Virtual classroom

There is a wide range of virtual learning experiences and activities for you to find out about the history of Blaenavon. What was it like to live and work there in the 1800s, and why is Blaenavon so important that it was given World Heritage Site Status in 2000?

Blaenavon World Heritage Centre - Virtual Victorian Classroom

An immersive classroom experience, led by our costumed Victorian School Mistress. The lesson will include how to greet your teacher in the correct way, history of how to behave and dress for school in the Victorian era, together with the use of the Welsh language in class. Also, the role of religion in school and the most important lessons which were taught. The class will watch a film about the journey to school by 2 Victorian children and then be set the task of describing their own journey to school.

Our school ma’am will be dressed in costume and be in role for the whole workshop. Costume is optional for your class.

View the Virtual Blaenavon World Heritage Centre experience here and then select ‘Virtual Classroom’.

If you’re a teacher planning to take your class on the ‘virtual school trip’ of Blaenavon World Heritage Centre, download this ‘Virtual Tour Guide’ as a teaching resource to accompany your pupils on their online tour and help you to build your own lesson.

And here’s the link where you can download the school video.

Big Pit National Coal Museum

Virtual reality expedition underground

This virtual tour gives you a taste of what it is like to go underground at Big Pit and provides access to those who may have difficulty accessing the site.

To take part in the tour you can download the Google Expeditions app for free to a tablet and phone from either Google Play or the App Store. Using Google Expeditions, a teacher can lead the tour from their tablet as a guide whilst pupils are explorers on phones. The phones are placed in viewers which allows the explorers to view 360° panoramas and 3D images.

Find out more about the Virtual reality expedition underground at Big Pit here.

Virtual Visits in Lockdown

National Museums Wales offer ‘Virtual Visits in Lockdown’, connecting with your class if you are working from home or from school.

They have adapted some of their popular Museum workshops into virtual experiences! Book a session and connect with them using Microsoft Teams. These sessions are currently free of charge to all schools.

View the Virtual Visits in Lockdown here.

Blaenavon Ironworks

Cadw are continuing to add new digital resources to their Learning pages to provide exciting and challenging learning experiences in the classroom or at home. These include filmed historical characters, tasty recipes, storytelling, plays, music, games, puzzles, and digital missions.

Please check these pages for new resources as they are being regularly updated. These resources will help enrich and enhance the experience of visits when Cadw are finally able to welcome your groups back to their sites.

View the Cadw Learning pages here.