Please Note This Is A Press Archive. This Took Place April 2013.
A deal has been struck by The Enfield Society and Forty Hall which means more schools can take advantage of the historic mansion's unique education programme.
The Jacobean Mansion in Forty Hill, which is owned and run by Enfield Council, offers activities based around art, ecology and heritage and are led by qualified teachers to ensure the courses cover relevant curriculum content in a wide range of subjects ranging including science, maths, English, history, drama and art for primary children and secondary school pupils. The £5,000 a year grant over three years from the Enfield Society means that more schools than every before can take advantage of the service on offer and Forty Hall can make use of the expertise of Enfield Society members.
So far 641 pupils have participated in the Forty Hall Education Programme which was launched in autumn last year, Enfield Council hopes that the programme will increase in popularity in 2013 and encourage schools to get in touch to find out more about the bespoke sessions on offer.
Enfield Council's Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure, Youth and Localism, Cllr Bambos Charalambous, said: "Forty Hall is a fantastic educational establishment and learning centre for children and young people and this generous grant from the Enfield Society means we will be able to offer fascinating and relevant courses to pupils in a range of subjects and topics that will build on the work they are doing in the classroom.
"It is vital we find stimulating and hands on ways to learn and we will continue to look for new and interesting ways of educating our young people in different settings around Forty Hall that take them away from their traditional classroom settings.
Colin Pointer, Committee Member of The Enfield Society said: ‘The Enfield Society is very pleased to sponsor the Forty Hall learning and education programme and to help young minds have opportunities to discover heritage for themselves and to have fun learning outside the classroom.’
Lessons offered include secondary pupils charting the rise of the former owner of Forty Hall, Nicholas Rainton, from haberdasher's apprentice to a powerful international merchant at the beginning of the age of globalisation and building an illustrated world map to locate the key ports and cities producing valuable silk, velvets and linens in the 1600s. Sessions for primary school children include working together in teams to measure, divide, trace and weigh many aspects of Forty Hall to help figures from various points in history either as a race between teams or as a more in-depth exercise.
Notes to editors
"The Enfield Society has been highly successful in helping to protect the local environment since its formation in 1936. TES currently has around 2000 members. The object of the Society is the conservation and enhancement of the civic and natural environments of the London Borough of Enfield and its immediate surrounding area for the public benefit. Its key aims are: to ensure that new developments are well designed and environmentally sound; to conserve and enhance buildings of historic or architectural interest; to defend the integrity of the Green Belt; to protect and improve open spaces; to publish guides, books, reports and maps; to collect information on any place or building of interest; to assist in the preservation and maintenance of footpaths, commons and rights of way and suggest extensions to the network; and organise, meetings and exhibitions on appropriate subjects."