Viking School Workshops in Cheshire
Bring the Viking Age into your school
Give your pupils the chance to step beyond the textbook with a full day of practical Viking history, delivered at your school in Cheshire.
The History Guy brings an immersive Viking experience directly onto the school grounds. At the centre of the day is a large Viking-style yurt, transformed into a setting filled with objects, materials and equipment that help pupils explore what life during the Viking Age may really have been like.
Designed for Key Stage 2, the workshop combines archaeology, storytelling, practical activities and historical evidence to get children actively involved in investigating the past.
A hands-on Viking experience for KS2
Rather than spending the day simply listening to Viking history, pupils are encouraged to take part in it.
Throughout the workshop, children encounter different aspects of Viking life through practical challenges and activities. Depending on the structure of the day, these can include:
Rune writing – pupils explore the runic alphabet before creating their own runes in clay.
Viking games and challenges – discover some of the skills, competition and physical activities associated with life in the Viking world.
Shield wall training – work together as a group and find out why organisation and cooperation mattered to Viking warriors.
Wool and textiles – handle wool and experience processes including carding, spinning and weaving while discovering just how much work went into producing Viking clothing.
Trade and exchange – explore the importance of merchants, resources and long-distance connections across the Viking world through an interactive trading activity.
Alongside the practical work, pupils can examine historical objects and materials and discuss what archaeological evidence can tell us about Viking people.
Inside the Viking camp
The workshop environment is an important part of the experience.
Instead of arriving with a box of classroom resources, The History Guy creates a dedicated historical space within your school grounds. Pupils enter the yurt to find a Viking-inspired interior containing equipment, textiles, tools, replica objects and other materials connected with the period.
The setting gives children somewhere very different from their normal classroom in which to explore history.
It also provides plenty of opportunities for questions. What did Vikings wear? How were everyday objects made? What did people eat? How did they travel? Were Vikings really just raiders?
The aim is to encourage pupils to investigate the people behind the familiar image of the Viking warrior.
More than raiders and longships
Viking history is much bigger than battles.
During the day, pupils encounter warriors, but they also investigate farmers, craftspeople, traders, sailors and families. Practical activities introduce subjects such as textiles, communication, travel and exchange while archaeological evidence helps children consider how we know about people who lived more than a thousand years ago.
This approach makes the workshop particularly useful when introducing a Viking topic or when consolidating learning later in the unit.
Delivered at schools across Cheshire
The History Guy is a mobile workshop, so there is no need to organise coaches or take pupils off site.
Viking school workshops are available across Cheshire, including schools around Chester, Ellesmere Port, Northwich, Winsford, Middlewich, Knutsford, Macclesfield, Crewe, Nantwich, Wilmslow and surrounding areas.
The main workshop structure and historical environment come to you, allowing pupils to have an unusual history experience while remaining on familiar school grounds.
Led by an archaeologist and outdoor educator
The History Guy workshops are led by Pete Forrester, a trained archaeologist with more than 15 years' experience working with children through outdoor education, bushcraft, practical history and heritage activities.
That background shapes the workshop. Archaeology isn't treated simply as something pupils read about: objects, materials and practical skills are used to encourage children to think about how we actually know about the Viking past.
Questions are encouraged, and the activities are designed to give pupils opportunities to experiment, investigate and make discoveries for themselves.
Planning a Viking topic in Cheshire?
Whether you're beginning a new Viking topic, looking for a memorable experience within an existing history unit or want to give pupils an opportunity to handle, make and investigate rather than simply read and write, The History Guy can bring the Viking Age directly to your school.
Workshops are designed primarily for Key Stage 2 pupils and can be organised around the needs of individual schools and classes.
Get in touch to discuss your pupils, your Viking topic and available dates.
The History Guy – bringing practical archaeology and hands-on history into schools.