Week-long Learning Away residential at Hampton Court Palace
For the first time in its 500-year history, Hampton Court Palace this week became home to a group of school pupils who moved in for a residential trip. Eighty students from the Canterbury Academy lived on site for five days, taking classes from across the curriculum in locations throughout the grounds of the palace.
The residential – supported by the PHF Education and Learning programme as part of the Learning Away Special Initiative – resulted from a unique partnership between the school and the education team at Historic Royal Palaces, which manages Hampton Court and other historic sites across London. Drawing on the rich Tudor history of the setting, they planned a series of core curriculum lessons and other activities based around the theme of Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn.
Lessons included a design technology class building trebuchets, a drama class performance in Base Court (where Cardinal Wolsey put on shows in his day) and sports lessons in Henry VIII’s Real Tennis court. Residentials like this can boost attainment because the total immersion of the new environment helps pupils to engage with their lessons, and build relationships between pupils and teachers.
“We’re working with over 60 schools who are showing that residential learning is a really exciting way to engage and motivate pupils”, says Peter Carne, Learning Away programme director. “Our research shows that residentials have a huge effect on progress and attainment, as they boosts pupils’ engagement with their learning and build high trust relationships between them and staff that last way beyond the residential.”
Dominic Meehan, vice-principal at Canterbury Academy, said: “It is an amazing opportunity for our students to be so deeply immersed in the history and culture of Britain, especially on a residential, where there are also huge opportunities for more informal and incidental learning. Young people can learn so much about themselves on residential and have experiences that stay with them for life. Hampton Court is such a wonderful place to create these memories! I believe this approach is innovative and has not been tried before in such an amazing setting.”
The Learning Away initiative is working to demonstrate the effectiveness of residentials to other schools and education authorities. Its research has shown that teachers often identify obstacles, such as cost and bureaucracy, without realising the potential impact that a well thought out residential can have on pupils.
Peter Carne added: “Residentials don’t need to be complicated or prohibitively expensive – so we’re removing the biggest obstacles teachers see when they think about taking a group out of school overnight. It’s great to see organisations like Historic Royal Palaces getting involved, as it opens up a whole new world of brilliant residential venues that teachers could use.”
