The Historic Dockyard provides the perfect setting to support your Key Stage Two pupils’ learning in a variety of curriculum areas. Children are sure to be inspired by our inspiring, authentic settings, providing a real-life context for their classroom learning.
The dockyard was operational for 400 years, over which time it shaped the development of the Medway Towns and employed many local people, making it the ideal location for local history studies. However, as a centre of technical innovation and cutting-edge design of its day, the site is also ideal for the study of Science, Technology and Engineering.
For a whole day of taught activities, choose one of our Special Packages, combining three of our hour-long taught sessions, specially designed to support the new Key Stage Two curriculum. Alternatively, mix and match sessions from different packages to create your ideal combination. If you wish to have fewer than three taught activities, all sessions are also available to book individually.
*Prices are shown in the table below
Experience what life was like for sailors in the Georgian Navy with this session on board our sloop HMS Gannet. Gain an understanding of sailors’ language and custom, daily routines and the punishments given out to those who misbehaved.
Discover the diets of 18th Century sailors and how this affected their health and hygiene. Take a peek into the doctor’s medicine box and meet some of the creepy crawlies that would be kept aboard ship. Students even get the chance to have a taste of the Hard Tack biscuit, as well as a few other foods the sailors would eat.
Stimulated by the National Maritime Museum model collection, pupils work in groups to build a ship’s hull and fit it with a motor. Facing the challenge of the tow tank wind and wave machine, groups compete against each other in trials, evaluating their designs and developing technical knowledge of how a ship’s design impacts on its performance.
Learn about the rope making process in the Victorian Ropery, the longest brick building in Europe and make your own piece of rope on our specially designed model machine. Use your rope to tie some of the knots used on sailing ships. Each child will also receive an individual rope sample to take away with them.
Your class will use their investigative powers to compare and classify materials ‘in the bag’, discover and give reasons for their uses on ships. The session ends at our bespoke ship-model testing tank where pupils work in groups to build a boat from polymer.
Pupils will experience the highlights of the largest collection of RNLI Historic lifeboats in the country and learn about the inspirational story of Victorian heroine Grace Darling in the atmospheric lifeboat station. Inspired by Grace’s story, pupils will construct an electrical circuit to make their own lighthouse.
Taking their inspiration from the Sea Cat missiles on board HMS Cavalier, The Historic Dockyard’s own Destroyer, your pupils will work in teams to create rockets and fire them from our specially designed air pressure launcher, aiming to hit a target. Which team will sink the battleship?
Tread the ¼ mile ropewalk with one of our Victorian Ropery characters, listening to their fascinating story. Find out what life was like in a Victorian factory and how the Factory Acts changed working conditions. Hand-picked apprentices will make a piece of rope on our scale model rope making machine.
Lead your pupils to the safety of our genuine Second World War Air Raid Shelter. Experience the sights, smells and sounds of an Air Raid in one of the Admiralty’s ‘most luxurious’ shelters of the time. Read a wartime child’s personal account of their experiences of air raids and shelter life.
Pupils gain first-hand experience of life on board a Destroyer and on experiencing a walk-through of HM Submarine Ocelot; pupils also build an understanding of life beneath the waves aboard the enemy’s submarines. Sure to be a poetry lesson they will never forget, this session really brings literacy to life.
Explore life above and below deck aboard the Royal Navy’s last operational Second World War Destroyer. Learning about its voyages and the conditions on board for the sailors, pupils will gain an understanding of the challenges facing those who manned this magnificent protector of the Atlantic Convoys.
Subtitle: Prices based on a group of 30 pupils
| Activity | Price |
| Single Session | £60.00 |
| Whole Day | £120.00 |
For nearly 400 years, The Dockyard shaped the physical and human fortunes of the Medway Towns. A local centre of innovation and technology, at the height of its operation, Chatham Dockyard was responsible for the education and employment of more than 17,000 local people and covered an area of over 400 acres. The expansion and later closure of the dockyard shaped the local area as it is today.
A local history study of The Dockyard gives pupils in Kent and Medway a vital insight into their region’s industrial past and the key to developing their wider understanding of both their local area and Chatham Dockyard’s contribution to Britain’s past, present and future. With more than four centuries of history to explore at The Dockyard, the site is a rich resource for a depth study of a variety of themes over time, such as ‘Working conditions’ ‘Industry’ or ‘Transport’.
We can support you in delivering a local history study on The Dockyard and we can provide the following:
Outreach sessions or assemblies at your school.
Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust welcomes the news that museums and visitor attractions are able to reopen to visitors from 4 July.
We are actively planning to welcome visitors back to the Dockyard as soon as we are safely able to do so but this will be some time after 4 July.
We will make a further announcement to confirm the exact date as soon as we can.
In the meantime, much of Dockyard life has never stopped. Master Ropemakers has started operating again and we are taking forward bookings for filming, group travel and hospitality, including weddings. Call the Midwife Official Location Tours will resume shortly.
We would like to thank all our visitors for their understanding during this challenging period.
Last updated: 25 June 2020
