Strategy for Learning

Learning is at the heart of English Heritage’s new 5-year strategic plan.  We aim to help people understand and learn from the historic environment, to value it, care for it and ultimately enjoy it.  We will achieve this directly through learning programmes at over 400 historic sites in our care, through wider engagement with the public, and through working with partners.

Over the next 5 years we will expand our learning programmes in the following key areas:

Schools and other education groups

• In spring 2006, we will launch a programme of workshops, tours and other activities for schools at our properties, led by specialist educators
• We will increase the number of educational visits to our sites to 650,000 per year by 2010
• We will encourage teachers to use the historic environment as a learning resource by providing a minimum of 30 initial teacher training courses per year
• We will expand our educational publishing programme to include new titles for teachers, children and higher education students
• We will re-launch our Heritage Learning magazine and extend its appeal to learners both within and outside the classroom
• We will increase the range of our on-line educational resources by 10% each year
• We will broaden participation in our learning programmes by building on our work with the Historic Houses Association, the Civic Trust and the Churches Conservation Trust, and developing a minimum of one new partnership project per year from 2006
• We will work with DCMS, CABE and others to take forward the Engaging Places project to provide a one stop shop for built environment education

Family and adult learning

• We will stage a minimum of 400 events per year at sites across the country
• We will enhance the educational potential of events by investing in 5 new event series per year aimed at specific learners
• We will engage a minimum of 15,000 learners with the Festival of History each year from 2006
• We will introduce new family learning resources at our top 25 sites during 2005/06
• We will extend our Adult Basic Skills courses to 2 new sites each year
• In autumn 2006 we will launch a new programme of educational volunteering at selected English Heritage sites across the country

Community learning

• We will engage a minimum of 30,000 people from hard-to-reach communities across the country by delivering a minimum of 20 outreach projects each year
• We will deliver a minimum of 16 Heritage Open Days outreach projects per year aimed at broadening participation in the scheme, in partnership with the Civic Trust
• In 2006 we will stage a major national conference to disseminate best practice in outreach across the sector and with community groups
• We will extend the Blue Plaques scheme to one new region per year, erecting a minimum of 32 plaques nationally per year
• We will maximise the potential of the Blue Plaques scheme as a means of enhancing people’s understanding of their local historic environment through on line resources, publications and outreach work

For more details on our future Learning programmes, please email the Learning Department at education@english-heritage.org.uk