New Academic Year!

Den Building

The start of a new academic year is always an exciting time for the Education team here at Holkham and we were straight back in the thick of things this week when we welcomed our first school visit of the Autumn term to the estate. 120 enthusiastic Year 1 & 2 pupils from Swaffham Junior School spent a busy day with Will, Michaela and Sarah, our fantastic new volunteer. Den Building was the main focus for the day and pupils discussed the woodland habitat, its creatures and the dangers within. Knots were learnt and practised, survival skills were put to the test and both natural and manmade resources were used to help construct some really fantastic dens.

It was great to see the teamwork, leadership skills and new friendships that developed when the groups were set some quite tough challenges. It demonstrated just how valuable educational field trips can be to pupils and teachers alike at the start of a school year, when pupils in new classes are just getting to know each other. By the end of the day each group had transformed into a solid, efficient and, most importantly, happy team of den building experts.

Renewable Energy Study - Wood chip for biomass

Also this year, we are very excited about the extensive new Secondary and Sixth Form Programme that we have been developing over the past 6 months. The new brochure will soon be flying hot off the press and the new website section will also be going live. With the huge scope for high level field work here on the Holkham Estate we look forward to welcoming GCSE and ‘A’ Level students here, where they can experience a totally new and unique way of studying Geography, Biology, Art & Design, Photography and Business Studies, Leisure & Tourism. 

Super Blog Winners!

I am delighted to confirm the winners of last term’s Superbloggers competition were Megan & Travis from Peterhouse Primary School, Great Yarmouth who both won a Family ticket to Holkham’s attractions. The runners up were Chloe & Kiya, also from Peterhouse Primary School. The blogs are posted below – we particularly liked the fantastic detail and journalistic style of Megan & Charlie’s & the brilliant descriptive writing and rich language of Chloe & Kiya’s.

Our day at Holkham Hall

We arrived at Holkham Hall after a long drive. When we got there we met a lady called Lady Leicester. She explained what we were going to be doing. We went into her house and she walked us around. She showed us the Library, kitchen, front room, hall way and the spare rooms. Next we went out to do some bug hunting it was so much fun! We loved hunting for the mini beasts and catching them, we were asked to make a hotel to release the bugs.

We got to eat lunch on the grass, it was very nice. After lunch we played in the park, then we built a big den in groups but each den had to be waterproof, windproof and hail proof. This was such a challenge.

Last but not least we visited the gift shop and spent some of our money on boomerangs, sweets, key rings and funny stress heads. 

From Megan & Charlie

Holkham

Our trip to Holkham was amazing. Arriving at Holkham we met by a magnificent driveway leading to obelisk. The obelisk was white. When we parked our minibus we met a woman called Michaela she was our educational guide. When Michaela had introduced herself to us we went inside the Holkham Hall. The Hall was very big and posh. The Lady that lived at the Holkham Hall was called Lady Leicester. Lady Leicester lived there with Lord Leicester, their two children and a dog called Frankie. Frankie looked like a sausage dog. Michaela gave us a guided tour around the hall. There was a lot of gold within the hall some of it was golden frames around paintings, the wall decoration was golden and the guest bedroom was covered in gold and most of the walls had tapestry on.

About 20 minutes after we had a guided tour we went back outside and went on a leaf there was all different kinds of leafs we had to look for a rowan leaf ,holly leaf, beech leaf, birch leaf, field maple and other different kinds of leafs. After we went on the leaf hunt we had a mission to find all the mini beasts that we could Kiya was scared of the mini beasts so she stayed right away from them.

Chloe and Kiya

Summer Holidays Fly By......

Pond Dipping

With a great many people enjoying their school summer holidays by making a visit to Holkham, our education team here have been busy presenting an array of fun and informative educational activities around the estate & on occasion enjoying a spot of time off after our busy summer term!

There has been a series of Discovery Days held in our fantastic Walled Gardens, with young visitors trying their hands at mini-beast hunting, designing pine cone creatures, making bug houses, biodegradable plant pots & simple birdfeeders, planting beans, sowing seeds & special highlight dissecting owl pellets. Our pond dipping in the lake has once again been very popular with visitors catching an array of wildlife in their nets – the highlight have been baby fish, damsel fly larvae, dragonfly larvae, water boatmen, cased caddis fly larvae and even a water scorpion! Special thanks to our volunteers Gail, Linda & Rose for helping us throughout the summer.

Trailer Tours

Our fabulous new Trailer Tours have proved very popular and the 32-seat trailer, towed by the 7^th Earl’s wonderful old Massey Ferguson 135, has been filled with happy visitors who have enjoyed seeing parts of the estate that are not normally seen by the public. We’ve been sharing their knowledge of the heritage and traditions of Holkham’s farming history, as well the modern, eco-friendly and conservation minded methods of farming today. Visitors on the tours also get an insight into the forestry management here and the farming company’s forward thinking diversification, which now includes the solar farm and the biomass anaerobic digester up at Egmere. A huge vote of thanks must go to our dedicated volunteer tractor drivers, Richard and Mike.

Our Adult Education has continued with our monthly Walking Women group & Guided Walk of the National Nature Reserve both popular. August is an exciting month for us as we also explore the creatures of the night on Bat Walks within the Parkland. Despite some drizzle (you can’t help the British weather!) we’ve managed to see & hear (using bat detectors) Soprano Pipistrelles above our head which has been a magnificent experience for all. Thanks to Keith & Sonya from Norfolk Barbastelle Study Group for their help with leading these.

Behind the scenes we’ve been busy working on developing our Secondary School Programme & our new Exhibition Field to Fork which is opening in April 2106. There’s never a ‘quiet time’ in our job just a different focus to our work!

Sue Penlington Education Officer