The Education service at Gateshead Heritage @ St Mary's is proud to be able to offer a wealth of activities, projects, advice and assistance for schools making a visit to St Mary's. We also offer visits to schools, training sessions for teachers and universities, and guidance on taking a creative approach to learning many subjects through local history and heritage.

Holding the Quays to the Past

What is it?

Set inside the Quayside’s oldest building, Gateshead Heritage@St Mary’s is the place where our local heritage is made fun, accessible and creative.

How can it help our children’s learning?

Visits to St Mary’s will help to bring Gateshead’s heritage to life.

Commemorated on our walls (and inside our graveyard!) are local characters, heroes and villains. Over the last 800 years the building has survived fires, cannonball attacks and two world wars. It has witnessed vast changes to Gateshead, and overseen floods, epidemics and industrial revolution.

This magnificent historic building together with the River Tyne, its famous bridges and the Quayside, provide inspiration for a range of engaging sessions that will captivate learners of all ages.

Your group will be able to take part in hands-on activities that could focus on art, drama, architecture, ICT, geography, literacy, science, and design technology – not to mention history! A selection of those activities currently on offer is listed here.

Please do not hesitate to contact us to find out more.

How can it help us with our local history curriculum delivery?

As well as the activities listed below, Gatesheadbased teachers can request advice and guidance in researching, understanding and interpreting their school’s own local history for use in the classroom. Please ask us about our staff training sessions.

Our Education Officer can also deliver creative sessions on your own local history, either at school or in St Mary’s.

Activities@St Mary’s

Blast from the Past: The Great Fire@St Mary’s (Whole Day)

St Mary’s was at the heart of the Great Fire of Gateshead in 1854. Visit the church and learn about the fire, how it spread, how it was stopped, and how we know about it, using original artefacts, pictures and recounts. Use drama and storytelling to bring the sights, smells, sounds and atmosphere during the disaster to life!

KS1 KS2 KS3 KS4

Move the Swing Bridge: Animation@St Mary’s (Half Day)

Learn about how your brain and eyes work by investigating toys from the past that fool your brain! Play with some optical toys and find out how they work, before making some yourself. Can you design a toy that moves the Swing Bridge? Any toy that you make, you get to keep!

KS2 KS3 KS4

Quays to the Past: Victorian Gateshead @St Mary’s (Half Day)

From St Mary’s take part in an entertaining guided tour of the Quayside and find out about how Gateshead has changed since Victorian times. Let our expert guide provide you with tales of splendour, invention, prosperity and pride on one hand, and disease, death, squalor and disaster on the other. Back at St Mary’s, enjoy handling objects, trying costumes, investigating maps, or playing with toys from the era.

KS1 KS2 KS3 KS4

A Colourful History: Stained Glass@St Mary’s (Half Day)

Come and put the colour back into the building! St Mary’s had, for hundreds of years, stained glass windows that brought joy and inspiration to thousands of local people. Sadly, that stained glass has long gone. Help your class to understand light and colour by creating stained glass designs for our window frames. Create something to be proud of that you can take back to school.

KS1 KS2

From Coal Face to Coal Drop: Mining Heritage@St Mary’s (Whole Day)

Find out what life was like for local coalminers by researching the life and death of a young Gateshead miner. Follow the journey of the coal he helped to extract, all the way from the coal face to the River Tyne, just next to St Mary’s. Use artefacts, maps, censuses, reports and pictures to piece together what happened to the miner and his family, as well as how Gateshead has changed since its Victorian mining heyday.

KS2 KS3 KS4

Fun and Games: Toys from the Past@St Mary’s (Half Day)

Who needs electricity to have fun? Find out how your ancestors amused themselves using wood, metal, string, paper and their imaginations! Find out how older toys work, what they are made from, and then have a go at improving your skills. Fun for children and adults guaranteed!

KS1 KS2

The range of sessions above are available already and are held at St Mary’s. Why not prepare for or follow up your visit to St Mary’s with a visit out to the school from our Education staff?

St Mary’s@School

The following sessions are available to do at school:

• Toys from the Past
• Optical Toys
• Mystery object sessions
• YOUR local history
• Assemblies

How much does it cost?

Prices start from just £50 per class. Admission to the building is free.

How do I book?

Contact Richard Stevenson, Education Officer, on 0191 433 4697 or email richardstevenson@gateshead.gov.uk