School Visits to Kentwell's Tudor Re-Creations
Children love it and learn much; Teachers love it and recognize how much the children learn - what could be better ?
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Introduction
Kentwell's Great Annual Re-Creation which lasts for three weeks in late June & early July and the smaller Michaelmas Re-Creation in September are designed for school visits.
As Teachers have said from the earliest days of Kentwell's Re-Creations 'one visit to Kentwell is worth a year in the classroom'. Not only that but children actively enjoy their visit to a Re-Creation, best evidence of which is they spend three and a half hours in it without a break and without complaint.
Why Kentwell ?
Kentwell started domestic Historic Re-Creations and remain the leader in the field. It offers a site in scale and Tudor Features which nowhere else can match. It always has more Tudors than anywhere else (Children can expect to met about 100 on any visit) representing all age groups from toddlers to folk in their 70s and 80s. It offers a wide range of Tudor activities. The Kentwell experience is to see a little of a lot rather than a lot of a little. It prides itself on its standards of authenticity. Kentwell also adopts Tudor speech patterns which children love and set each Re-Creation in a given year. The Kentwell Tudors react to those events appropriately.
National Curriculum
A visit to a Re-Creation of Tudor Life enables a Teacher to 'tick' more 'boxes' than almost any other school visit anywhere. Of course, the Re-Creation is concerned with History but as well it covers aspects of Art and Design, Design and Technology, English, Geography, Maths, Music and Science. This is not surprising when you consider the aspects of life that the Re-Creation covers.
More about Kentwell and the National Curriculum
Costume
For these school visits, Kentwell strongly exhorts all schools (accompanying teachers & other adults as well as children) to come in costume and usually all but one or two schools do so. The children like it and it increases their anticipation and feeling of participation.
Kentwell supplies detailed instruction for making appropriate costume cheaply, which some schools do as a separate classroom activity. These same instructions also give hints on easy (and cheap) alternatives to actually making costume, which should enable all to make some costume effort.
Time at Kentwell
Schools book a set time at which they enter the Re-Creation which time, rather like catching a train, may be missed if the school is not ready at the appointed time. As children have to disembark, go to WCs, change money for 'Tudor coinage', arrival some half an hour before the booked entry time is essential. A further half hour after the children come out of the Re-Creation is necessary for the same reasons. As parties spend about three and a half hours in the Re-Creation, which itself can sometimes slip a little, schools are advised to allow about 5 hours for the time the party will spend at Kentwell.
Visit Options - The different ways in which a school can visit Kentwell.
Tudor Topics Covered - We cover a vast array of topics in our Re-Creations here are just a few.
Interactive map - see the manor of Kentwell