School trips to Jersey's Mont Orgueil are award-winning

Wednesday, 18 September 2024 09:04

Jersey Heritage Education Officers, Tahnee and Sarah, during a school visit at Mont Orgueil Castle.

School visits to Mont Orgueil castle are now award-winning.

Jersey Heritage has picked up a prestigious prize for Heritage Education.

The charity's Education team was assessed for the national honour earlier this year.

Judges described the experience as 'exciting and inspirational', giving it top marks across the board.

This latest Sandford Award - which will be presented at Kensington Palace in December - joins one previously awarded for learning delivered at La Hougue Bie.

The quality mark was set up in 1978 to validate formal learning programmes that support the school curriculum.

Other winners for 2024 include Bletchley Park; Fishbourne Roman Palace; Whitby Abbey and the Royal Collection Trust at Windsor Castle.

Jon Brennan, Jersey Heritage’s Head of Education, said: ““The Sandford Award is a recognised standard in heritage learning and we are very proud to receive this national accolade for our education programme at Mont Orgueil.

"It is a wonderful acknowledgement of the hard work and effort our team put into ensuring school visits to Mont Orgueil are educational but also fun and inspiring for the children."

Lead Assessor for the Sandford Award Robin Clutterbuck praised the Jersey Heritage programme at the medieval castle:

"The education service makes use of experiential approaches, helped by the castle itself which eloquently tells it own story of invasion, siege, defensive design and living conditions.

"Jersey is justly proud of its castle, and its schools can be proud of the exciting and inspirational visits available to them there.”