Education at Denny
The Abbey and the Farmland Museum
D & T See below
Sessions
We are going to continue with our 'Pick 'n Mix' strategy, by which teachers can opt for any combination of sessions to suit their needs. There is a mixture of artefact handling, craft, and observational sessions which can follow a particular theme, or period of history, or which can simply practise a range of different skills. We are open to suggestions, and can change the direction of any session, or theme of the day, to fit in with class, or school, curriculum needs.
On this page we show how you can match different sessions to fit in with a theme, or period of history, that you are studying.
Our 2011-2012 education leaflet is out.
So is it just Primary, then?
Certainly not!
We can adapt our sessions to suit any age group, including adults.
There is plenty to interest Key Stage 3 in terms of the Agricultural Revolution, and Medieval England, as there is for GCSE, 6th Form and University groups.
For GCSE History SHP courses, the abbey makes an excellent site for a History Around Us project.
We would be happy to work with any group to amend our sessions to suit your needs.
Topics and Themes
Tudor/Medieval Life
This will focus on the abbey as a resource, and use the buildings to stimulate understanding of the period. As young entrants to the holy orders they will investigate the abbey buildings; learn how to copy manuscripts in the schoolroom; make tiles and design a stained glass window; and explore for artefacts to fill their own treasure box. Choose between:
Exploring – Building patterns in the abbey; monk’s/nun’s day
Handling – Tudor/medieval artefacts and clothes
Craft – stained glass making; tile making; manuscript writing; making a Tudor
treasure box
Experience - Tudor schoolroom
Second World War
We will give your pupils some of the flavour of life on the Home Front during this period. They will arrive on the site as evacuees, and will be shown their new home (including their bedroom), where and how to shop, how and why to grow their own food, how to recycle food to avoid waste, and how to make their own rag rugs. Along the way they might even experience an air raid. Choose between:
Exploring/ Handling – Air raid precaution; That’s the Spirit (wartime singalong)
Craft – Make do and Mend (rag rug making); Dig for Victory (grow your own);
Kitchen Front (cookery)
Victorians/Houses and Homes/Britain since 1930
We will use the resources of the museum to bring to life one of these periods and themes. Children will learn about the lives of the people in the past who lived on the site. They will see the cottage where they lived, and the local shop. They can be trained in the art of washing clothes, and can practise making food and domestic items. Choose between:
Exploring – Village shop; farmworker’s cottage
Handling – washday; domestic objects
Craft – Box decoration; rag rug making; cottage cheese or bread making
Fenland life/farming
The story of a landscape and its people
This topic examines the culture and history of a fast-disappearing way of life. It looks at the land, the people, their beliefs and their work. This is a must for any Cambridgeshire school, and for those who share an interest in the extraordinarily rich heritage of the Fens. Choose between:
Exploring – farmworker’s cottage; Fenland life displays; farm machinery
Handling – the fen basket; farm equipment
Craft – make a fenland monster
Debate – the draining of the fens
From seed to shelf: the story of how food is made and how technology has helped.
We will use the extensive collection of the museum to look at the history of farming and farm machinery to give the children the knowledge and understanding of how food is grown. Choose between:
Exploring - Farm machinery, farmworker’s cottage
Handling – farm equipment
Craft – bread making
So is it just History, then?
Certainly not!
Many of our sessions are suitable for Art and Design, Geography, Citizenship and Technology syllabuses. Numeracy and Literacy are also catered for, and some have an environmental slant.
If you have an idea of how we can adapt sessions to suit your needs, we would be happy to discuss it with you, but here are some ideas:
Numeracy
We have excercises involving perimeter around the abbey, and money calculations in the village shop.
Creative writing
Special sessions involving creative thinking around the abbey, shop and cottage can be geared towards producing a piece of imaginative written work.
Technology
Cogs and gears can be explored using the farm machinery on the site, as can arch building with the abbey (see below).
Art & Design
The objects in the museum collection, and the different shapes and designs in the abbey can be explored and recorded.
Evidence
The history of the abbey can be explored using archaeological and detective techniques.
PSHE
The joint session with Donarbon looks at atitudes towards waste and recycling both now and in the past.
D & T
Technology at Denny
(For a full day visit, choose any 5 of the options below, or from any of the other sessions we offer)
Food - Bread making/Cottage cheese
Design and make a roll, or bread product, for eating. Follow the rule of food hygiene; learn about the function of the ingredients, and consider their quantities and proportions; work in a group and individually to make the dough; design your own product based on the concepts of functionality and aesthetics. The dough can be taken home to be baked.
Or:
Prepare cottage cheese, and experiment with different flavourings and textures to create the ideal taste. Can be consumed immediately.
Cogs & Gears/How machines work
How did machines work before engines? How did the sail reaper cut corn when there were only horses to pull it along? How could a pony walking round in a circle make an upright wheel turn? All these mysteries can be solved by examining the machinery at the museum, together with a simple group session using models of gears that shows in easy stages how bicycles and more complex machinery work.
Farming/machinery/bread (From seed to Shelf)
Start with a card exercise looking at the stages in the production of grain for making bread, and particularly at the tools used. Consider and criticise these tools and suggest improvements. Look at some of the ‘improved’ tools, and then at the impact of machinery. Then go and look at these tools and machines around the museum, and examine their development.
Arches
In groups, construct 3 basic arch shapes out of building blocks. Consider issues such as strength, style and aesthetics. Look around the abbey to see how and where these shapes were used, and evaluate their effect
Building Materials in the Abbey
Identify a range of building materials. Look at where they are, how and why they are used, and how effective they are based on concepts such as longevity, aesthetics, strength and style. Note the change in materials over time
Clay tiles
In this session, children learn why people living on the site in the past had to make their own tiles. They learn about the simple equipment and the process involved in making tiles, and are shown examples from the abbey. They will then design and make tiles for themselves out of air-drying clay.
This will give them an understanding of life on the site, and of the general Medieval and Tudor periods. It will also teach them an interesting skill which requires listening and following instructions, as well as practising design and practical techniques.
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