Englefield Estate - Education: Englefield Countryside Days for Schools

Overview | Englefield Countryside Days for Schools | Estate Museum & Steam Engines | Primary, Secondary & Further Education

Education: Englefield Countryside Days for Schools

For two days in June the Estate hosts the Englefield Countryside Days for Schools. This event is for Key Stage 2 children and teachers.

It is an immensely full and varied day and is split into two parts. Half the day is teacher led with Englefield helpers guiding the other half. The children are shown a variety of stands depicting life on the Estate. These include; The House, Farming and Food Chains, Game Conservation, Arable Crops, Forestry, the Englefield Estate Yard, the Church, the Stables and the Anderson Air Raid Shelter.

In 2002 the Schools Days were awarded the Sandford Award for Heritage Education and the judges citation read:

“Englefield Estate offers, in the two days on which it opens to school parties in large numbers, a chance to see how a large working estate demonstrates sustainability in action. In the truest sense it demonstrates the ways in which a family can work with the land and with the local people to maintain what is essentially the landscape heritage of our country. The experiences enjoyed by the visitors will have enormously extended the visitors’ appreciation of what made our country work in pre-industrial times, and the ways in which adaptations to the demands of present times are being made without destroying our heritage. The Benyons are worthy custodians of this part of England, and well deserve an Heritage Award.”

MAIN THEMES OF THE DAY:-

• The main themes of the day are the inter-linked needs for stewardship and management of the countryside
• The Countryside is a vibrant, breathing environment where skilled people work and make their living. So much of what will be seen has come about through careful management and hard work over hundreds of years.
• An Understanding of Stewardship. Whether it is in the House and buildings, or on the land, the attitude of the owners is the same: maintaining and improving the Estate for future generations. Many people depend on the Estate for their livelihood and many more enjoy some aspect of it every year.
• Old and New. The Estate endeavours to keep the best of the past while making use of modern technology. The Estate, in common with the rest of the countryside, has to be run as a business.
• Facing Reality. Stock is reared for slaughter. The deer herd must be selectively culled for it to stay healthy. Trees are a crop, which must be harvested. Pests, such as crows and rabbits, must be controlled.

NATIONAL CURRICULUM OPPORTUNITIES ON THE COUNTRYSIDE DAYS FOR SCHOOLS

•	Literacy: discussion and enquiry, literary appreciation (the library houses a unique collection of books), reading, word level games and extended writing.
•	Numeracy: measurement - area and linear, multiplication and division (yields), estimation, shape and symmetry.
•	Science: study of flora and fauna, rural ecology, agronomy, soil etc
•	Geographical study and enquiry, plans and mapping.
•	Comparative Locality Study
•	Settlement and Landscape. Why and how people affect and seek to manage and sustain the environment.
•	Historical enquiry, primary sources, architecture and artefacts, including an Anderson shelter.
•	Art appreciation, opportunities for close observation/sketching.
•	Elizabethan House, art, artefacts, architecture and horticulture
•	Victorian Estate Village and rural life
•	RE: An opportunity to visit an active Christian Church at the centre of the community.

Countryside Days for Schools CD-ROM

Written by a Sian and Alastair Crisp, this CD-ROM application is designed to help you discover what you will be doing at an Englefield Countryside Day for Schools.

e-mail: thecrisps@ntlworld.com

Launch CD-ROM

Englefield Countryside Days for Schools