Primary school children from across Cumbria will be experiencing a very merry Victorian Christmas at Cumbria Outdoors this festive season as they step back in time for a three day residential course.
Between now and Christmas Day, pupils from nine schools will be turning up at Cumbria Outdoors Fellside Centre near Caldbeck where a very warm welcome awaits them.
Imagine the luxury of a comfortable drawing room with its roaring fire and a sparkling Christmas tree –with the added attraction of being waited on hand and foot by servants.
Then imagine the daily grind of a servants’ lot, waiting at the gentry’s tables, up to their elbows in washing up and eating a very different, plain fare in the servants’ hall.
The children visiting the Fellside Centre will get an opportunity to play both servants and gentry, with a Victorian housekeeper on hand at all times to put them through their paces.
The Victorian experience will be as real as possible, with everyone –including all the staff –being dressed in the traditional clothes of the period.
Other experiences for the children include meeting a Victorian miner for an exciting underground experience followed by a miners’ lunch of Cornish pasties, and a chance to make authentic Christmas decorations and dress the tree.
The three-day programme is a truly Victorian Experience, where pupils get to feel like they have stepped back in time. The residential course celebrates the best of ‘experiential’ learning, which is tailored to follow the national curriculum through bringing the Victorian period back to life
Andy Hunter, Head of Centres at Cumbria Outdoors, which is part of Learning Support Services within the county council’s Children’s Services, said:
"Because this is a residential experience, the children benefit from a first hand account of Victorian living from the moment they get up in the morning right up until their bedtime –really bringing the period to life in a more exciting way than just sitting in the classroom."
County councillor Jim Buchanan is Cabinet member for Children’s Wellbeing. He said:
"There are so many more exciting ways to learn than when I was at school –and this is among the best.
"It gives the children an opportunity to really immerse themselves in the period. They will be almost able to feel and smell what Christmas would have been like so many years ago, getting out of the classroom and seeing it ‘for real’ –I envy them!"
In November 2006 the Government launched the ‘Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto’, which sets out specific measures to help schools widen access to high quality education experiences for every young person and making learning outside the classroom an integral part of school life.
Cumbria Outdoors has recently signed a ‘pledge’ to support the manifesto and this Victorian residential course is just one of the ways they help children to learn outside the classroom.
ENDS
Blennerhassett School will be experiencing a Victorian Christmas at Fellside between Monday 10 and Wednesday 12 December Shap School will be at Fellside between Wednesday 12 and Friday 14 December. For more information contact Andy Hunter at Cumbria Outdoors on 01768 772816.
Further information from Alison Lister, Media Team, on 01228 606335