has been an important residence of the wealthy and powerful Bishops of Winchester since Anglo-Saxon times. Standing next to Winchester Cathedral, the extensive surviving ruins of the palace date largely from the 12th-century work of Bishop Henry of Blois.
A Bronze Age stone circle, the focus of many legends, set in dramatic moorland on Stapeley Hill. It once consisted of some 30 stones, 15 of which are still visible.
Woodhenge is well worth a visit, especially if you are also heading to the nearby World Heritage Site of Stonehenge (located approximately 2 miles away).
Dating from 2300 BC, Woodhenge is thought to have marked a particular stage in the evolution of human religious belief and community organisation. This found a more permanent form in nearby Stonehenge.
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