Framing England's History: Heritage Learning
The Churches Conservation Trust works in many ways to engage communities and stakeholders with their local CCT church and the work that we do to conserve these historic buildings. Part of this work is delivered by our creative team of Heritage Learning Officers who have been focussing their work with schools this year on educating children about the history of church windows and raising awareness about the importance of our latest Annual Appeal: Windows, Framing England's History.
Our Heritage Learning Officers create memorable educational experiences, offering an engaging programme for schools which explore topics on a wide-range of curriculum subjects from Art and History to Science and Engineering. CCT offer Heritage Learning workshops free-of-charge to publicly funded schools. You can find pages on the CCT website for schools and families with free teaching materials to download. If you would like to read more about learning and engagement at CCT, please follow this link to our website.
Steve Tarling, Heritage Learning Officer for CCT’s North region, recently ran a workshop with a Year 8 group in Bridgenorth, Shropshire, examining the characters and stories of the windows at St Leonard’s Church. Steve summarises perfectly the relevance of windows, and how young people engage with them;
“Stained glass windows are as much a part of the fabric of churches as their towers, pews and pulpits. Not only do they decorate the heights of the buildings and illuminate the often-dark interiors by reflecting light, but they tell stories. Biblical scenes and bishops often decorate the walls along with mythical beasts and monarchs, saints and local figures. St Leonards in Bridgnorth boasts Noah, St Patrick as well as local warrior king, St Oswald, and King Charles I. And these stories can provide the ideal hook to engage audiences, particularly younger crowds with our churches, who often gasp in amazement when they hear the dramatic tales told to them.”
Marie Sellars, Heritage Learning Officer in CCT’s West region describes one of her busy weeks that took place this summer:
“I started and ended my week at two ends of teaching the National Curriculum. In Langport, Stories in Stained Glass workshop was taught at All Saints Church. Reception children explored the unusual history and stories of the windows. Through talking about a special memory, they created their own stained window. My week ended with delivering a Pre and Post Reformations workshop to Sixth Form A ‘Level Students. Using archival materials supplied by Bristol Libraries, Bristol Archives and the National Archives relating to people who lived in the parish or at St Thomas’s Church, a CCT Bristol church and home of our West Office – Students learnt about daily life, the people and changes in a city parish church.”
Gabrielle Dryden is the Heritage Learning Officer in CCT’s South East region. Gabrielle has an ongoing relationship with a nursery local to St Peter’s in Northampton, where the children have enjoyed a range of activities around the windows including a “face hunt”, where children look for the faces in the characterful windows, copy their expressions and then guess how the character in the image was feeling. The nursery has also enjoyed making their own stained glass windows using tissue paper, and using a lightbox to explored how light interacts with colour. At St Peter's Church in Preston Park, the most popular workshop explores how Christianity impacted Victorian Society, with an activity based around the church’s Good Samaritan stained glass window. The children enjoy acting out the story and then discussing how Victorians could have implemented the teachings of the story into their lives. While at St Mary's Church in Chilton, children can explore the amazing stained glass window of Saint Apollonia, the patron saint of dentists who is depicted holding a tooth, and St George who is slaying a demon who is letting out a fart!
Our Heritage Learning Officers have a series of fun characters called Gizmo and friends, who you may have already seen on our website and social media. Gizmo and friends make it easier for even the youngest of children to enjoy churches through activities and videos such as these with Belfy the Bat and Gizmo the Gargoyle that are being featured on Facebook in the lead up to the Festive Season.
The festive season is the perfect time to get out and enjoy a church or two and appreciate the beauty and craftsmanship that goes into creating a magnificent stained glass window. If you are considering a family walk or cycle ride over the festive season and would like some inspiration, please don’t forget to look at the “Tours and Trails” section on our website and check out the “Family” section to make your visit more memorable and fun. Church guides can be downloaded from the church pages on the CCT website.
To support the work of our Heritage Learning Officers, as well as the vital conservation of the church windows in our care, donate to our Annual Appeal: Windows, Framing England's History today. You can make a donation on our website by clicking the “Donate Now” button below or by calling our team on 0800 260 1463.