English Heritage has commisioned Wessex Archaeology to produce a Teacher’s Kit for schools taking kids to the Avebury monuments. About Avebury, the English Heritage site says: “Avebury rivals - some would say exceeds - Stonehenge as the largest, most impressive and complex prehistoric site in Britain. Built and altered over many centuries from about 2850 BC to 2200 BC, it now appears as a huge circular bank and ditch, enclosing an area of 281⁄2 acres (111⁄2 hectares), including part of Avebury village. Within this ‘henge’ ditch is an inner circle of great standing stones, enclosing two more stone circles, each with a central feature.”

The Kit will help schoolchildren heading for Avebury and the surrounding monuments make the most of their trip to the World Heritage Site. It is a downloadable resource for teachers of Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils. As well as information sheets for teachers there are on-site investigation sheets, puzzles, maps, treasure hunts and other games and activities to help pupils to learn about the history of these historical sites in an entertaining and engaging way. [Wessex Arch. News]

Lucy Bradley, Education Manager for English Heritage in the South West says:

We want to encourage more schools to come to Avebury World Heritage Site and ensure that pupils have an educational and stimulating visit. The site is steeped in a rich and mysterious history and there is so much children can learn from a visit here. This new web resource will help them to discover the site’s historical significance using fun learning tools.

The Teacher’s Kit includes details about Avebury Stone Circle, West Kennet Long Barrow and Avenue, The Sanctuary, Windmill Hill and Silbury Hill. There are downloadablew resources in PDF such as the History of the Avebury Monuments (here), information sheets for each of the major monuments (you can find the one for Silbury Hill that we covered yesterday here) along with Pupil sheets for searching for hidden treasure, puzzles and other activities.

In my mind, this is such a superb resource that parents taking their own kids to see these wonderful places would have a great set of things to do by using this Teacher’s Kit. I remember my own parents doing something similar with the “I-Spy” books, which encouraged kids to search for and identify all sorts of things and gave them points for doing so. Great fun!

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