March 2011
7 posts
New Blog!
The education and community outreach teams at Historic Royal Palaces have a new blog! So from now on please visit http://learningblog.hrp.org.uk/ for news and updates about our services.
Hope to see you there!
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Take One Building...the work is in!
I’m delighted to let you know that we have now received all our project work for Take One, and are currently in the process of putting together our exhibition. A total of 11 schools from the London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lewisham and Hackney have taken part, with over 550 children visiting the Tower for a bespoke workshop based on the Beauchamp Tower.
The quality of the...
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Works of industry of all nations: Albert and the...
Lecture with Adam Hart-Davis
Date: Wednesday 6 April Time: 6.30pm - 8pm Cost: £12 / £10 HRP members
Opened on 1 May 1851 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, the Great Exhibition was an extravaganza of technological talent. Albert was the figurehead and chief promoter of this great spectacle, built a stone’s throw away from Kensington Palace to celebrate the great advances of the British...
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Handel at Kensington
Talk and Workshop With musicians from the Saltarello Ensemble
Date: Saturday 2 April Time: 2 - 5pm Cost: £28 / £25 HRP members
“Handel’s oratorios thrive abundantly — for my part, they give me an idea of heaven, where everybody is to sing whether they have voices or not” Horace Walpole
In this workshop, the members of the Saltarello Ensemble will bring the sounds of George Frideric Handel’s...
Strange beasts and curious cabinets
This February half-term we ran 9 days of Family Learning activities in the Enchanted Palace at Kensington. Children and adults worked together to make their own cabinets of curiosities, inspired by the strange and wonderful things Kings, Queens, Princesses and Dukes used to collect. We also had giant squid, fantastical jewels, a double-headed monkey and gorgeous gold garments created to go in...
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Artist in Residence opportunity at Kensington
Exciting things are happening at Kensington!
We’d like a graphic designer, printmaker, illustrator or textile artist to undertake a residency with the Access and Learning team at Kensington this summer.
Kensington Palace is being transformed. Work is underway to create new spaces, places and narrative routes as part of a £12 million renovation project to bring the amazing characters and...
Congratulations to all new Palace Explorers!
On Saturday 26th February, 20 children from the Palace Explorers project were invited to tell their stories in Kensington Palace to their friends and families. The children worked hard to become ‘Palace Explorers’, discovering and writing stories about Kensington Palace and its inhabitants.
The book keeper managed to make an appearance, congratulating everyone and handing out...
February 2011
6 posts
Heritage traineeships - Strengthening our Common...
I’m pleased to announce that HRP Education Service will be taking part in a very forward thinking project called Strengthening our Common Life (SOCL), devised and managed by London-based arts and heritage charity, Cultural Co-operation.
This project provides 12 paid bursaries in one of ten heritage organisations allowing trainees the opportunity to develop a rich variety of skills and...
Writing the Tudors - Evening Lecture with Michael...
Hampton Court Palace
Date: Thursday 31 March
Time: 6.30pm - 8pm
Cost: £12 / £10 HRP members
Michael Hirst, writer and executive producer of the compelling TV series The Tudors, gives a talk on the challenges of constructing historical drama and the balance between historical accuracy and dynamic storytelling.
A global smash, The Tudors thrills, shocks and delights viewers in 70...
Staging the Henrician Court - RSC Director Gregory...
Evening Lecture - Hampton Court Palace
Date: Thursday 17 March
Time: 6.30pm - 8pm
Cost: £12 / £10 HRP members
Staging the Henrician Court is a collaborative research project between Historic Royal Palaces and Oxford Brookes University funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Over the course of 2009-10, this project has seen two court dramas staged in the Great Hall that were...
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To Kill a King?
The Tower of London education team and the Parliamentary Education Service are proud to present a unique and exciting new KS3 study day.
Students will follow the trial and execution of Charles I, and experience history where it happened in two stunning historic environments - the Palace of Westminster and the Banqueting House.
The morning session will take place in Westminster Hall, where...
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New Adult Learning Spring 2011 Programme
Historic Royal Palaces’ Adult Learning programme continues to grow and now covers events at the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, the Banqueting House, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace. This means a wider range of talks, courses and creative workshops than ever before – all in spectacular settings. Find out what’s on and download the brochure here.
