The Cathedral and Abbey Church of Saint Alban
The award winning Education Centre at St Albans Cathedral brings all manner of subjects to life in original and surprising ways.

Sandford Award Winner 2008 awarded by the Heritage Education Trust. The award is granted in recognition of the excellence of their educational services and facilities and their outstanding contribution to Heritage Education.
Clay tile modellingSelect a session from the list for more information:
The children look at the brasses in the cathedral and learn how to use them as sources of historical information. They then make their own brass rubbings from replica brasses to take home.
The Cathedral is alive with shapes, patterns, and textures. The children explore these throughout the building, recording their observations using sketching and rubbings. These ideas are then used as the stimulus for a clay tile workshop. This allows the children to draw on first hand observations and to interpret the shapes and patterns they have found around the buildings. Back at school, clay tiles can be painted and varnished or left as they are. The clay we use hardens naturally and does not need firing.
Having looked closely at the range of floor tiles in the Cathedral and at the medieval designs and symbols there and elsewhere in the building, children set to work to make a clay floor tile of their own and to decorate it in relief. Back at school, tiles can be painted and varnished or left as they are. The clay we use hardens naturally and does not need firing.
Children begin by examining and testing a variety of rocks to try to identify them as geologist would. They then go to the Cathedral to explore and discover where and how these materials have been used in the structure and decoration of this beautiful building.
A workshop to discover how the medieval monks made paper, pens and coloured inks. Dressed as monks working in the medieval scriptorium, the children will explore the development of beautiful styles of writing and decoration over the centuries and then produce their own illuminated letter.
After an introduction to life in Roman Britain and a look at some of the wonderful mosaics from Verulamium the children will design and make their own Mosaic Tile to take back to school. They can be put together to make a fabulous display.
The session begins with an examination of the different styles and images in the Abbeys windows. We concentrate especially on the Rose Window looking at geometry, colour and light. Each child then designs and makes their own window using colour acetate to take back to school.
An energetic workshop with the pupils engaged in authentic music and dance of the Tudor period. They will learn both the stately dance of the court and the lively dances of the countryside. The children will examine the different styles of dress for the rich and the poor and the handle and play a selection of Tudor instrument.