The Commandery – Worcester
The Commandery – Worcester
Discover Worcester’s Civil War Story, an interactive experience that will take you back over 350 years.
History school trip ideas for primary schools
Educational visits linked to the National Curriculum for history
Learning from the past is one of the most important things we can do for the future. Encouraging children to understand their own heritage as well as delving into the unique and diverse histories of other countries opens their eyes to our changing world, and history school trips help them to draw links to the past in their own lives.
Topics to be covered in history at Key Stages 1 and 2 are many and varied, and it is often difficult especially for younger children to be able to put what they’re learning into context, or to imagine what life may have been like in the past. After all, they only have very limited experience themselves.
An educational school trip which focuses on history can support their understanding of past events, including when and why they happened, as well as piquing pupils’ curiosity and sparking their interest in the subject.
School trips for primary make history come alive – rather than facts and figures or dates and names on pages, it becomes about real places and real people. Children start to understand what it is to be a historian by being one themselves, as someone who re-lives, studies and writes about the past.
After a school trip like this, pupils are often more motivated and engaged in lessons because they have a deeper understanding of the subject.
To find an educational history trip near you, simply select your region and choose the class trip that suits your needs.
Recently added history primary school trips
The Hill End Centre
The Hill End Centre
An outdoor education centre offering a wide range of activities for all age groups and are particularly popular with Primary Schools.
Bolton Castle
Bolton Castle
An exciting range of opportunities for schools to visit Bolton Castle and learn more about what castle life was really like.
Victoria Art Gallery
Victoria Art Gallery
The Victoria Art Gallery provides a range of interactive and accessible activities that are fun and you learn about art too!
Tudor World
Tudor World
The museum provides workshop and tours based on the New Curriculum in a fun, interactive, educational way.
Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum
Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum
Pupils can immerse themselves in contemporary and historic works of art, natural history, military history, geology and archaeology.
The Silverstone Experience
The Silverstone Experience
Take school groups on an exciting journey through the past, present and future of Silverstone and British motor sport.
London Eye
London Eye
A classroom with a moving view! Plan a lesson your students will never forget 135 meters above the River Thames.
The Kingswood Trust
The Kingswood Trust
A place where history comes alive with old buildings, air-raid shelters, historical features and artefacts.
Worcestershire County Museum
Worcestershire County Museum
A step back in time for learners of all ages, through role-play and immersive learning, pupils can discover over a 1000 years of history.
Boundless Outdoors
Boundless Outdoors
With outdoor learning centres in Malvern and Bell Heath they aim to be the leading outdoor education provider in Worcestershire and the West Midlands.
The Beatles Story
The Beatles Story
Learn about the Beatles' lives, times, music and influential legacy using interactive screens and a giant piano.
Oxford Castle & Prison
Oxford Castle & Prison
Cross-curricular workshops offering a mix of activities including evidence handling, role play, literacy development and practical problem solving.
Parliament Education Centre
Parliament Education Centre
Parliament-themed learning rooms, augmented reality experiences, 360° projections and sound technology!
Wimpole Hall Estate
Wimpole Hall Estate
Wimpole is a large working estate with home farm, large country house, formal and walled kitchen gardens and extensive parkland.
National Waterfront Museum
National Waterfront Museum
The National Waterfront Museum tells the inspiring story of Wales’s contribution to past, present and future innovation and industry.
Pembroke Castle
Pembroke Castle
A medieval castle in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, West Wales. The castle was the original family seat of the Earldom of Pembroke.
National Justice Museum – North West
National Justice Museum – North West
An award-winning museum and education provider with the UK’s largest law, justice, crime and punishment collection.
Mary Rose Museum
Mary Rose Museum
The Mary Rose – Henry VIII's warship, lost in 1545, recovered in 1982 and now on display in a purpose built museum in Portsmouth.
Kirklees Light Railway
Kirklees Light Railway
Travel behind one of their five steam locomotives in beautiful hand-painted carriages for three and-a-half miles from Clayton West Station to their Shelley Station terminus.
Jurassic Coast
Jurassic Coast
Whether you want to hunt for fossils, visit a museum, or simply take in the stunning scenery on a good walk, you’ll find there’s plenty of things to do.
The Heights of Abraham
The Heights of Abraham
Country park and famous show caverns set in 60 acres of woodland and reached by cable car over deep limestone gorge in the Peak District.
Creswell Crags
Creswell Crags
Walk in the footsteps of the Ice Age hunter and enter a world of fire and flint.
Chocolate Collective
Chocolate Collective
They work closely with primary and secondary schools to run educational, chocolate making classes.
Audley End House
Audley End House
A noble 17th century mansion complete with Victorian Service Wing and stables set in magnificently kept gardens.
National Galleries Scotland
National Galleries Scotland
Situated in the heart of Edinburgh, the Scottish National Gallery is home to one of the best collections of fine art in the world.
Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral is a Christian Church of the Anglican Communion and the seat of the Bishop of Durham.
JORVIK DIG
JORVIK DIG
A hands-on archaeological adventure giving kids the chance to become trainee ‘diggers’ and discover the most exciting artefacts from 2000 years of York’s history!
What does the National Curriculum say?
A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire pupils’ curiosity to know more about the past. (We agree, and we also think that educational school visits only enhance this curiosity.)
History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.
Teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgement. (All great life skills, especially in this era of Fake News.)
Key Stage 1 – Pupils should be taught about
• Changes within living memory
• Events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally, for example the Great Fire of London
• The lives of significant individuals from different periods of history who have contributed to national and international achievements, for example Elizabeth I, Neil Armstrong, Tim Berners-Lee, and Rosa Parks
• Significant historical events, people and places in their own locality
Key Stage 2 – Pupils should be taught about
• Changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
• The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
• Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
• The Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England
• A local history study
• An aspect or theme of British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066
• The achievements of the earliest civilizations
• Ancient Greece
• A non-European society that provides contrasts with British history, for example early Islamic or Mayan civilization
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