Visits to Bradford Cathedral for the new academic year
Since September, the Education team has hosted almost 300 children and young people for educational visits at Bradford Cathedral, from:
- St. Paul’s C of E Primary School, Wibsey- Place of worship tour for Year 6
- Lilycroft Primary School- Geography and local history tour of Bradford for Year 3
- Ashville College, Harrogate- GCSE RE revision workshop for Year 11
- Burley and Woodhead C of E Primary School- Cathedral costumed experience for Year 5
- Co-op Academy, Princeville- Place of worship tour for Year 1
- Brackenhill Primary School- Place of worship tour for Year 2
- St. Anthony’s RC Primary School, Clayton-Place of worship and local history tour for Year 2
Feedback from recent visits:
- “We had an absolutely wonderful time doing the costumed workshop. If I am doing the same topic again next year I will be certain to rebook. The session was absolutely amazing. The children all came back enthused about their historical figure and we are going to further their learning with research projects into some of the people…We have made a book which includes a photograph of each child as their historical figure and the information text you sent us – this is now printed and published in the classroom for the children to look at and remind them of the trip. Thank you so much!”
- “We really love coming to the Cathedral with our Year 3 every year and we didn’t want the children to miss out this year. Thank you so much for what you do.”
- “This workshop here in the Cathedral is really special. Nowhere else does anything like this. Thank you.”
- “Thank you so much. The children were so engaged and got so much out of it. We all learnt a lot today!”
Upcoming events
Educational visits: There are many more visits already booked in the Cathedral diary for November, December and January. We are so pleased that we have so many annual return visits from schools, and it is equally lovely that we have some brand new schools visiting us this academic year for the first time as well.
Schools and Colleges booked in for this term include:
- New College, Bradford- Year 12 Fine Art A Level group
- Eden Boys School- Year 11 GCSE RE group
- Upper Wharfedale Primary Federation visits- 90 pupils from Burnsall C of E Primary School, Cracoe and Rylstone C of E Primary School, Grassington C of E Primary School and Kettlewell Primary School, aged 7-11
- Reevy Hill Primary School- Years 1, 4, 5 and 6
- Rainbow Primary School- Year 3
Half-term Family Activities’ Sessions
On Tuesday 29th October we will be providing half-term holiday family activities’ sessions, in the morning and the afternoon. There will be lots of autumn crafts and colouring, as well as quizzes, trails and family-friendly guided tours of the Cathedral at 11am and 2pm. We’re looking forward to welcoming familiar and new families at these events.
New Educational Partnerships
National Literacy Trust partnership
The education team is delighted that over the next 3 years we will be partnering with the National Literacy Trust as part of the Goldsmiths 500 Writing Challenge project, which is aimed at enhancing writing development from Year 2 to Year 4 in Bradford. The project will focus on state primary schools in Bradford where over 22.5% of pupils are eligible for free school meals. As part of the project each school will receive a total of 6 fully funded visits to local cultural and heritage sites: 2 visits per year across 3 years. Bradford Cathedral will be one of these out of school sites and we will be providing the pupils with bespoke workshops specially created by us for this project. Schools that have already signed up for their first visits to us in the spring and summer terms of 2025 are: Carrwood Primary School, High Crags Primary Leadership Academy, Parkwood Primary School, Reevy Hill Primary School and Holybrook Primary School.
Schools and Colleges of Sanctuary event
We have wanted to become involved with the Schools and Colleges of Sanctuary organisation for some time and are delighted to announce that we will be hosting a special event at Bradford Cathedral for Year 5 and 6 pupils on Tuesday 28th January 2025, with the well-known children’s author, Tom Palmer. Tom has written stories that include children who have come to the UK seeking sanctuary from Syria (D-Day Dog and Gus the Fantastic Football Cat) and Ukraine (The Girl in the Lewandowski Top). His best-known book is After the War and is the story of 300 Jewish children who came to the UK in August 1945 as refugees direct from the Nazi concentration camps. We are really looking forward to hosting this significant event for schools and hearing Tom Palmer speak about his writing and the research he does for his books.