Gold star for Audley End House & Gardens’ school visits

AUDLEY End House and Gardens has been named alongside 25 other English Heritage sites around the country to receive an excellent report for their educational visits.

It is amongst the first historic visitor attractions to be awarded the new Learning Outside the Classroom (LOtC) Quality Badge and LOtC Site Provider Award.

The awards recognise the facilities and resources available at Audley End House and Gardens for educational visits, and is the new national benchmark for attractions that welcome school visits. The awards are designed to help teachers identify venues to take their students where they can enjoy an enriching learning experience beyond the walls of the classroom.

English Heritage’s head of Education and Interpretation, Sandra Stancliffe, said: “English Heritage’s educational visits are amongst the most comprehensive in the country, and we welcome tens of thousands of children to our sites each year.

“This award provides national recognition for the work that our site staff and education experts have put in to create resources and plans so that teachers and pupils can cover many different areas of the curriculum in a fun and engaging way.

“Above all, as teachers try and keep the costs of trips down at the moment to ease pressures on parents, schools can visit and access teaching resources for any English Heritage site free of charge.”

Another 14 sites have been granted the LOtC Quality Badge:

Battle Abbey & Battlefield

Beeston Castle & Woodland Park

Carisbrooke Castle

Carlisle Castle

Farleigh Hungerford Castle

Goodrich Castle

Housesteads Roman Fort

Kenilworth Castle & Elizabethan Garden

Kenwood House & Gardens

Lullingstone Roman Villa

Old Sarum

Osborne House

Stonehenge

Wroxeter Roman City

Additionally, nine further sites have been awarded the LOtC Site Provider Award:

Bolsover Castle

Clifford’s Tower

Dover Castle

Eltham Palace

Launceston Castle

Peveril Castle

Tintagel Castle

Whitby Abbey

Witley Court and Gardens

The awards are granted by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom. The Quality Award is given to sites with a dedicated educational provision, whilst the LOtC Site Provider Award goes to locations offering educational visits which do not have a dedicated education officer based on site, but have passed a number of criteria to guarantee a great, safe educational visit experience. The awards form part of a campaign for more teaching to take place outside the formal teaching environment.

“We all remember our school trips, and research shows just how rewarding educational visits can be – children tend to retain to a far greater degree what they learn when they are in this kind of fun but stimulating environment, and this award recognises the work we have put in the simplify the whole visit process. Backed up with a wide range of educational resources online for pupils of all ages and abilities, for use before, during and after the visit, there’s never been a better time to visit an English Heritage site,” adds Sandra.

Anyone wanting to book a free educational visit to an English Heritage site should contact the education team on 0870 333 0606 or visit english-heritage.org.uk/educationonlinebooking