Oakwell enjoys an excellent reputation for the education service it provides and now holds five successive Sandford Awards for the quality of its educational provision. Trained staff provide teacher briefings beforehand and work alongside school staff on the day of the visit.

Visits are welcomed from schools both within and outside Kirklees. The price of visits varies, with Kirklees LEA schools receiving preferential rates. We can only accept one class per visit, with a minimum 1:10 ratio of adults to children.

Oakwell provides a valuable experience helping children work towards all key elements of the History National Curriculum, including:

• chronology
• range and depth of historical knowledge and understanding
• interpretations of history
• historical enquiry
• organisation and communication

Key Stage 1

Children will be able to gain a general awareness of the past and be able to compare their lives with how people lived in the past and be introduced to physical evidence, artefacts, paintings and buildings.

Key Stage 2

Oakwell Hall is ideal for Unit 2 topics about Life in Tudor Times and for any in-depth study such as houses or domestic life, families and childhood.

Key Stage 3

Pupils studying Unit 8 of the history syllabus can also have a valuable experience at Oakwell Hall looking at the Civil War. At all key stages a variety of sources can be used as well as the buildings, e.g. written sources, objects, maps and historical reconstructions.

If teachers have their own requirements, the education staff would be pleased to discuss these.

Role Play Costume Visit

Two Hall-based visits provide opportunities for role play and skill based work, each with a slightly different emphasis. The classes arrive in costume (which they provide themselves) and adopt the role of members of the household and carry out a range of interpretative and craft activities using reproduction artefacts. Oakwell’s education staff will lead the role play as members of the 16th or 17th century household.

1. Costume Visit with cooked lunch - Kirklees LEA £80, others £140

Children will take part in five activities during the day including preparing the mid-day meal. This is a major activity for which schools must provide their own food and extra helpers. These visits require a minimum of seven staff or helpers in addition to the two Oakwell staff.

2. Costume Visit with picnic style lunch - Kirklees LEA £80, others £140

Children will take part in four activities including a handling session, in role, led by members of Oakwell staff. Cooking is not part of the day and schools are expected to bring a simple 16th or 17th century style picnic lunch. These visits require a minimum of six staff or helpers in addition to the two Oakwell staff.

Hall and Handling Session - Kirklees LEA £60, others £100

This involves a visit to the Hall for observation and interpretation and also a classroom based activity involving the examination of original and reproduction artefacts and is very much an investigative process. Costume work and other activities can be included.

As with any visit, after discussion with the teacher the emphasis can be changed to fit the requirements, experiences and abilities of the children. Particular bias can be given for example, to materials, technology or the Civil War.

A minimum of two members of school staff are desirable, a member of the Oakwell staff leads the Hall visit and school staff run the handling sessions.

The Country Park is a valuable resource for National Curriculum Science at all key stages. The woodland, grassland and ponds provide ideal locations for the study of plants and animals in the local environment.

The skills based approach to learning links directly to experimental and investigative science. It involves discussion, observation, prediction, testing, measuring, hypothesising and drawing conclusions.

The science options offered at Oakwell Hall Country Park are by their nature cross-curricular. For example, there are opportunities for language development including reading information sheets, speaking and listening and writing about what they have seen.

The science options are based on a modular approach. Each of the following sessions lasts half a day with the exception of the rocks and soils session which lasts all day. Schools can mix and match according to their needs. If you have any requirements not covered by the options, please discuss them with the Oakwell staff.

All sessions cost Kirklees LEA schools £60 and other LEA schools £100 for the full day.

Habitat Hunt

A guided walk looking at a range of habitats within the Park considering the needs of wildlife. Habitats include shrubbery, hedges, walls, grassland, woodland and wetland.

Pond Study

An In-depth habitat study of the pond. The first half of the session is spent dipping for invertebrates, with the rest of session observing and recording finds with options of using keys, making simple classifications and looking at how creatures are adapted to their environment.

Mini-beast Safari

Using pooters and nets to hunt for mini-beasts in grassland, woodland, leaf litter, under stones etc and recording finds with options of using keys, simple classifications and looking at adaptations to habitat.

Plant Life

An introduction to trees through a range of games and activities using the senses. Sessions can include identifying trees using simple keys, looking at and constructing seeds and investigating methods of seed dispersal. The session can be tailored to individual requirements of the school and can include an artistic element.

Wonders of Oakwell

This session encourages children to understand and appreciate the environment through a variety of games and activities using the senses.

Rocks and Soils

This visit includes a classroom based session and a tour of the Country Park. In the classroom the children sort rocks according to observable features, perform simple experiments and investigate the different uses of stone through handling artefacts. Outside, children will dig a soil profile pit and look at the geology of the area. Children will also have the opportunity to examine and draw fossils.

A minimum of three members of school staff are desirable for the above options.