School Outreach and Education
Elizabethan pageant, re-enacting the visit of Queen Elizabeth I to Great St. Mary’s in 1564
School Visits
We welcome schools to visit Great St Mary’s, to learn more about the Christian faith and our particular heritage here in Cambridge and in this church. Cambridge was at the heart of the English Reformation, and has a long royal history, so we can offer visits that tie in with the history curriculum as well as those that are more suited to supporting religious studies classes.
We are able to tailor our offering to the age of your students, from pre-school to 18, and can focus on content that best suits your needs. Please email our Education Officer at nataliel@gsm.cam.ac.uk to discuss further.
There is no charge for school visits to the church, although we welcome any donation you are able to give. There is a charge to climb the tower - please contact us for more information.
Click here to read our brochure regarding educational visits.
Please note, that the usual group rate per person applies for summer schools or other private organisations who wish to climb the tower. There will also be a charge for such groups who wish to have a guided tour of the church.
Our Heritage and Sustainability Work
Our education work takes Christian heritage and faith seriously, but we also prioritise environmental education and sustainability topics as part of our commitment as a church to encourage care for God’s creation. This work is supported by our Education Officer, and is partly funded by a generous grant from Church Schools of Cambridge (CSoC).
As part of our commitment to monitor and expand our work to meet the changing and diverse needs of educational groups our Education Officer would be happy to hear from any schools or other education providers, including home educators, to discuss how we can develop an offering that would support your teaching. Email Natalie at nataliel@gsm.cam.ac.uk to make contact.
Our Past Work
Our current work builds on projects that we have carried out in the past, including the Heritage Education Programme that we developed thanks to a Heritage Lottery Grant and with funding from CSoC. This was carried out in partnership with four schools and two disability charities, and resulted in excellent resources for school visits, events and activity days in the school holidays. Extensive research created engaging content for touch screens, located in the church, which graphically convey the remarkable history of Great St Mary’s over 800 years.
We also benefitted from a grant from ECLAS (Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science), which was matched by CSoC, and which allowed us to employ a Science in Faith Engagement Officer who delivered lessons on climate change and sustainability at Park Street Primary School.