Cutty Sark Onsite School Sessions 2023-24

A self-directed trip allows you to tailor your visit to the needs of your class. The ship’s stories, as well as its original fabric and structure offer a wide range of opportunities to link a visit to the curriculum.

There are particularly strong opportunities to link a visit to literacy, humanities, science, design and technology or numeracy topics and we are developing resources to support these curriculum areas.

Visits are subject to availability and must be pre-booked. On average, a visit to the ship will last around 60-90 minutes.

Trails are available to download here

Scrub the deck and sing along! Join us for a musical journey on the world's last remaining tea clipper.

Pupils will:

• Use music and singing to communicate and express themselves
• Discover life on board a Victorian sailing ship
• Try out some sailor skills

Discover how Cutty Sark got its name through this interactive story-telling session. Use song, dance, and drama to tell Robert Burns’ poem ‘Tam O’ Shanter’ and hear how Nannie the Witch ended up as Cutty Sark’s figurehead. After story time, explore the ship using one of our Story Ship trails!

Pupils will: 

• Explore the meaning behind Cutty Sark using creative thinking, song, movement and role play  
• Develop communication, language and literacy skills  
• Collect ideas and inspiration to write their very own story about their figurehead 

Take our craft pack and use imagination and arts and crafts to create their very own figurehead back in the classroom

Join us on an interactive guided tour using the ship’s animals to discover why Cutty Sark is such important part of Greenwich. Students will discover the stories of Cutty Sark from 1869 to present day by taking part in a historical journey through the ship, led by one of Cutty Sark's learning team. The guided tour covers Cutty Sark's past, life on board and Cutty Sark as a significant place in local history today.

Pupils will: 

• learn about the ship’s history through some of the animals which lived on board
• Identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods 
• Hear what life was like for a sailor on board a Victorian sailing ship  

Set sail on an exciting adventure at sea from London on board the world's last surviving Clipper Ship. Once you've picked your bunks and learnt the ropes, settle in for a ship's supper whipped up by Cutty Sark's cook, James Robson. Find out what life was like for sailors 150 years ago in this immersive session.

Pupils will:

• Learn how we find out about the past 
• Hear real life accounts from sea by Clarence Ray, a 14 year old apprentice 
• Find out what it takes to be a sailor 150 years ago and compare it to their lives today

Set sail on an exciting adventure at sea from Victorian London to China in this unique Victorian setting. Using maps, handling objects and real-life letters from an apprentice, find out what life was like for merchant sailors in Victorian times.

Pupils will: 

• Develop enquiry skills as they use real-life letters from a Victorian apprentice to find out what life was like on board Cutty Sark, sailor skills and jobs on board
• Develop an understanding of how historic letters can help us learn about the past (historical enquiry)
• Handle replica objects to explore Victorian navigation 
• Use imagination, creative thinking and simple drama techniques to help build a story and share information and ideas, exploring feelings through historic letters, relating this to their own experiences.

Climb on board the world’s last surviving tea clipper and discover what's needed for a successful trading voyage across he globe. Chart your course from London, having investigated the weather, trade routes and potential cargo loads, before taking part in a race back home. 

Pupils will: 

• Develop an understanding of Cutty Sark’s role as a cargo ship and the importance of trade and interdependence
• Use weather recording techniques and instruments to take a weather reading on the day of their visit
• Use maps to gain understanding that natural resources available, land mass, and climate of a country determine what types of food you can export and import

Explore this Victorian clipper ship and investigate the science involved in making a successful cargo voyage. During the session, schools will visit each level of the ship and discover its history and design. On the main deck, students will have a unique opportunity to move part of the ship which demonstrates how forces work on board (moving either the capstan or the yard arm) The students then make their own all-important winch or pulley.

Pupils will:

• gain a basic understanding of the ship’s history, including its destinations
• understand how forces work on board a cargo ship
• discover the reason for the design of the ship and materials used
• make a winch or a pulley 

Become detectives and investigate mystery objects on this guided tour of Cutty Sark. KS2 students will discover the stories of Cutty Sark from 1869 to present day by taking part in a mystery object exploration throughout the ship. Led by one of Cutty Sark's learning team, the guided tour covers Cutty Sark's past, life on board and Cutty Sark as a significant place in local history today.

Pupils will: 

• Use mystery historical sources to work out the chronology of certain events central to Cutty Sark  

• Identify similarities and differences between ways of life in different periods 

• Hear what it was like to be a sailor on board a 19th Century sailing vessel 

Join us for a day exploring a historic ship and discovering some of the jobs on board. Meet some of the members of the Cutty Sark team and discover how their careers developed. Try your hand at scrubbing the deck, giving a guided tour, making an announcement and much more!

Led by one of Cutty Sark's learning team, the guided tour covers Cutty Sark's past, life on board and Cutty Sark as a significant place in local history today.

Come and join us on board! We will explore the ship and it's objects, sing some songs and roleplay life on the high seas!

Our learning outcomes (GLOs) are:

• Understand that the ship carried different cargo around the world
• Acquire new vocabulary related to the ship and it's history
• Develop communication and social skills
• Have fun
• Be inspired to explore the collection further
• Appreciate the importance of working as a crew
• Empathy for those who sailed on the ship
• Respond to the activity