York & Scarborough Primary School Trips & Tours

The Jorvik Viking Centre holds the preserved remains of houses, workshops and backyards of the Vikings from 1,000 years ago. Now reconstructed, this centre enables your pupils to experience life in Viking-Age York. Your pupils will encounter the old Norse speaking citizens, see inside their houses and back yards, experience a blast of smoke from blacksmith’s furnace and enjoy the smell of home-cooked stews.

Available workshops include Anglo-Saxon & Viking Costume, Anglo-Saxon & Viking Medicine, Viking Battle Tactics and Viking Saga.

The ultimate archaeological adventure! Learn how archaeologists use clues to piece together 2000 years of York’s past, unearth real artefacts and analyse your findings, using genuine archaeologist’s methods. DIG offers schools the chance to enrich their experience with a series of themed workshops, including ‘Secrets in the Soil’, ‘Burials & Beliefs’, ‘People, Place & the Past: Changing Urban Landscapes’ and ‘Improving Living Conditions’.

Home to the world-famous recreated Victorian street, Kirkgate, and the York Castle Prison Experience, here your pupils will learn how people have lived over the past 300 years. The Education Department also offers a variety of workshops for KS2 / P4-7 including ‘The Victorian Classroom’, ‘York Prison’ and ‘Castle Life’.

This cathedral was built on what was the headquarters of a Roman fortress and is now seen as the jewel in the historical crown of York. 

Revealing York Minster in the Undercroft -  within the underground chambers of York Minster, is a new dynamic audio-visual and interactive experience where you can walk in the footsteps of Roman soldiers, discover dramatic events and more!

Take your class on a fascinating, fully-guided tour and discover how chocolate made history in York. Explore the origins of cocoa, find out how to taste chocolate like an expert, have a go at our hands-on chocolate making station and enjoy live Chocolatier demonstrations. Pupils can also uncover a host of surprising secrets and fascinating facts behind York’s greatest chocolate products, from the Chocolate Orange to the world-famous KitKat.

Curriculum linked workshops are also available - call us for more information! 

Cruise on the picturesque River Ouse through the walled City of York. See for yourself where Saxons fought Vikings in 1066, where monks entertained their guests and where witches were ducked in the Middle Ages.

Barley Hall, a stunning medieval house in the centre of York, offers an authentic Tudor encounter for your pupils. Workshops are available, including ‘Tudor Medicine’ and ‘Arms and Armour’.

This York ghost walk will take your pupils on an exciting tour of all the famous and infamous haunted sites throughout the ancient City. Your specialist guide will help you discover the secrets of York’s dark cobbled streets.

Based around a fictional Roman frontier fort and its neighbouring Celtic village at Murton Park, the on-site Roman courses offer your pupils the chance to join the Roman Army. Arriving as new recruits drawn from a local Celtic tribe, your pupils will be taken to a turf and timber fort, issued with their uniforms and military equipment, and will experience first-hand the daily life of a Roman soldier.

Experience the sights, sounds and smells of those dangerous years of WWII. Covering Britain since 1930, Eden Camp transports pupils back to wartime Britain via a series of wartime huts housing insightful displays.

The Flamingo Land theme park offers seven unique themed areas. Journey through The Lost Kingdom’s vast African plains, the clear blue skies of Swoosh! and the wet and wacky world of Splosh! and you’ll discover a theme park that has something for all ages to enjoy. Alternatively, you can add a whole new dimension to your viewing pleasure by joining Happy Feet’s Mumble and friends in Flamingo Land’s 4D Cinema. 

A captivating programme of regular free shows, including the breath-taking acrobatic skills of Bongo Warriors, guarantees that the fun never stops too. Excitement and adventure for younger guests is also assured by a fantastic collection of junior coasters, carousels and fun slides, plus indoor and outdoor soft play areas. At the opposite end of the scale, if you’re looking for adrenaline-fuelled thrills, then eight extreme rides are waiting just for you, including the record-breaking Mumbo Jumbo, featuring the world’s steepest drop!

For something a little different, the zoo & conservation area is anything but tame! Away from the thrills of the sensational theme park, you’ll quickly discover what makes this the UK’s most visited zoo. With tigers from the frozen wastelands of Siberia, giraffes from sub-Saharan Africa, Penguin Coast, the amazing new penguin pool, and all the kids’ favourites in the Muddy Duck Farm collection, you can enjoy a truly amazing view of the animal kingdom in the heart of North Yorkshire. What’s more, with regular handling sessions and talks by zoo keepers, there’s sure to be something that’ll capture their imagination.

The National Railway Museum in York is home to over 300 years of history and over a million wonderful objects. Your pupils can marvel at iconic locomotives, watch engineering work in progress in the Workshop, browse object-filled Warehouse, and let off steam in the outdoor play area.

Wonderlab: The Bramall Gallery is an unmissable new interactive experience for schools—where nothing is off limits. Recommended for KS2 and KS3 (ages 7-14).
Pupils will play their way through 18 interactive exhibits and fuel their curiosity with amazing live experiments. Test their engineering skills as they step into the human wind tunnel, launch a rocket and build big.

Eureka! offers hundreds of interactive, hands-on exhibits designed to inspire pupils to learn about themselves and the world around them through play and discovery. 

Discover how over 1,500 years of history make this abbey one of England’s most important archaeological sites. You’ll find out what life was like through different ages, explore the modern day issues of restoring a ruined property and learn about the troubled history of the Abbey.

Experience the underwater world first-hand. Learn about marine habitats in the North Sea, and focus on the plight of the seals. Get hands-on with marine animals, see a wide variety of sea animals from all around the world and collect information about the North Sea environment.

Scarborough Castle has a 2,500 year history, stunning location and panoramic views over the dramatic Yorkshire coastline. It started life as an Iron Age Fort, was occupied by the Romans, became a Viking settlement and reached its heyday under Henry II. This royal stronghold, built by successive medieval kings over two centuries, has seen more than its fair share of conflict and sieges. Learn how it was fought over in the English Civil War and came under bombardment during WWI.

An ideal and popular destination for group visits, where pupils can enjoy searching the rocky shore for current and Jurassic habitats. There is a wide range of wildlife on show, an exciting exhibition and education centre and pupils can even find and classify a fossil.

The Magna Science Adventure Centre is packed with interactive exhibits and fascinating displays for pupils to explore the wonders of science and the laws of nature,  with over one hundred hands-on exhibits designed to help you explore the four elements -  air, water, Earth and fire.

Visit the National Coal Mining Museum and explore the 45-acre site to discover the hidden world of mining through the centuries. The galleries show how miners lived, worked and relaxed, from the Victorian age through to modern day. A visit underground will let your pupils see how coal was extracted and moved to the surface.

Meet the master Potion makers at the Potion Experience. Visit the Secret Potions Room where a Wizard will mix you a magical drink of your choice. Experience the magic!

Can you find the missing Gargoyle Grobblenook at The Hole In Wand Wizard Golf?

Visit the World’s Most Magical Golf Course in York’s Coppergate Shopping Centre in York, and take on nine magical golf holes with The Hole In Wand - The Search For Grobblenook.

Join The Wizard of York on a quest to find magical creatures as we wand-er the alleys and snickelways of this enchanting city. A wonderfully whimsical tour that wizard fans will go Potty for!