Education

Education Programme

The Education programme is based on live interpretation (living history) workshops, self-directed activities and interactive sessions led by Museum staff.

Each of the live interpretation sessions and interactive sessions are for groups of 17 children plus 2 adults. This will enable all the group to be involved and ties in with the group sizes for the underground tours.

Live Interpretation Self-directed activities Interactive sessions
Sam/Sally Fletcher (£24.00)
Meet Sally or Sam Fletcher in the Victorian area of Caphouse Colliery during the Industrial Revolution. Listen to their stories of working underground as children before the 1842 Coal Mines Act changed their lives.

Availability: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
NC Links: KS1, 2 History, KS1, 2 Citizenship

Mrs Lockwood (£24.00)
Travel back to 1949 and meet Mabel Lockwood in her kitchen. Learn about home life and the social activities of mining families.

Availability: Wednesday, Thursday
NC Links: KS1, 2, History

Sir Humphry Davy and the Flame Safety Lamp (£24.00)
Meet the brother of Sir Humphry Davy, the inventor of the Davy safety lamp. He will involve pupils in discovering a safe light source to be used underground, exploring a variety of materials for transparency, translucency, and opacity.

Availability: Monday, Tuesday
NC Links: KS2, History, KS2 Science

Fred at the Pithead baths (£24.00)
Fred is the Pithead Baths attendant at Caphouse Colliery in 1938, where he demonstrates the use and benefits of the ‘new’ Baths and discusses the impact of miners’ welfare provision in the 1930s.

He also invites participants to assist him in sorting some ‘lost property’ from the 1930s

Availability: Monday, Tuesday
NC Links: Upper KS2 History

Stories of a Bevin Boy (£24.00)
Follow Jeff into the coal screening plant where the sorting and cleaning of coal took place, and listen to his story about being conscripted to work in the mines during World War Two.

Hear how Bevin Boys, like Jeff, contributed to the Home Front during the War.

Availability: Monday, Tuesday
NC Links: KS2 History, Literacy, Citizenship


 Rocks Trail (Free)
Why is gravel used on locomotive tracks? An interactive trail that involves pupils locating and investigating rock samples at several trail stops around the site.

Availability: Monday, Thursday
NC Links: KS1, 2 Science

Materials Trail (Free)
Why is steel used for making horseshoes? An interactive trail that involves pupils locating and investigating the materials used in the mining industry.

Availability: Tuesday, Friday
NC Links: KS1, 2 Science

Habitats Trail (Free)
Based on the Museum’s Nature Trail, pupils explore and observe different habitats and learn about life processes, feeding relationships, and classification.

Availability: Thursday
NC Links: KS1, 2 Science

Numeracy Trail (Free)
A great opportunity to promote Numeracy across the curriculum. Pupils work through maths problems relating to Victorian Britain. Activities include weighing and measuring Museum objects.

Availability: Monday
NC Links: KS2, Maths
 Dig Deeper (£24.00)
Dig deeper and uncover the layers of Caphouse Colliery by using a scale model of the site, object handling, and Coal Measures fossils.

Availability: Tuesday, Thursday
NC Links: KS2, 3 Science, Geology, History, Geography

Fantastic Forces! (£21)
Students are invited to explore pushes and pulls in the Workshop building. Using a coal tub, they can then investigate how different heights of ramps affect the distance the tub can travel.

Availability: Wednesday, Friday
NC Links: KS1 Science
QCA Links: Units 1E and 2E

Fantastic Friction! (£21)
Students are encouraged to consider examples of forces and friction in the Workshop building. Using a coal tub, they can investigate how the surface of a ramp affects the distance the tub can travel.

Availability: Wednesday, Friday
NC Links: KS2 Science
QCA Links: Units 4E and 6E

Wind Me Up! (£21)
Students explore winding mechanisms at Hope Pit, particularly the winding gear which lifted miners and coal out of the shaft. Students design and make their own winding mechanism.

Availability: Wednesday, Friday
NC Links: KS1 Design and Technology, Science
QCA Links: D&T Unit 2C, Science Unit 2E

Gearing Up! (£21)
Pupils watch a demonstration of original belt driven machinery to see how gears and drive belts can be used to transfer energy and change the speed and direction of a machine. Pupils then apply these concepts to their own working model.

Availability: Wednesday, Friday
NC Links: Upper KS2 Design and Technology, Science
QCA Links: D&T Units 5C, 6C, 6D, Science Units 4E, 6D and 6E

Demonstrations and activities


The following demonstrations may be requested. However, availability cannot always be guaranteed.

Steam Winder Demonstration (Free)
See an original Victorian steam winding engine in action. Duration: 10 minutes, Cost: free

Horse Keeper Talk (Free)
Visit the stable yard and listen while our horse-keepers tell you about the working lives of the pit ponies. Duration: 15 minutes, Cost: free

Train Rides (£0.50 each way)
Take a short journey on the railway to Hope Pit. Duration: 10 minutes, Cost: 50p each way

Nature Trail and Bird Hides
Explore the trail around the colliery site. The trail finishes at Hope Pit, where an innovative system of reed beds and settling ponds cleans the dirty water pumped from underground.


Further details of the workshops are provided in our new Teachers Guide 2007-2008, which is available on request.

There is a dedicated space for school groups at the 'Learning Curve' where some of these workshops take place. There is also lockable storage for coats and bags.