The Tower hosts its 'Take One...' CPD days
Following on from my post about The Tower of London as London ‘Take One…’ Champion, I thought I’d write a quick update about our CPD days for teachers and sector professionals. The training days were held here in our Education Centre just before Christmas and the turnout was fantastic - 26 teachers attended our teacher event and a staggering 42 representatives from some of...
January 2011
3 posts
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The Tower is named 'Take One...' champion!
Ever heard of the National Gallery’s ‘Take One Picture’ project? Well, we’re really pleased that this exciting approach to learning is now being applied not only to pictures but also to buildings, objects and documents. What’s more, the MLA have named the Tower of London as London champion for ‘Take One…’. This means that over the course of the...
Pop up paper art!
Sue Blackwell paper art
Pop up paper art!
We’re currently working on an exciting new exhibition at Kensington called Victoria Revealed which will explore the life and loves of Queen Victoria. As part of the display we’re going to create a pop up book showing Victoria’s life. I’ve been looking up ideas for inspiration and found this amazing artist, Sue Blackwell who...
Collecting the world!
FREE Family fun activities February half-term
Kensington Palace
19 - 27 February 2011
11.00 - 16.00 in the Gallery of War and Play
Queen Mary collected porcelain, Princess Margaret shells and coral and the Duke of Sussex had over 50,000 books. Come and join us in finding out about some of the weird and wonderful collections of past residents of Kensington Palace in this week of family fun...
November 2010
8 posts
Tourism and Business studies workshops at the...
Bring your students to one of London’s most popular and iconic tourist attractions. With over 2 million visitors a year, the Tower of London is the nation’s leading historic visitor attraction. We offer workshops on customer service and marketing to inspire leisure, travel, tourism and business students. For details on the content of these workshops please click here.
Call...
Availability for school visits to the Tower →
Thinking of visiting the Tower of London with your class? If you want to do a self directed visit check our up to date availability calendar then call us on 020 3166 6654 to make your booking.
Sarah at the Tower
Jiggery Pokery at Kensington Palace!
As part of the ERCG Creative Quarter event on Friday 19th November we ran an art installation workshop in collaboration with the Serpentine Gallery and artists Jiggery Pokery. Inspired by the Room of Palace Time in Kensington Palce, our workshop was a fun activity where students could come into the palace and work in a group to create a headdress. We then photographed them modelling their...
Bexley Grammar School to perform 'A Midsummer...
On New Year’s Day 1604, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was performed in the Great Hall at Hampton Court for the new King, James Stuart.
407 years later, Bexley Grammar School will perform their own 30 minute version of the play in the same space on 15th December. Following their successful production at the Unicorn Theatre, Southwark, on the 9th of November as part of the...
New slideshow of Hampton Court now available!
We’ve recently taken photographs of Henry VIII’s Apartments and the Tudor Kitchens at Hampton Court and uploaded them to our website as a slideshow to help teachers plan their visit and use as a resource back in the classroom. Just use the following link and choose ‘School visit information’. Enjoy a privileged peek into Henry VIII’s world!
Want to find out where...
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Traitors at the Tower!
On Saturday 6th November, around 350 family visitors took part in our free “treason” themed activities in the White Tower. Lantern window wobblers and Guy Fawkes hats were the most popular craft activities, with our volunteers doing a great job to make sure that everyone had the opportunity to make their own souvenir to take home.
Adults and children alike enjoyed learning about the story of...
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New Tower trails for KS 2 teachers
We have four new interactive trails designed to enhance a visit to the Tower of London for KS2 pupils:
Henry VIII at the Tower
The Tudor Tower
Tudor and Elizabethan Prisoners
The King’s castle
These trails are intended for the use of teachers and accompanying adults working with small groups of pupils. They include directions, suggestions for things for pupils to look for, think about and...
Big Draw at Kensington
Patchwork Palace
On Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th October the education team worked with children and their families to create a patchwork palace quilt for the Big Draw event. The Enchanted Palace provided the perfect backdrop for us to look at examples of 18th and 19th century silhouettes of palace characters. Children cut out these shadowy forms and then enchanted them, fixing them on to the...
