Services For Schools
We have developed a series of learning resources and experiences which will meet National Curriculum for Wales targets and where appropriate extend and enhance them.
We currently offer a range of workshop themes for Primary Schools including:
The Tudors
Tudor Clothing
Find out about and try on replica Tudor Clothes of the rich and poor, produced using authentic styles, fabrics and techniques.
Tudor Food
Find out what rich and poor Tudors ate, how they ate it, and have a go at making some simple recipes, using ingredients from the monastic garden. Children will visit the garden to harvest the ingredients themselves, weather permitting.
St Mary’s in Tudor Times
The children become ‘novice monks’, dressed in habits, and sit in the Tudor choir stalls to meet ‘Brother Bartholemew’, the ‘master of novices’ who will tell the tale of the history of St Mary’s and its patrons, the Abergavenny nobility whose close ties to the Tudors ultimately saved St Mary’s from destruction by Henry VIII.
Tudor Music
Children encounter and play replica Tudor instruments, listen to a piece of Tudor music and learn to play the instruments in accompaniment.
Medieval & Tudor Medicine
Find out about and have a go at making traditional herbal medicines in the finest Monastic traditions. This workshop includes harvesting herbs from the monastic garden (weather permitting).
Tudor Childhood
Handle replica objects relating to education and childhood growing up in Tudor Times. Learn to play some typical Tudor games and sports including Battledore (Tudor Badminton)
Arts & Crafts
Clay Modeling
Childeren will learn about clay modeling techniques and create items including coil pots and gruesome gargoyles on thr Victorian neo-gothic Gargoyles at St Mary's.
The Scribe’s Art
Find out how the monks at St Mary’s used to produce manuscripts, using handmade quill pens and inks.
The Tapestry
Learn about the monumental six metre-wide Abergavenny millennium tapestry from one of its makers. Using the same techniques children then have a go at tapestry embroidery.
Christianity at St Mary’s
A range of workshops are available including:
· Christian Forms of Worship
· Design and layout of a Christian church
· Christian Signs and Symbols
· Monk for a Day: a rare and uplifting opportunity to take part in traditional elements of Benedictine monastic worship including chant.
Loans Boxes
A set of Late Medieval & Tudor replica handling objects including children’s toys, educational items, monastic, tableware and domestic items. Supplied for use back at school together with a set of activity ideas on learning with objects.
