Primary Schools Newsletter:
May 2025

A young student smiling whilst trying on a Roman helmet.

Time is certainly flying by this academic year – it’s summer term already!

We are planning next year’s Primary School programme at the moment. We will have exciting new sessions to share with you soon.

For now, we are focusing on VE Day resources and celebrating the heritage of Roman Castleford.

A black and white photograph of a street party gathering celebrating VE Day.

VE Day teaching resource

Thursday 8 May 2025 is the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

For the 75th anniversary, we developed a resource using photographs from the museum collections. They captured how the people of the small mining community of Fryston celebrated VE Day. Local man, Jack Hulme, documented daily life in Fryston. These images recall day-to-day life in one area of the Wakefield district.

Download the VE Day PowerPoint resource

Roman Castleford

The Roman gallery at Castleford Museum, featuring replica armour in the foreground and stonework in the background.

It’s the annual Castleford Roman Festival on Saturday 31 May! We are highlighting school sessions and resources relating to the Romans in Castleford:

KS2 bookable workshops available at Castleford Museum or in school. Through a series of fun, multi-sensory activities, pupils will experience some of the sights, sounds and smell of Roman Castleford.
Loan boxes are available to support in school teaching. There are two ‘Life in Lagentium’ loan boxes on offer. Each loan box has 6 artefacts for handling in the classroom. The artefacts will shed light on many different aspects of life in the Roman settlement including food, jobs, language and trade.
Learning Resources can be found at our Roman Castleford blog page. Take inspiration from Roman recipes, objects in the collections and try out some enquiry techniques.
Download our Colour the Collection roman oil lamp for some mindful colouring

Meet the Romans at May half term

A child wearing a cardboard Roman headdress next to a person dressed as a Roman.

We are having a week of Roman-inspired activity at Castleford Museum for May half term! It’s an exciting opportunity for yours and your pupils’ families to take part in hands-on activities.

Roman Gods and Goddesses
27, 29 and 30* May
10am to 3pm
Free and no booking required.
The Romans had a god or goddess for everything - even door hinges! Discover different Roman gods and explore their legends and stories. Learn about their special symbols and what they meant. Make a wristband or headband decorated with your favourite symbol!
*Friday 30 May: S.E.N.D. (special educational needs and disabilities) session

Meet the Romans
31st May
10am to 3pm
Free and no booking required.
Meet some time-travelling ancient Romans at Castleford Museum! See metal-working and book-binding demonstrations. Make your own jewellery or mini book to take home.

STEM special

Our STEM special in May is Catapults and Cannons.

This KS1 and KS2 workshop can be booked for delivery in May. The maximum number of pupils per workshop is 35.

In this interactive STEM session, pupils will look at the evolution of siege engines used to attack castles in the past, from medieval trebuchets to English Civil War cannons.

Pupils will get to see and touch real cannon balls found by archaeologists at Pontefract Castle and work in cooperative groups to plan, design and create model catapults.

Workshop includes:

Working in groups to solve problems
Working collaboratively to achieve outcomes
Handing museum objects
Creating, testing and measuring mechanisms inspired by history

Venue: Pontefract Castle

Duration: 1 hour 45 minutes

Cost: £75

Email us at museumslearning@wakefield.gov.uk to book.

Primary School Programme 2025-26 bookings

A student smiling whilst holding a museum object. They are dressed in replica World War clothing,

We are hard at work developing our Primary School programme for the 2025-26 academic year. A physical copy will be sent out to all schools in the Wakefield District before the end of the current academic year.

If you would like to book for the 2025-26 academic year prior to receiving the programme, you are welcome to email or phone us with enquiries. Please note there may be some small changes to our programming, including the addition of new workshops. Full details will be

Bookings for 2024-25:

Bookings for the current Primary School Programme 2024-25 are still being taken.

Contact us as soon as possible if you would like to book a workshop or a self-led visit with us before the end of this school year. Please note that we are close to capacity with bookings and we cannot guarantee that we can accommodate every enquiry, but we will try our best.

Self-led Visits:

You are also welcome to visit us for a self-led visit at any of our sites before the end of the academic year, but you must book with us in advance to ensure that you can be accommodated on your chosen date.

Download our Primary Programme 2024-25 in PDF

Download our Accessible Primary Programme 2025-25 as a Word Doc

A member of Wakefield Museums and Castles staff exploring the contents of a loan box with two young students.

Loan Boxes

Bring the past to life and borrow real museum objects for your classroom!

Our loan boxes have been designed to complement and support classroom learning by providing a mix of museum objects and useful support resources.

Our flight case sized Loan Boxes will contain 5 or more objects chosen to:

assist with pupils' enquiry and reasoning skills
prompt questioning and thinking
invite investigation and exploration of a topic or theme
stimulate cross-curricular ideas for expansion activities

We have a wide variety of boxes available on half termly loans, including Life in Lagentium, Toys and Materials, A Soldier’s Life and more.

If you are interested in booking a box for Summer 2, please let us know as soon as possible.

Download our Loan Box Programme 2024-25 in PDF

Download our Accessible Loan Box Programme 2024-25 as a Word Doc

Ready to book? Let us know!

If you would like to book anything mentioned here, or just have a question, you can get in touch with us via email museumslearning@wakefield.gov.uk or call on 01924 302700 and one of our team will be on hand to help.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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Primary Schools Newsletter: May 2025