Education is a key part of the Trust’s objectives. We have a busy, well-established, proven education programme, and the Park is the only site in Lancashire that’s registered to provide River Studies. However, we don’t only do River Studies we offer a full programme from Habitat Studies to flying around the park on broomsticks on our Wizarding programme.
Educational studies provide strong evidence that learning outdoors has multiple benefits for school children. 92% of teachers surveyed by Plymouth University said that pupils were more engaged with learning when outdoors and 85 per cent saw a positive impact on their behaviour and pupils questioned during the study, 92 per cent of them said they enjoyed their lessons more when outdoors, with 90 per cent feeling happier and healthier as a result.
Last year we welcomed over 1200 school children from 54 schools across the North West.
In June 2023 we opened our new education facility ‘The Orchard Barn’ within the beautiful walled orchard. A wooden building within the walled orchard gives the visiting school a private area where they can enjoy picnicking on the grass and enjoying the flora and fauna growing and living in there providing to the children an added learning opportunity.
Our programmes are incredible popular, so make sure to book your places as early as possible.
For school groups there is a charge per child with no charge for accompanying teachers and/or other adult helpers.
Visits must be booked in advance.
Please enquire by email or telephone and then return the booking form to confirm your visit and programme requirements.
School bookings that are independent of our program are more than welcome, we would just appreciate that you let us know to avoid any interference with any other bookings.
If you would be interested in booking the Orchard Barn, with its own toilet facilities please get in touch.
To book
Please contact the Education Officer on 01772 324436 or by emailing to education@cuerdenvalleypark.org.uk.
Indoor facilities are available for the children to leave their bags and have lunch, etc.
Please note that we DO go out in bad weather, although we reserve the right to provide an indoor alternative to the programme requested in exceptional circumstances.
Full Day Visit
- £7.50 per pupil
- One activity + Orienteering – £7.50 per pupil
- Wizarding – £8.00 per pupil
- Victorians – £8.00 per pupil
- There is a minimum charge of £150 for a full day class visit.
Half Day Visit
- One activity – £5.50 per pupil
- Minimum charge of £90 for a half day class visit (sorry no half day visits during peak times, April, May, June, July)
Customised topics
Our team are more than happy to tailor one of our existing programmes to fit your requirements and particular outcomes you would like to achieve. Please just ask and we will do our best to accommodate you.
Volunteers
We run our Education Programme with the help of a dedicated team of volunteers, some with over 20 years of volunteering experience and priceless knowledge. All of our team are Enhanced DBS Checked and have first aid training.
Don’t just take our word for it, see what our visiting schools have to say:
“Thank you for a wonderful trip for our staff and pupils yesterday. It was a great day and a very useful start to our RIVERS unit of work. It will be so helpful to refer to what the children have experienced when we talk about rivers in our Geography lessons.”
Our Lady St Gerards Primary School
“What a great day we had… It’s really enhanced the work we are doing in class.”
St Oswald’s Catholic Primary (Ashton-in-Makerfield), Victorian Outdoor Experience.
“They absolutely loved every aspect of the day and the activities engaged them fully.”
Woodlands Primary (Clayton le Woods), River Studies and Orienteering.
“Staff also enjoyed the visit.”
Lancaster Lane Primary (Leyland), Woodland Wonders and Orienteering.
“The (CVP) staff were incredible, they really came down to the children’s level. I could not have arranged such a well organised day myself!”
QEGS (Blackburn), Teddy’s Day out and Minibeasts/Pond-dipping.
“Thank you for the excellent day you and your fellow wizards provided… we had a few tears on the coach from one who didn’t want to go home. The children gained a lot from the day in terms of our English and science topics.”
Holy Spirit Catholic Primary (St. Helens), Harry Potter and Habitats.
