A
visit to Blakesley Hall offers
the opportunity to study a Tudor
home and learn about people’s
lives in Tudor and Stuart times.
Schools are invited to make a visit
and participate in educational
sessions led by the on-site education
team. Sessions provide the opportunity
for pupils to investigate the home
life of the Smalbroke family who
lived at Blakesley in Elizabethan
times and explore the clothes,
toys, music and dance to the periods.
There are also opportunities for
classes to participate in Maths,
Science, Craft and Art activities.
For details of the sessions click
on the key stage to jump straight
to that section:
Visit the main teaching session page for the current flyers available for download Teaching Session flyers.
Key Stage 1
- A day
in the life of Blakesley Hall – an
investigation into the life of
the children living a the Hall
during the 17th century
- This is
the House that Richard built – a
comparison of their home with
a Tudor home
- Famous People
in the Past – including
Guy Fawkes and Shakespeare
- Night
Night, Sleep Tight – suitable
for Foundation Stage
- Here We
Go Round the Tudor House /
A Rhyme through Time – using
nursery rhymes to investigate
the Hall and its garden
- Traditional
Toys – a
chance to handle and use Tudor
toys and have a go at dancing!
- Pots and
Pans – Kitchens
and Food in the Past (Science,
Technology and History)
- Buildings
and Materials (Science/History)
- Guy Fawkes (Drama/History/Art)
- Homes Long Ago
Classroom activities can include:
- Artefact handling, toys
and object guessing
- Brass rubbing
- Simple maths activities – pattern-making,
measuring and estimating
- Outside
the house study and observational
drawing
- How Does your Garden
Grow?
- Can Buildings Speak?
- Richard Smallbroke
Had a Farm
- ICT
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Key Stage 2
- Tudor Kitchens and Entertainment
- Tudor Role
Pla - Visit the Hall
and become villagers looking
for work
- Local History
- Music and dance
- Rich and
Poor in Tudor Times (History) - An investigation
into how people lived in Tudor
times, including costume, artefact
work and dancing.
- Inventory
Detectives and Quills Skills (Tudors/Stuarts
- History)
- Enemies
of the Historic House: Caring
for our Heritage (Science/History)
- Summer
Shakespeare (History/Literacy/Drama)
- Make
a mask + Shakespeare Trail
- The Great
Birmingham Squabble! (Tudor Drama)
- Wassail,
Wassail: Tudor Christmas (role play)
- In Sickness
and in Health – Tudor Lotions
and Potions (History)
- Children find out about Tudor
health and hygiene and discover
how herbs were used to
treat illnesses in the past.
See and smell real Tudor cures!
- A Tudor
School Day (History/English) - Investigate
Tudor education through role
play
- The 17th
century Home (History/Literacy)
- Investigating
Blakesley Hall in Stuart times
- Mr Hewitt
Builds his Dream House! Focus on Maths and the
timber frame house structure
- Crime
Scene Investigation: Blakesley (Science
and Citizenship) - Pupils become
forensic investigators to solve
a theft at Blakesley Hall. This
session is only
available from the end of October
to the end
of March.
- Building
Detectives (History)
- Pupils find out about Tudor
building methods
to work out how Blakesley Hall
was built.
- Pattern
in a Tudor House (History and Art) -
An exploration of Blakesley Hall
looking at
different types of patterns,
followed up by a
chance to design their own painted
cloth.
- How do
historians know things? (History) -
Children explore Blakesley Hall
through a
range of primary source material
to discover
how historians have been able
to piece
together information about the
lives of the
Smalbrook family.
Classroom activities can include:
- Artefact handling, toys and
object guessing
- Brass rubbing
- Quill pen writing
- Maths activities
- Outside the
house study and observational
drawing
- Herb garden investigation
and Tudor remedies
- Geography activity
- Wills and
Inventory study
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Key Stage
3/4
- Inventory
Detectives (Key Stage
3)
Exciting
opportunities to use a historic
site to support the new curriculum
and investigate a Tudor/Stuart
home using primary source material.
Find out about the Key Processes
involved in interpreting the
past.
- Women
and the Home in the 17th Century (Key Stage
3)
Students investigate
a Stuart home through the life
of Barbara Foliot, the matriarch
of Blakesley Hall 1614-1679.
Key questions might be asked
about the social status of women
in the past, and why their role
is largely ignored in historical
records.
- Diversity (Key Stage
3/4)
Issues of diversity
can be addressed by undertaking
a local study to improve understanding
of how Blakesley fits into wider
historical themes. Students can
investigate the patterns of life
in Yardley during the seventeenth
century through using primary
source materials; study the demography
of the village using the parish
register to build a statistical
database, use old and new maps
to investigate changes in the
area, etc. They can address questions
of how curators interpret a site
like Blakesley Hall, using the
physical evidence in its structure,
and what they have done to reflect
the importance of Richard Smalbroke
to the locality, and to Birmingham.
- GCSE coursework
- The
Timber Framed Building in History (Key Stage 4)
- Medicine
through Time (Key
Stage 4)
Key Stage 3/4 - On Site
Art, English and Drama Options
- Shakespeare
and Art (Key Stage 3)
Students study interpretations
of Shakespeare’s plays
by artists from 18th -20th century,
conduct a dramatic investigation
into the lifestyle of the inhabitants
of Blakesley Hall; create
their own visualisation of a piece
of text from the play they are
studying and record their work
digitally.
- Devise!
Direct! Act in a Historical
Drama! (Key Stage 3)
Investigate an historic
incident involving the family
at Blakesley Hall, Dramatise
and film the
subsequent events using the Hall
as a background.
- Enterprise
opportunities / Leisure and
Tourism (Key Stage
4)
Study the Hall as a venue
for Leisure and Tourism, investigate
opportunities for commercial
development and take part in
business planning. For more information
please download the Leisure
and Tourism flyer (PDF
198Kb).
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