The wild Pennine moorlands are of international importance for their populations of breeding birds and mosaic of habitats.
Key Stage 4 (15-16)
Key Stage 4 (15-16)
At KS4, there has been a gradually burgeoning number of types of educational visits – foreign language school exchanges, cultural visits all over Europe and further afield, sports competitions, youth conferences, winter sports and adventurous activities in more extreme environments. The Duke of Edinburgh Award becomes available at 14 years old and continues to be offered for those up to 24 years of age, and pupils of many ages start work on specialist awards in areas such as mountaineering, sailing and river sports. This increase in venue variety has led to a proliferation of specialist companies catering for these activities.
The aims of history trips tend to be more focused in KS4, with study trips to the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation and the 1944 Normandy Landings often proving popular along with the 1815 Waterloo battlefield. Venues of this type are often catered for by specialist travel companies to ensure participants get the best experience available.
A lot of schools have a tradition of school trips with their choirs, orchestras and musical/theatre students. There are specialist companies that can help any school wishing to explore this possibility, and many venues have tailored activities for groups that can help improve performers’ confidence and motivation.
British schools have been the forerunners in Europe for undertaking challenging outdoor activities both at home and abroad (you can visit here for good list of activities and gateway sites) but there is a notable increase of interest at KS4 in science-based trips – most notably the Science and National History museums in London, the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, the National Railway Museum in York, Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre in Macclesfield, Techniquest in Cardiff, and the Bristol Science Centre, all of which have reported an increase in visitors in recent years.
Suitable Venues
Streams of lichen-rich sarsen stones
Sheltered valleys containing well developed 'boulder streams' of sarsen stones. Sarsen stones are of ecological interest for the lichens and mosses they support as well as geological importance.
The sites were purchased in 1908 following a public appeal and were our first countryside properties in Wiltshire. Prior to this, sarsen stones were removed to provide building materials.
One of the largest remaining areas of heathland in East Hampshire
Ludshott Common covers 285 ha (705 acres) and is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Protection Area (SPA) because of its wildlife.
The closest you'll get to true wilderness in Essex
A remote island in the Blackwater Estuary and cut off at high tide, visiting Northey's a unique pleasure.
Northey was to become the oldest recorded battlefield in Britain when Viking raiders used the island as a base during the Battle of Maldon in AD991, an encounter also mentioned in England's earliest known poem.
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.
Belvoir Castle stands high on a hill overlooking 16,000 acres of woodland and farmland. Visitors from all over the world are welcomed here to events in the park, weddings, our world famous pheasant and partridge Belvoir Shoot, tours of the Castle and its art collection and our recently renovated gardens. Whatever draws you to Belvoir will enable you to share the magic of this estate.
We run outdoor pursuits and multi-activity Christian camps for young people from School Years 4 through to 13+.
From mountain biking to skiing, karting to windsurfing, sailing to abseiling, crafts to gorge walking, leadership training to mission.
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.
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.
A Georgian country estate in west London
A short hop from central London by tube but a world apart. Stroll up the tree-lined drive, past the grazing Charolais cattle and you'd think you're in the country, not urban Hounslow.
Surrounded by gardens, park and farmland, Osterley is one of the last surviving country estates in London.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Alton Castle is a Catholic Education Centre in rural Staffordshire, just up the road from Alton Towers.
The Falconry Centre contains many species of birds of prey, flown by the resident Falconer. You are able to fly some of the beautiful birds yourself.
Sometimes described as ‘the islands at the edge of the world’, the archipelago of St Kilda is located 41 miles west of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. Formed from the rim of an ancient volcano, it is the remotest part of the British Isles.
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.
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Schoolboy Falls From 60ft Cliff on School Trip
A 15-year-old boy fell 60ft over the edge of a cliff whilst on a geography school trip, miraculously only suffering minor injuries.