Hands-on history meets outdoor creativity in this unforgettable seaside-themed learning experience!

Bring the story of Victorian seaside holidays to life—right from your school grounds! Designed for Key Stage One, this fully outdoor workshop combines curriculum-linked history, D&T, science and art to create a joyful, high-impact learning experience your class will remember.

We’ll kick off with a deep dive into the world of travel and transport from the Victorian era. Children will explore how people travelled from cities to the coast by discovering different types of boats. We’ll begin with constructing sail boats and try to make it to the coast and back against the wind, evaluating their reliability. 

From there, we introduce steam power! Children will learn how the invention of steam engines revolutionised travel and transformed the British seaside holiday. They’ll then explore simple paddle boats, test and improve their manoeuvrability with passengers onboard.

With their boats seaworthy, we shift focus to the people of the past—exploring who travelled to the seaside, why they went, and how boats were eventually out competed by other modes of transport to the seaside.

Next, we get moving with traditional seaside games that offer a burst of physical fun and historical context, play that connects past and present.

Finally, the workshop winds down with a calming creative activity. Pupils will explore how Victorians commemorated their holidays at home, using real seaweed and printing techniques to create their own seaweed artwork to take away.