Education

So, your railway's supporting charitable trust is likely to be registered with the Charities Commission as having educational objectives.

With this in mind, what educational facilities does your railway have? What interpretation does your railway have of its role in the local community, or the role of railways in general in the development of Great Britain? Do you have any staff whose primary role is to promote and develop your railway's educational products and to handle school visits?

And I do not include simply running steam-hauled trains as discharging these educational objectives.

 

At the ELR we run the evacuation days for schools

 

Didcot's offerings are all detailed here and on the linked pages including the hands on experience in the education carriages.
http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/education/educational.html

Obviously just having a good write up on the website isn't enough but I suspect by the nature of the centre its fairly well equipped to provide a useful educational experience.

 

Yes it is, in fact the air raid shelter has just been given a 20 grand refurbishment as part of this. I think our education department has become one of best run parts of the society, they seem to be really on the ball with things.

 

You can also think in terms of placement-based learning, i.e. working with secondary schools to provide work experience that actually does what it says on the tin. Takes a lot of organisation but can be very worthwhile; the Ffestiniog has a programme with a local school that has been widely praised, there are no doubt other good examples.

 

The NNR has quite an established education dept with a dedicated team, there is a special website and some buildings at Holt, offering science courses and ww2 evacuee days to name a few. Also the William Marriot museum at Holt

 

The Mid-Hants also has a visiting Schools programme for education purposes although I am unsure about the details.

if anyone on this forum does know, will you please come forward?.

Regards
Chris

 

I have seen groups from different Schools being shown around the shed at Ropley in the past. Although I couldn't tell you who organises it? I would imagine this is done at the booking office or over the phone?

Cheers

Andy

 

Out of curiosity how would any of you see Scout Groups in this as obviously if they came to visit with say 17 Children and 6 Adults, could they get shown round too.

We have in the past been on a few camps to various locations and the railway I'm thinking of promised a guided tour etc when we rang up and asked and then when we went to they backtracked and said they couldn't do it due to the volunteers not being available.

Obviously while I understand this is a problem its dissapointing to have the facility advertised when enquiring then to have it turned down when requested, as the cubs then didn't get the visit they could have done, as after all they can go on a train ride with mum or dad, so when we visit places we do try to organise that little bit extra to make it different.

Just wonder what the thoughts would be on this and sorry to sidetrack the thread a little

 

Wouldn't be a problem at Didcot as long as you book it in advance, with reasonable notice, to get the guides & education team organised.
It would be no good phoning up on the day & hoping that someone was available

 

Yes its good to know I don't know when or if we'll ever come up that way but its handy to know just in case, I know you have a good education facility at Didcot as people have recommended it before all we need to do now is find a good campsite.

Yes I did give them plenty of notice when I first enquired as obviously we never just turn up with those amounts of people, the usual method is to ring get prices fr quotes so we can organise the costs for the amp etc then we'll ring again a bit nearer to double check figures and then ring to book in good time probably a month or so before the camp

 

If you do decide to go to Didcot, the lady to speak to is 'Pat'. She organises it all with us 'guides' & you don't have to pay until the day you visit. I'm not sure of the exact ratio but for every certain number of young, paying, visitors an adult is given free entry.

 

Going some way off topic but the Scout site at Youlbury (just outside Oxford) was excellent when I went many many years ago - the website suggests its probably even better now in terms of all the activities on site.