The Weald and Downland Living Museum offers a great opportunity to start exploring different subject areas at Key Stage 1.
Our high quality cross-curricular workshops support the topics and themes of the National Curriculum. From science and design and technology to English and history there is bound to be something to meet your needs.
To find out more about each workshop click on the links below.
Self-Guided Visits
A self-guided visit to the Weald and Downland Living Museum is an excellent way of enriching Key Stage 1 curriculum studies. From the Anglo-Saxon to Edwardian era, it will help Key Stage 1 learners to understand how people built, lived and worked in the past and make comparisons with their lives today.
A self-guided visit allows you to explore in your own time and our Resources page has materials to help you prepare as well as activities to support a visit.
Tours Through Time
3 Houses
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: £60 for 15 pupils
4 Houses
Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Cost: £75 for 15 pupils
Join us on an interactive journey through time where your tour guide will take you on a whistle-stop tour of 3 or 4 different houses from 3 or 4 different time periods. Pupils will be challenged to spot the difference between the houses and take part in an immersive hands-on activity at each stopping point along the way which will help bring the history of each house to life and enable a better understanding of what it was really like to live in the past!
Choose from the following tour options:
1. Saxon to Tudor Tour (stops at Saxon House, Hangleton, Boarhunt and Bayleaf)
2. Victorian to Medieval Tour (stops at Whittakers, Victorian school, Bayleaf and Boarhunt)
Expect to take part in historical crafts, horrible chores, lessons in apothecary and become time travelling detective along the way.
Onsite Workshops
Three Little Pigs Mini Builders Workshop
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: £60
This lively, interactive workshop brings the classic tale of The Three Little Pigs to life while introducing children to the science of materials and construction. Through storytelling and hands-on investigation, children explore which materials make the strongest houses and why!
What will they do?
- Enjoy an engaging retelling of The Three Little Pigs with interactive elements.
- Explore and test straw, sticks, and bricks to understand their properties and suitability for building.
- Investigate our houses to understand the different materials they are built from and discover the chimney the Big Bad Wolf came down!
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand basic material properties and their uses.
- Develop problem-solving and teamwork skills.
- Connect storytelling with scientific exploration.
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Time Travellers: Homes in the Past
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: £60
Take your group back in time to explore how people lived in different historical periods. From cooking and cleaning to sleeping and using the toilet, children will discover how homes have changed over time. Examine household equipment and compare to modern day versions. Take a tour on site to explore different houses and discover how people have lived through history.
What will they do?
- Handle Artefacts and Examine authentic household items from the past.
- Investigate different houses and Compare features of historic homes with modern ones.
- Step inside real homes from different eras to see how people lived.
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the evolution of domestic life.
- Develop observational and critical thinking skills.
- Engage with history through hands-on experiences and demonstrations.
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Shelters and Survival
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: £60
Challenge your class with a hands-on outdoor experience designed to build confidence, teamwork, and practical problem-solving. Pupils will work together to weave wattle fencing and construct a shelter using traditional techniques, safely handle tools, watch a fire-lighting demonstration, and learn about how Anglo Saxons would have used the woodlands to forage for food.
What will they do?
- The students will Build a shelter using ancient wattle weaving methods,
- use tools in a supervised, confidence-building environment.
- Watch how to light a fire without matches and hunt for wild foods and learn about historical plant uses
Learning Outcomes:
- Develop teamwork and communication skills
- Gain confidence through practical tool use
- Understand historical survival techniques
- Build environmental awareness and plant knowledge
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
All in the Game: Playtime in the Past
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
Step into the past and discover the toys and games children played with long ago. In this hands-on session, pupils explore the differences between old and new, past and present, by investigating and playing with replica Tudor and Victorian toys.
What will they do?
- Take part in a mystery object and toy box activity
- Handle and compare old and new toys, exploring materials and design
- Sort toys into a timeline from older to newer
- Play traditional indoor and outdoor games like cup and ball, skipping, stilts, hoop and stick, skittles, hobby horse, knuckle bones and quoits
- Try Victorian animation and make a zoetrope
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand historical changes in childhood and play
- Develop observation and comparison skills
- Learn about materials and how toys were made
- Experience social and physical play from the past
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Fire in the Bakehouse
Duration: 45 minutes
Cost: £50
Explore why fire was such a danger in the 17th century in this immersive workshop set in a historic house and bakehouse. Pupils investigate how fires started and spread and discover how people tried to prevent and fight them. They’ll also get hands-on with traditional bread-making techniques.
What will they do?
- Watch a fire-lighting demonstration and try creating a spark
- Explore a 17th-century house to understand fire risks
- Take part in a historical fire-fighting activity
- Visit a bakehouse to learn about fire precautions
- Knead dough using traditional methods
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the causes and impact of fire in the 1600s
- Learn about historical building materials and fire safety
- Develop practical skills through bread making
- Build historical awareness through active investigation
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
Nature Explorers
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: £60
Venture into the heart of the woodland and uncover the secrets of one of nature’s most diverse ecosystems. This immersive outdoor learning experience invites pupils to become nature detectives, using explorer kits to investigate the plants, animals, and habitats that thrive in our woodlands. Through hands-on exploration, sensory activities, and historical discovery, pupils will deepen their understanding of the natural world and their place within it.
What will they do?
- Search for and identify mini beasts, learn about their features, behaviours, and ecological roles.
- Examine leaves, seeds, and bark through hands-on activities.
- Visit a charcoal burners’ camp and learn how people in the past used and sustained woodland resources.
- Take part in an interactive activity to match natural woodland materials with their traditional and modern uses.
- Engage in nature-based activities that encourage pupils to look, listen, and touch, supporting mindfulness, curiosity, and emotional wellbeing.
Learning Outcomes:
- How to identify and classify woodland species.
- The structure and seasonal changes of trees and plants.
- The characteristics of different habitats.
- The interdependence between living things and their environment.
- How humans have historically interacted with and cared for woodland ecosystems.
- The benefits of sensory engagement with nature for wellbeing and learning.
How to book
Please complete our Online Booking Enquiry Form
Alternatively, call us on 01243 811459 or email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk
How to Book
Visit our Plan & Book page for all the information you need to organise and book a visit, including prices.
Online booking formNeed More Information?
Please email schoolbookings@wealddown.co.uk or call us on 01243 811459
