What Makes an Award-Winning Historic Venue?
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The Roman Baths is a special place in Britain’s history. Since May 2022 we have welcomed thousands of students to learn more about the Romans in the newly developed Roman Baths Clore Learning Centre. The learning centre is across the road from the main Roman Baths site, and houses all our formal learning sessions and community activities. We have developed the space and learning programme to provide memory-making experiences for all making use of our in-situ Roman remains, exciting technology, and new research. We have a small team of workshop leaders: James Petrucco with a background in teaching, along with Juliet Wilson with a background in archaeology, are the Workshop Leaders who have helped develop the learning programme.
Meeting schools' needs
All our activities have been developed in consultation with local primary school children – we think we’ve met all their aims!
During development, we asked children what they would like to see in the new space. They wanted to dig, they wanted to build, and they wanted to use technology. As well as our digging activity, we commissioned new interactives to help children construct and rebuild Roman architectural features including an arch, a column, and the temple pediment that can be seen for real in the museum. In addition, we worked alongside our collections team, archaeologists and a local tech firm to create the “Alex the Archaeologist” app. Pupils explore and investigate Roman remains and use the app to work out what the Roman Baths and temple might have looked like 2,000 years ago. The app gives pupils an outline of an object to find, and when successfully located, a 3D rendering of the complete object is revealed. The app and Investigation Zone have really enhanced our learning offer. They offer an enriching hands-on experience that we haven’t had before at the Roman Baths.
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