Education

Lessons from our past at the Yorkshire Law and Order Museums

Victorian educational visits, Key Stages 1, 2 and 3

You are hereby invited by the Matron and Master of Ripon Workhouse to visit the Courthouse Museum, the Prison and Police Museum and the Workhouse Museum - including the kitchen garden from spring 2010.

Activities

Key Stage 1: Be transported back 150 years to our Victorian home. Explore Polly's kitchen and laundry. Meet the school-mistress and learn about Victorian re-cycling in the home.

Key Stage 2: Experience the harsh regime of the Victorian Workhouse, choosing activities from: the laundry, Granny's cures, the garden, rag-rugging, role-play, the Victorian school room and Workhouse food. In addition: -

Key Stage 3, 4 and Sixth Form: special sessions for groups interested in aspects of social history: A Changing Society 1750 -1900; Victorian Crime and Punishment; The New Poor Law 1834.

Our education team are happy to discuss your particular requirements and organise a special day to meet your needs. Please phone and speak to our Learning and Access Officer, Sue on 01765 690799 or email: admin@riponmuseums.co.uk.

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Educational aims

We aim to develop knowledge and understanding through interaction, role play, participation, experience and investigation of Key Stage 1,2 and 3 National Curriculum and QCA programmes of study in history, literacy, personal, social, health, citizenship education, art, maths and geography.

We aim to develop positive attitudes and values through increased self-confidence and motivation as well as greater empathy and understanding towards other people and communities. Following a visit, pupils should realise how attitudes towards the poor changed during the Victorian era. Our programmes cover many of the requirements of personal, social, health and citizenship education.

We aim to develop thinking, communication and social skills through debates, decision-making and activities which focus on different interpretations of history to help children to make deductions based on historical primary sources. Children will have the opportunity to use their imagination and experience the lives of other people living in different places and times. We aim to stimulate curiosity and creativity and enable all children to experience success as learners during a memorable and enjoyable educational visit.

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Suggested outline of a Key Stage 2 day

Please note that the following suggested activities can be tailored to meet specific themes and needs, as required.

School parties, where possible, should arrive by 10:00 am or earlier.

The morning activities are centred around the restored Vagrant's Casual Ward of the City's former Union Workhouse (1854-1951), now the Workhouse Museum. Pupils should arrive in costume and 'in role' as paupers seeking food and shelter. They will be asked why they have become a burden on the parish.

Pupils will rotate to experience four workhouse activities for example: -

  1. Laundry
  2. Schoolroom
  3. Role-play a family having to enter a workhouse and weigh food rations for different categories of inmate
  4. Victorian themed creative activity (children usually make a rag rug)

Pupils will usually be organised into groups of 12, with one responsible person available for each group. The teacher in charge must be free to supervise and to accompany groups of children during the changeover sessions.

In fine weather, if time allows, pupils will have the opportunity to do drill, whilst the other others may visit the souvenir shop, where many items are priced at £3 or below. Allow 15 minutes for each activity before the groups change over. Allow a further 15 minutes to eat a packed lunch before walking to the Prison and Police and Courthouse Museums.

During the afternoon, pupils will visit the Prison and Police and the Courthouse Museums. They will take part in a trial and if found guilty, the 'prisoner' will be escorted to the prison, and be locked up, possibly prior to deportation! Pupils will also experience the inside of a prison cell, try on prison and police uniforms and try out the 'tread mill', the cranking machine and the whipping stool.

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Preparing for a visit

It is essential that teachers leading their first visit attend a preparatory meeting in the Workhouse Museum to discuss their visit and to decide on the type of activities and preferred timetable.

For further information and booking forms, please telephone the Learning and Access Officer at the Workhouse Museum on 01765 690799 or e-mail: admin@riponmuseums.co.uk.

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