At KS4, there has been a gradually burgeoning number of types of educational visits – foreign language school exchanges, cultural visits all over Europe and further afield, sports competitions, youth conferences, winter sports and adventurous activities in more extreme environments. The Duke of Edinburgh Award becomes available at 14 years old and continues to be offered for those up to 24 years of age, and pupils of many ages start work on specialist awards in areas such as mountaineering, sailing and river sports. This increase in venue variety has led to a proliferation of specialist companies catering for these activities.
The aims of history trips tend to be more focused in KS4, with study trips to the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation and the 1944 Normandy Landings often proving popular along with the 1815 Waterloo battlefield. Venues of this type are often catered for by specialist travel companies to ensure participants get the best experience available.
A lot of schools have a tradition of school trips with their choirs, orchestras and musical/theatre students. There are specialist companies that can help any school wishing to explore this possibility, and many venues have tailored activities for groups that can help improve performers’ confidence and motivation.
British schools have been the forerunners in Europe for undertaking challenging outdoor activities both at home and abroad (you can visit here for good list of activities and gateway sites) but there is a notable increase of interest at KS4 in science-based trips – most notably the Science and National History museums in London, the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, the National Railway Museum in York, Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre in Macclesfield, Techniquest in Cardiff, and the Bristol Science Centre, all of which have reported an increase in visitors in recent years.
A new museum and archive will create a major visitor destination and a gateway to the Gaelic-rich cultural heritage of the Islands. Located in a modern purpose built extension to the restored Lews Castle it will open in the summer of 2015.
Exciting new galleries will look at the stories of the Islands and Islanders. Visitors will be able to
Little is known of the early history of this Northern Scottish town but there is ample evidence in the surrounding countryside of Neolithic/Bronze Age settlement and the shelters and defences of succeeding Ages. However, it was the Vikings that gave Wick its name (from the old Norse vik = bay).
Situated in the High Street in the heart of the historic town of Fort William in the Scottish Highlands, The West Highland Museum’s collections tell the story of the region and its history. Our most renowned and unusual collection relates to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite cause.
Award-winning Highland Museum. Housed within a unique former Telford Parliamentary Church, it provides a stimulating insight into the life of a Highland parish. Large screen audiovisual presentation of Lochbroom. Local archives, records, genealogy and photos. Touchscreens. Exhibitions. Six European languages.
Timespan was founded in 1987 with the main aim of providing the community and visitors with an insight into the fascinating history of Helmsdale and its surrounding area. It has since developed from a small local heritage centre into an award-winning museum and the only (non-private) contemporary art gallery in Sutherland.
The Highlanders’ Museum (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection)covers three floors of Fort George’s former Lieutenant Governors’ House. The museum has roughly 20,000 artefacts and an estimated 10,000 documents and photographs. The museum is the largest regimental museum in Scotland, outside of Edinburgh. Browse through the menus to feel the experience.
Fort George is one of the most outstanding fortifications in Europe. It was built in the wake of the Battle of Culloden (1746) as an impregnable base for King George II’s army. It took 21 years to complete, by which time the Jacobite threat had been largely extinguished.
The Tarbat Discovery Centre is a museum, learning and activity centre dedicated to displaying and preserving the heritage of the Tarbat peninsula. Housed in the refurbished Old Parish Church, it is the site of the only Pictish monastic settlement excavated in Scotland to date.
Tain & District Museum is an independent, volunteer run museum in the North of Scotland. We serve the area of Easter Ross; helping to perserve and interpret our past and provide locals and visitors alike with a high quality experience when they visit.
Once a church, this highland museum contains a fine collection of objects depicting a past way of life in this remote but magnificent part of Scotland. One room contains Clan Mackay memorabilia. Posters painted by local children tell the story of the Strathnaver clearances. The churchyard contains the Farr Stone which dates from the 8th-9th centuries.
Nairn Museum offers visitors and locals alike a fascinating insight into the life and times of the town and surrounding area over the centuries. The wide range of permanent displays featuring various aspects of Nairn's history are well laid out and informative and, in addition a huge collection of archive material is available for study.
Discover the history of the Highlands and Islands through the story of Clan Donald, its most powerful clan, at our award-winning museum.
Twelve centuries ago, West Lochaber was a buffer zone between native Picts, Norsemen and Scots. Briefly part of the Norse Kingdom of Man, it then became the eastern boundary of the powerful Lordship of the Isles.
Learn about Scottish history and discover how the Highlands are linked with the rest of the world.
Experience Highland contemporary art and crafts and unlock a medieval chest.
Hugh Miller's Birthplace Cottage & Museum in Cromarty celebrates prominent 19th-century Highland polymath, Hugh Miller - an eminent geologist, writer and social commentator.
HISTORYLINKS is dedicated to the history of Dornoch and the surrounding area. It is the only VisitScotland 5 Star Museum in the Highlands and one of seven museums in Scotland to have gained this prestigious award. The permanent exhibition includes the Cathedral, feuding clans and Scotland’s last witch.
The museum is located in Strathpeffer's charming old Victorian station where trains brought visitors to the village in it's heyday as a spa. Telling the story of childhood across the Highlands of Scotland, the displays reflect the stories of children, crofters and townsfolk and explore the customs and traditions.
At the Highland Folk Museum we give our visitors a flavour of how Highland people lived and worked from the 1700s up until the 1960s! We do this by displaying over 30 historical buildings and furnishing them appropriate to their time period. Some have been built from scratch on site and some have been moved here from other locations.
Our lovely museum is an outstanding centre for Pictish and Celtic Art in Ross-shire. The unique display is focused on 15 carved Pictish stones which all originated in the village, an important centre of early Christianity.
The exhibition tells the story of the town’s development using audiovisual and traditional displays. The Resource Centre provides internet access and family history research facilities for local people and visitors.
Glenfinnan Station Museum is a restored West Highland Line railway station on the ‘Iron Road’ to the Isles from Fort William to Mallaig.
The Glencoe Folk Museum was co-founded by Miss Barbara Fairweather MBE and Mrs Rae Grant in the 1960s, and for both ladies it was a life's work. In 1971 the museum was gifted the two cottages, which create the main building, by the late Hugh Grant.
The museum takes you on a journey through time showing how local people lived and worked in Gairloch through the ages.
● Marvel at how stone age and bronze age people existed with relatively limited technology and (to us) primitive utensils.
● Fathom the mysteries of a Pictish symbol stone.
The Centre provides a focus for the work of Dunbeath Preservation Trust: Registered museum; archaeological exhibition, Neil M Gunn literary landscape, engaging approach to landscape interpretation through art installations, photography and unique floor map.
The Bushcraft Company offer residential school trips with a difference, taking students into the wild and giving them real back-to-nature experiences they will never forget.
A 15-year-old boy fell 60ft over the edge of a cliff whilst on a geography school trip, miraculously only suffering minor injuries.