English Heritage offers two main avenues for students to engage with heritage sites – free entry and Discovery Visits.
Students exploring Farleigh Hungerford Castle's Chapel as part of the Life in a Medieval Castle Discovery Visit © English Heritage
The free entry scheme for educational groups offers numerous cross-curricular learning opportunities at over 400 exceptional locations. It enables you to organise learning experiences for your students at inspirational places. You can download teacher’s kits with site and hazard information, and make bookings from the English Heritage website.
Students enjoy exploring Farleigh Hungerford Castle with the available on-site costume collection © English Heritage
Discovery Visits
Site Discovery Visits cost £75 per school group and will bring English Heritage’s historic locations to life in even more exciting and memorable ways. Students are able to experience life as it was at over 60 sites, from the domestic life of an affluent Roman family to the back-breaking drudgery of a Victorian servant.
Discovery Visits are tied to core national curriculum subjects at each key stage and cover history in all periods. Interactive sessions include role-play with costumed interpreters, artefact handling and cracking secret codes. Examples of some of the themes are, 'Did dragons live in castles?', 'Meet a medieval soldier', 'Get switched on to lighting' and 'Telling tales with pictures'.
Goodrich Castle. © English Heritage
Award-winning properties
English Heritage launched Discovery Visits in 2006 to provide enhanced school visits. In 2008 it won several Sandford Awards, the industry’s top accolade for heritage education, for its Discovery Visits programme at seven sites.
Of the Discovery Visit at Goodrich Castle, Herefordshire, the judges said it offered 'a learning experience you will never forget', while Kenwood House in London was described as a 'magnificent venue' providing a 'wonderful resource for schools' through its architecture, finely landscaped gardens and great art collection. A third award-winner, the Osborne House Discovery Visit was described by a teacher as ‘probably the best school trip we’ve ever been on in 12 years’ teaching’.
To find out more about English Heritage’s educational programme or for details of properties offering Discovery Visits, visit the English Heritage website.
English Heritage Discovery Visits:
- incorporate whole-group discussion and individual work
- encourage participation
- introduce new vocabulary
- develop skills of enquiry
- use primary evidence
- meet national curriculum learning needs across subjects and key stages
- are accessible to students with a range of learning styles.