October 2010
5 posts
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Family fun at the Tower: Saturday 6th November
Remember, remember the 5th of November Gunpowder, treason and plot….
On 5th November, 1605, a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament was foiled at the last moment. King James I and Parliament were spared - Guy Fawkes and his fellow plotters were not. Many of the plotters, including Guy Fawkes, found themselves imprisoned at the Tower on...
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Tower visitors take part in The Big Draw
On Saturday 2nd October, family visitors had the chance to create a piece of art work as part of the Big Draw initiative. As the theme of the day was “prisoners”, the art work was based on the prisoner inscriptions in the Beachamp and Salt Towers. One particular inscription, a rebus (or word picture) was used as inspiration.
Thomas Abel...
Shadows and secrets - FREE Family Fun at...
Discover the secretive world of Kensington palace with our FREE October half-term activities, included in your palace admission.
We will be offering activities for families from 11.00 - 16.00, Saturday 23rd - Sunday 31st October in the Gallery of War and Play at Kensington Palace.
We’ll be making paper puppets of children who’ve lived at the palace, including Peter the Wild Boy and...
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Hidden Histories at Kensington Palace
How did you fall in love with history? How do you make other people share that passion?
Last week saw the first in our series of evening teacher’s events in association with the Historical Association, held at Kensington Palace. The acclaimed historical fiction writer Sarah Dunant gave an impassioned key note speech about what led to her passion for history as well as offering a fascinating...
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Palace explorers at Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace has recently expanded the education and community outreach service, with a programme offering fresh and fascinating takes on history, citizenship and the arts. We have invited children of local primary schools and their families to join our exciting new project Palace Explorers This free project will give pupils and their families the opportunity to explore and engage with the...
September 2010
9 posts
More GEM fun
Been somewhat busy over the last few weeks here at the Tower but a couple of weeks ago we had delegates from the GEM conference visit us to find out more about how we do learning at the Tower.
During the course of the day’s events we put on a History Detectives Richard III session to give an example of how we use costumed interpretation at the Tower. Here’s a photo of Richard III...
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Shakespeare Schools Festival comes to the Great...
Hampton Court Education Service is pleased to confirm its participation in the Shakespeare Schools Festival 2010. The festival has been running for 10 years and sees hundreds of secondary schools perform reduced versions of Shakespeare’s plays in local theatres.
The Great Hall at Hampton Court is the only surviving theatre where Shakespeare’s plays were acted in his lifetime and one...
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Open House at Kensington Palace
Going behind the scenes at Kensington Palace!
This Saturday we welcomed people to come and hear about the Kensington Project and explore our palatial building site as part of the Open House London weekend. Around 90 people joined us to hear from the Project Manager Jo Thwaites and Landscape Architect James Fox from Todd Longstaffe-Gowan partnership as well as to explore rooms currently being...
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Open House at Hampton Court Palace
Open House London, the capital’s greatest architectural showcase, will take place on 18 & 19 September 2010.
The initiative is a simple but powerful concept: hundreds of great buildings of all types and periods open up their doors to all, completely for FREE. Hampton Court Palace is taking part in Open House again this year with two great offers:
1. Beyond the Palace - Talk and...
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Creative Quarter event at Kensington
Calling all teachers, students and creative minds!
Returning for a 5th year, Creative Quarter 2010 will be taking place on Friday 19 November 2010 at Kensington Palace. This free event for 13-19 year olds is a unique opportunity for young people to learn about their opportunities in the creative industries. Organised by the Exhibition Road Cultural Group, Creative Quarter provides a chance to...
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Big Draw at Kensington
Patchwork Palace - Free Family Fun Saturday 23 October, Kensington Palace 11.00 - 16.00
Come and join us in drawing and embroidering a gothic and fantastical mural of Kensington Palace using fabrics, thread and sequins all inspired by the magical world of the Enchanted Palace. All ages welcome. Event included in palace admission ticket.
From Jenny at Kensington
GEM rolls into town...
Yesterday saw the Group for Education in Museums (GEM) annual conference at Hampton Court Palace.
