Primary school visits to Knole

Choose from a range of interactive, hands-on, curriculum-linked activities, all of which can be tailored to suit your requirements.

Primary School visits can be tailored to individual requirements and can include the following elements:

Discovering the wildlife
Explore Knole park on a guided park walk led by the learning team. Enjoy watching the deer from a safe distance, listen out for the distinctive call of green woodpeckers, find out about the ant hills and ice house and measure ancient trees to find out their age. Park walks can also be adapted to include compasses, map skills, landscape and prehistory.

Discovering buildings and materials
Our courtyard trail allows your pupils to work in small groups as they answer quiz questions in Knole’s two largest courtyards, Green Court and Stone Court. The discovery trail encourages close-looking and covers building materials, features such as windows and water troughs, dates on the drainpipes and historical features such as Roman stones and Prehistoric deer antlers. Trails, clipboards and pencils are all supplied.

Art and design
Use the rare textiles and portrait collection to inspire art and design projects. In our portrait module, the learning team discuss some of the key portraits in the Knole collection, covering topics such as symbolism in portraits and the design of portrait frames. Pupils then have an opportunity to draw their own a self-portrait to take back to school. Paper and art materials are all supplied.

Local history lessons
Knole is unusual in being the last great house to survive in the local area. Our local history presentation explains how Knole’s links with archbishops and royalty have ensured its survival and explores the connections between Knole’s history and the geographical development of the local town of Sevenoaks.
 

Experience life in Tudor times
with an interactive costume workshop discussing the workers and rich folk who lived at Knole 400 years ago. Your pupils will also have an opportunity to delve into rich and poor chests of replica Tudor artefacts as they discover more about the Tudor life – their food, the lighting they used, their health and hygiene and their school, work and play-time.

Conservation science techniques
Understand the science behind conserving the fragile and historic artefacts at Knole. Your pupils will have an opportunity to watch a presentation explaining why light, pests and dust damage the collections and how the conservation project at Knole will help to save Knole’s unique and precious treasures for the future. They will also be able to make a light meter and pest trap to take back to school.

Special needs visits
The Great Hall, Estate Office, Orangery, garden and parts of the deer park are all wheelchair-accessible. Our learning team will be delighted to organise specific activities, such as music, costume or handling sessions to suit the needs of your pupils.

To find out more about school visits, please contact KnoleLearningTeam@nationaltrust.org.uk