Blenheim Palace and Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum are pleased to be running a joint Open Day for local schools, i.e. the schools in the Blenheim School Partnership. For secondary schools, please forward the invitation to your KS3 History, DT and Science Leads/Teachers.
School teachers and assistants are invited to come and sample our respective workshops on Saturday 15th March 2025. Invitations extend to your immediate family (partner and children). Spaces will be limited to 30 participants for each session. We will run two sessions each.
Timings:
Morning session:
9.30 – 10.00
Arrival and parking at Blenheim
10.00 – 10.30
15-min joint intro (Blenheim, SOFO Museum)
15-min walking
10.30 – 12.30
Half the group will visit the SOFO Galleries, the other half will visit the MI5 Room, WSC Exhibition at Blenheim.
12.30 – 13.00
Arrival and parking at Blenheim
13.00 – 13.30
15-min joint intro (Blenheim & SOFO Museum)
15-min walking
13.30 – 15.30
Half the group will visit the SOFO Galleries, the other half will visit the MI5 Room, WSC Exhibition at Blenheim.
We limit the number of participants to 30 for the workshops (10.30-12.30 and 13.30-15.30), and your family may explore both sites at their own pace while you are with our respective facilitators. If spaces are available on the day, we will welcome a member of your family to the workshop.
If you opt for the morning session, you may stay on at either site for the rest of the day.
If you opt for the afternoon session, you may arrive in the morning at Blenheim and join us at 13.00.
This Open Day offers a chance to have a look at the different workshops on offer for your school groups, to take a look around each venue and to ask any questions about planning a school trip.
Blenheim Palace
We are redeveloping the Education programme. The new workshops will reflect our World Heritage Site’s 10-year goals: History, Science, Art & DT, and Citizenship. Our most popular workshop is the History workshop, which focuses on the Second World War and Churchill at Blenheim. (available for KS1, KS2 and KS3)
On the day, you will experience a KS2 History workshop, and an Education Guided Tour of the Palace State Rooms. Half of the participants will start with the Tour while the other half will start with the workshop, and then we swap over.
KS2 History Workshop
The workshop is delivered in the MI5 Room. The room is staged as a shared office used by MI5 agents during the Second World War: MI5 were relocated to Blenheim where they worked from mid-1940 to beginning of 1946. This is the starting story of the workshop. “We found a locked chest while clearing out recently and we wondered if you could help us find the code to open it.” Pupils will look for a single-digit number clue at all five desks in the room. Pupils will work in small teams to find the clue at each desk. At the end, the numbers will be put together to open the chest. The chest contains a reward for each pupil.
During the workshop, pupils will be introduced to Churchill’s famous speeches made during his first year of premiership. They will handle props (real and replicas) and work together as a team to solve each task. The workshop takes about 45 minutes.
Education Guided Tour
This is a general guided tour to complement the workshop. Pupils will hear stories about how Blenheim became the host of 400 evacuated college boys and MI5 agents. The tour takes about 45 minutes.
Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum
A new take on the classic military museum, SOFO Museum shares stories of heroism, combat and peace from across the globe and throughout time. We also tell stories of how conflict has affected the county and its people, from soldiers serving on the front lines to ordinary people living on the Home Front.
History Detectives: World War I
Key Stage 2
Our First World War offer looks at the experiences of soldiers in WWI, and of their loved ones back in Oxfordshire. Students will acquire the skills to recognise artefacts and draw inferences from them, and use those skills to empathise with the conditions of a soldier in combat on the Western Front. They’ll spend time in a trench reconstruction, learning many of the aspects of trench life. The workshop also touches on what it was like for those left at home, subject to changes in law, propaganda, and changing conditions for women. After investigation and piecing together a picture of life during WWI, students will try a hands-on activity which may have been a part of playground games for children from 1916 onwards when the tank was first introduced into battle-the cotton reel tank.
Churchill, Champion of Technology
Key Stage 2/3
This learning session focuses on Churchill’s ability to embrace, as an early adopter, technological problem solving to create advances for British troops in WWI and WWII. It looks at three technological advances which were game changers for those taking part in conflict: the Mark I metal helmet; the Mark I tank; and radar communications/aerial combat. Students will be immersed in key problems which arose in WWI and WWII; safety in the trenches, breaking the stalemate of the trenches, and detecting enemy aircraft during the Battle of Britain.
If you are interested, please book your space by completing the following form: https://fs27.formsite.com/aLzhWq/cupnn52rfw/index Please register with your school email address.