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Longship in Schools & Museums


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Since Longship was founded in 1992 it has built a nationally known reputation as being one of the leading specialists in providing Saxon & Viking living history days into schools and museums.

Our workshops are designed to relate to key stage 2 of the History National Curriculum which states pupils should learn about the Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the Kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor, to include Viking raids and invasions, the Danelaw, Danegeld, Anglo-Saxon laws and justice, as well as art, culture, religion, and includes attitudes and experiences about the social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of the societies they came from all the way to 1066!

We achieve all this by allowing the children a unique opportunity to see, touch, handle, smell and wear our huge collection of period artefacts, both real and reproduction which cover all aspects of Saxon and Viking daily life, as well as the weapons and armour used in battle and warfare.
We engage the children through the use of hands on experience and role play and we aim to get most of the children to take an active part at sometime during the day. All of the children will spend 90% of the day with us.
 Erik Eriksson You will spend the day in the company of
 ERIK ERIKSSON
Fearsome Warrior, Trader, Story Teller
& Sometime Blacksmith.
Time Table (this can be altered to fit your normal school day)

Morning session:
The day begins with an introduction a look at names and family life the clothes they wore marriage and children. The children then get to look at touch, try on and smell the huge range of superb and highly accurate artefacts we bring into your school, including farming equipment, trade items, spinning & weaving, leather, bone work and jewellery, not just the ordinary day to day things but some rare and sinister items as well, things that will surprise and amaze both children and teachers alike and concludes with an interactive question and answer session   at the end the children get to select artefacts to ask questions about and see demonstrations of how they work Followed by a coin making demonstration. If there is time either before or after lunch Erik with the help of some of the children may tell a pre christian story of the creation of the world according to the Vikings...... Not for the faint hearted!

We bring all of the artefacts in this film into schools, they can be handled or touched by the children and adults, and these are only used during the morning session
 Period Jewellery Display             Erik Eriksson standing
Please Note we are used to working in schools where the hall is used at dinner times which is why the artefacts are spilt in to two collections one for the morning and one for the afternoon. This requires the morning's artefacts to be packed away and returned to our vehicle just before lunchtime, normally with the aid of some strong sensible willing slaves! (i.e children and nothing is too heavy)

After Lunch:

The children participate in a village meeting ("Court Motte"" for Saxons and Thing" for Vikings). During this we look at the different types of trial that were used including Trial by Worth, Trial by Ordeal and Trial by Combat. Several children will take a leading part and following any trial there must come the punishment and the children will witness punishment in action.

We bring all of the weapons, helmets and armour in this film into schools, they can be handled or touched by the children and adults and these are only used during the afternoon session.
The End of The Day:

The children will get the chance to see and handle axes, spears, shields, swords, helmets and armour including replicas of two of the most famous and iconic helmets of the period, the Jorvik helmet and the Sutton Hoo helmet from one of the largest private collections in the UK. This is all done in a strictly controlled environment. We also teach the children about battle chants and for schools with multiple classes we get each class with their teacher to come up with a chant of their own which they then get the chance to perform to the other classes.
At various points throughout the day the children are given opportunities to ask questions about what they have seen and heard and we actively encourage them to do this. If there are any subjects you would like us to cover in more detail please feel free ask in advance of the day or when booking.
child in a Saxon helmet child in a Viking helmet
Jorvik helmet child wearing chainmail
Please note this is only a general outline of the day and it is subject to change.
Learn More about the Eriksson Family, see more School Pictures and download Work Sheets

Why choose a Longship Day?

There are many reasons to choose a Viking & Saxon day from Longship with the cost being the obvious one. In the current climate we know schools have to watch their budgets and to be seen to offer value for money. A Longship Workshop meets both these criteria especially when judged against an out of school trip in almost every case the cost of the coach hire is far more than the cost of a visit from Longship plus we spend at least 5 hours or more with the children (the Jorvik centre tour takes less than an hour and it will probably take most of the day to get there and back). Plus Our Workshop days are considerably more environmentally friendly than nearly all out of school trips as we use a small modern fuel efficient vehicle compared to a large coach or coaches that are required to transport pupils and staff to and from a venue, we also arrive early and are ready to start on average at 9:15 am and normally finish just before the end of the school day so there is no time wasted travelling or stuck in traffic.

The cost (*) of a day is based on the number of children taking part and the distance from our office near Kingswinford in the West Midlands to your school. There are NO extra charges.
*a minimum charge for the day applies

Most visits to historical venues are a "look and learn" experience but with Longship the children get to touch, feel and try on an extensive range of some of the best and most accurate period artefacts available that we bring into your school and in most cases the majority of the children will get to play an active part in one of the many role playing scenarios we do throughout the day and of course all the children get to interact with a Real Life Viking/Saxon

We are a professional company and not a re-enactment society and solely concentrate on the Vikings Saxons and 1066 period. Our school workshops are designed to fit in with you normal school day and to cause as little disruption to the rest of the school as possible, although 60 plus children screaming battle chants and a 6ft Viking in the dining hall at lunch time does tend to cause a little disruption, no extra staff are required for our visit other than the staff that would be with the children on a normal school day and there is none of the hassle and stress associated with an external school trip.

We only offer Viking and Saxon workshops because we believe the quality of our days and the quantity and quality of the artefacts we use would have to be sacrificed (see films above) if we were to cover other historical periods as well.

Booking a Longship school workshop will probably be one of the best days that children and teachers will ever have in your school and we are sure of this because we enjoy doing them so much too.  

We provide a range of FREE to download worksheets, posters and a simple guide to making children's period costume to help make the day even better. Although not essential we highly recommend that the children dress up for the day as this greatly adds to the enjoyment of the dayand  for busy teachers we provide a costume hire service, please ask when making a booking.

We average over 200 workshops per year and have visited over 1500 different schools with a large majority of them regularly booking a return visit. Some schools even book a year or more in advance to get the date that they want so we recommend that you BOOK EARLY!

If your still not sure and  need a little more convincing read the letters from Children and Teachers about what they think of a Longship visit and then read the Times Educational Supplement article about one of our school workshops and you can download a copy of our Schools Brochure.

Please feel free to point parent's to our web site and in particular our information for parents page at www.longship.co.uk/parents.htm
 
BOOKINGS:

For more details and to make a booking send an email to schools@longship.co.uk please include the name address and the postcode of the school, the number of children taking part and 3 dates in order of preference so we can give you an accurate quote and our availability. if wish to contact us via telephone our number is 07930166443, in school term time our phones are directed to an answer phone so the best time to call us is calls before 8:30am and after 4:00pm or at weekends.

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