A lively programme was kicked off by keynote speakers Andrew Gilyard from the Children’s Society and Sandy Nairne from the National Portrait Gallery, who both gave thoughtful comment on the role that museums, galleries and heritage sites can play in responding to young people’s needs in a...
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Autumn Adult Education programme
Legends, Scandals, Princesses and Fountains of Wine!
Autumn’s adult learning programme has something for everyone. For the first time, we are offering courses, talks and workshops at Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace, Kew Palace and the Tower of London and we invite you to come and take part.
We have some big name speakers including Dan Cruickshank and Andrew Graham-Dixon, as...
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Other Histories
A couple of years ago we had a photographer in residence at the Tower, Chris King, who produced a lyrical body of work called Other Histories that explored what he called ‘the burden of interpretation’ - the footprint we create and re-create at historic spaces as heritage professionals.
Chris was asked to keep a blog during his time at the Tower and at the end of the residency it...
August 2010
6 posts
Crowns and crafts on 4th September
On Saturday 4th September, the Tower will host family activities based around the theme of coronation.
All will have the chance to create their own coronation oaths, as well as design their own crowns and robes. There will also be badge making and portrait drawing.
At 12pm, 1pm and 2pm, families will have the chance to take part in their own coronation! With the help of technology, artist Zinta...
Knowledge vs analysis
We subscribe to the BBC History magazine at the Tower Education Service and over the last few months the editor has been stoking an argument about History teaching in school. In short, it’s the age-old argument about whether teaching should be about the regurgitation of facts or analysis and understanding. You can read more about the argument here, but I was also taken by the argument by...
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Families step back in time...
On Saturday 7th August, over 150 people took part in our family learning activities based on the theme of “home.”
Families of all ages enjoyed creating their own animal masks (the Tower used to house a zoo!) as well as prisoner inscriptions inspired by those in the Beauchamp tower.
Our Tudor costumes were a particular hit. Everyone had the chance to dress up as a Tudor noble, with...
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What's in a name?
Almost one thousand years have passed since the Norman invasion of 1066 and while it’s clear England didn’t inherit the French idea of food, we still have a penchant for Norman names. Click here to read all about it.
Alex at the Tower
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Torture at the Tower
There are few documents that describe the torture at the Tower. One of the most gripping is in The Autobiography of an Elizabethan by John Gerard, a Jesuit, tortured during the reign of Elizabeth I.
“We went to the torture-room in a kind of solemn procession, the attendants walking ahead with lighted candles.
The chamber was underground and dark, particularly near the entrance. It was...
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Schools out for summer!
We don’t have school groups visiting the Tower in August but the admin team continue to be busy - some teachers are more organised in their planning than in the past and have already made bookings for the autumn term and even beyond. The Germans, who traditionally come in large numbers in September and October, are making their payments well in advance and keeping the phone lines busy!
If...
July 2010
4 posts
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Family fun at the Tower of London
We are excited to report that we are now running monthly family activities at the Tower. Our family fun days run one Saturday a month, and all activities are included in the price of admission.
Each month’s activities will be themed around one of the Tower’s amazing stories, and every member of the family is welcome to take part. Things to do include arts and craft activities, badge...
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A-level Normans at the Tower
We’ve just released the dates for our next round of Norman and Medieval A-level sessions at the Tower. So, teachers - if you’ve not brought your students to one of these study days before, here’s a quick run-through of what happens:
Students spend half the day at the Tower and half at the LMA (London Metropolitan Archives), looking at original medieval buildings and...
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Free family fun at Hampton Court Palace
Every Monday in the school holidays (apart from the Bank Holiday) sees free familiy activities in the Clore Learning Centre at Hampton Court Palace. We kicked off last week with mask making. Almost 200 happy families turned themselves into lions, panthers, and greyhounds (some of Henry VIII’s favourite animals). Next Monday, the 2nd August, gives you the chance to make a Tudor...
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Palace Map Makers project launched
Map Makers project launched at Kensington Palace
On Tuesday 20th July we launched the Palace Map Makers website, produced by the wonderful Year 5 students from Fox Primary School (RBKC).
This project looked at the history of the local area around Kensington Palace. Year 5 students worked with the education team at the palace to create an interactive website with information about buildings...