Visits

Visits to historical sites, museums, and galleries offer exciting opportunities to engage with the past. Hands on experiences give an insight into the world beyond the classroom. This section enables you to have the confidence to plan and undertake visits which effectively develop children’s learning.

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  • 'Hands On' Archaeology, A Case Study: Visiting the Archaeological Resource Centre (ARC) in York

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Developing an understanding of archaeology during historical studies can be important. It enables children to realise how we come to know and indeed understand about the past. Studying the work of archaeology helps develop vital...

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  • A creative Egyptian project

    Article

    Ideally when teaching history, teachers will look to deliver projects that will engage and motivate, hopefully making the hard work of being creative stimulating and rewarding, based upon questioning, enquiry, investigation of sources and reaching conclusions grounded in the evidence.Ancient Egypt is one of those history topics which, because it...

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  • A visit to the Red Lodge, Bristol: using ICT to record and communicate children's learning in history

    Article

    There is a huge potential for using ICT to enhance children’s historical learning. This article suggests ways in which ICT was employed to record children’s impressions of their visit to an historical building.

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  • Beyond the classroom walls: museums and primary history

    Article

    Apart from the difficulty of getting hold of a hard copy of the new National Curriculum framework, museum educators have little to worry about in the results of the curriculum review. The framework reveals few changes that will affect what museums have been doing for the last eight or so...

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  • Bringing the past to life!

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. As an archaeologist who, after being a bit bored with history at school, discovered the excitement of the past through digging in dirt and finding things, I get frustrated by people not ‘getting' what archaeology...

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  • Cabinets of Curiosities, The History of Museums

    Article

    Delving into the origin and history of museums, one finds that particular themes emerge which are still present amongst the underpinning dynamics of museums in the 21st Century. Inseparable from the story of museums and galleries, for example, are the notions of ‘collecting’ and ‘curiosity’ and likewise, one’s attention is...

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  • Can you bring the dead back to life...?

    Article

    Victoria Rogers highlights the importance of encouraging school visits to heritage sites and museums.

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  • Children's thinking in archaeology

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Young children enjoy prehistory Tactile, Physical and Enactive engagement with archaeological remains stimulates, excites and promotes children's logical, imaginative, creative and deductive thinking. Through archaeology there are infinite opportunities for ‘reasonable guesses' about sources and...

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  • Creating the 'creative history' website

    Article

    Editorial note: The role of ICT in the Digital Age is a major, perhaps even, the major factor, in enhancing creativity in the learning and teaching of history. This paper illuminates another dimension of ICT in the Digital Age and creativity. It shows how a teacher's creativity  has produced a...

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  • Creativity in teaching and learning at the Geffrye Museum

    Article

    Learning and education has always been an essential and central part of the Geffrye museum's purpose. Twice winners of the highly prestigious Sandford Award for Heritage Education, most recently in 2012, our professional learning team works with a broad range of audiences to develop and deliver a wide variety of...

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  • Cross Curricular Project on a famous person

    Article

    Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated. If you are considering studying someone other than Florence Nightingale you have two basic options. You can either choose a local character who would be more relevant to the children, or you could study someone who...

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  • Discovery Visits: What's New at English Heritage for Schools?

    Article

    In October 2005 English Heritage launched an exciting new National Learning Strategy. This strategy marks a new development for English Heritage and heralds the introduction of a brand new service at many of our fascinating sites which will enhance and enliven school visits.

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  • From Home to the Front: World War I

    Article

    Events which encapsulate family, community, national and global history provide rich opportunities for engaging children. Some of these draw on positive memories associated with past events: the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, how people responded to the first flight to the moon, the Millennium celebrations. Yet it is perhaps gruelling...

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  • Geosong: a transition project

    Article

    How do we engage young people with their Heritage, answer curriculum needs and make that big leap of transition from primary to secondary school that bit easier? English Heritage's Geosong treasure hunt website went some way to providing answers. What does the website do? Using handheld GPS devices, groups must...

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  • In My View: Creativity & History

    Article

    Introduction A great deal has been written recently defining what is meant by creativity in primary education. And much has been written urging us to ‘teach creatively'. Yet there had been no exploration of what teaching creatively means in terms of teaching history until a group of colleagues and I...

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  • In the Footsteps of our Ancestors: Beamish - a unique educational experience

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. What kind of experience will be remembered by the children in your class in 20 or 30 years’ time? A trip to Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum, would be a likely candidate....

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  • Learning Outside the Classroom

    Article

    In recent times, it is easy to recognize that there has been a general move towards promoting outside activities across all manner of organizations and groups. For instance, organisations such as The National Trust and Ordnance Survey are keen to promote outdoor experiences in their literature. An online presence advocates...

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  • Local history and a sense of identity

    Article

    The history co-ordinator often finds some real challenges as well as opportunities in addressing local history in primary schools. The advantages are well rehearsed – making history relevant to the lives of the children and giving them an improved sense of identity and place through engagement with the ‘real thing’....

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  • Museums, schools and creativity: How learning can be enhanced

    Article

    What do we mean by creativity?In the last few years there has been an emphasis on the ‘creative curriculum', ‘creativity' and ‘creative teaching and learning', but there has not always been a shared understanding of what this means. This article uses the definition from ‘Creativity - find it, promote it'...

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  • One of my favourite history places: Fulham Palace

    Article

    In the south-west corner of London, nestled up against the Thames, lies Fulham Palace. This is a palace that was not for kings and queens but bishops, the princes of the church. This was the summer palace for the bishops of London which they retreated to when the heat and stench of the...

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