Part of the Lore and Saga family of web sites.
Viking school visits in North West England

Specialist in Viking school visits and workshops for key stage two of the national curriculum “Invaders and settlers”.

Living history services, activities, presentations and interactive talks for classroom education and heritage sites.

Viking School Visits

While experience of Viking life is important to understanding the Vikings, It’s also important that I’m able to convey that knowledge to your pupils. So you’re naturally wondering what experience do I have with schools?

Well, Lore and Saga was established in 1998 after many years of working with other educational organisations such as the National Trust and Murton Park, one of the countries best known and busiest living history education providers.

During the last decade, school visits and workshops have become the major part of my work and I now deliver almost 200 school presentations a year. (There are only about 200 days available in the school year of course.)

I actually stopped keeping a full count a while back, but at that point I had presented about 1260 sessions to well over 55,000 children. The majority of those presentations were Viking school visits but other topics included Romans, Celts and Pirates, both in school and on fixed heritage sites.

Probably the most important statistic though is that 72% of those school visits have been repeat bookings, with many of these schools describing their Viking day as an essential highlight of their school year.
Discussing Viking traders and how they weighed their silver.

The presentation begins by establishing a time frame and discussing the evidence. I will be in fully accurate clothing from the period and the equipment I will bring to support the session will all be faithful reproductions of original archaeological finds and the best up to date information.

The main body of the talk is designed to involve the children in exploring the core issues of the topic and is interactive and fast moving.

Many teachers comment on the huge amount of information that I can pack into a short space of time and, more importantly, how well the children remember it all afterwards.

It’s not all talk of course, there will be demonstrations and opportunities for the children to get involved as well.

We explore Viking life as sailors, settlers, farmers, traders and craftspeople.

Of course, when discussing the Vikings, the subject of battle and violence is unavoidable.

It can however be handled in a way that does not glorify the subject and this is the approach I prefer to take.

Warfare is shown to be only a tiny part of the lives of the Vikings and perhaps the least interesting or appealing.

My presentations are about Living History not Dying History.
Viking fire lighting techniques.
A careful demonstration of combat from the Viking age.

Modern children have been brought up in a world where television is often one of their main sources of information. With many channels to choose from, videos, DVDs and game consoles all competing for attention it is not so surprising that they are less likely to sit down and search for information from a book than the children of twenty years ago.

Living history interpretation is an ideal way to engage the interest of such busy enquiring minds. By presenting them with not just an image of a historical figure but a real person that will talk and interact with them you can break down barriers to learning and present knowledge in a format that is truly memorable.

The Viking school visits are designed to be fitted into the topic at any point, so you can either use it to reinforce your own lessons or use it as a primer to build upon.

A normal in school presentation lasts between two and two and a half hours, spread over a morning or afternoon. This timing can usually be fitted around your school routine.

I will arrive at the school about an hour before the session starts and will need parking for a van and access to a space to set up, this could be a school hall or a clear space in a classroom big enough for the children, me and a lot of equipment.

If an activity day is being booked then tables and chairs will also be needed in the afternoon and these sessions often work better in a larger space like a school hall or gym.

Activity days include costume for the children and four Viking related crafts in the afternoon. If time allows the day can be rounded off with a saga telling or open questions from the children.

All craft materials are provided and included in the booking price.

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