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Learning Outside the Classroom

'Learning Outside the Classroom' Status

Glastonbury Abbey has been successful in obtaining this important quality assurance award. We can now offer a full planning service to all teachers and group leaders to make the most of your time in Glastonbury, including classroom preparation and follow up activities. Ask about our new Outreach Visits to schools by members of the Living History team. We offer themed days for Saxon, Norman and Tudor periods, focussing on the clothes, the food, the customs and the leisure pursuits of the chosen period.

Around Glastonbury

There are many excellent places for Learning Outside the Classroom within and close to Glastonbury Abbey, which will complement and extend a day spent on the Somerset Levels.

The Rural Life Museum is a short walk from the Abbey gates. This small museum dedicated to farming and food production techniques across the ages is housed within the Abbey Barn, the grain store for the Abbey. For further details contact:

The Somerset Rural Life Museum
Abbey Farm
Chilkwell Street
GLASTONBURY
Somerset
BA6 8DB
 
Tel: 01458 831197
Fax: 01458 834684
Web site

The Tourist Information Centre (web site) in the High Street of the town houses an interesting museum showing the archaeology and finds associated with this site.

The local churches, built at the same time as the Abbey, are still intact and preserve some of the detail and the beauty that is now lost to the Abbey site. Visits to St John's church (web site), or the older St Benedict's church can be arranged through the Education Officer. The Catholic Church has taken over the original functions of the Shrine of St Mary at Glastonbury (web site). If your interest is in the religious story of the site this is well worth a visit and again can be arranged through the Abbey Education Officer in the first instance.

Glastonbury Tor, the large mound around which the town is built, is a local landmark giving wide views across the Somerset Levels. The site is preserved by the National Trust and is free to all visitors. It is possible to walk from the Abbey to the Tor, or to park a coach at the Rural Life Museum and walk up from there. This is an excellent resource for geographical studies of the Mendips and the Levels.

The Cathedral Town of Wells, just five miles from Glastonbury has many historic connections to the town and the Abbey. A combined project between the Education Service at Wells Cathedral and at Glastonbury Abbey, entitled "The Drama of the Reformation" uses a variety of learning styles to help students at Key Stage 3 understand how this complicated period of history affected the two neighbouring towns in such completely different ways. Please ask for details.