Secondary Schools

The Dove Cottage Experience

Step into Dove Cottage to discover what life was like for the Wordsworth family over 200 years ago. This immersive film and interactive tour offers young people the opportunity to learn about life in the past and relate this to their own experiences. Find out about the Wordsworth family as well as hearing about the famous poetry William wrote while living here including the Prelude and Daffodils.

Firelight Poets

This creative writing workshop gives students the unique opportunity to write poetry inspired by Dove Cottage, exploring the atmospheric, fire-lit rooms and gardens as they compose their own poems. Students learn about different literary techniques and the poetry of Wordsworth before creating their own work to take back to the classroom.

Words in the Woods

An outdoor language session bringing William Wordsworth’s love of nature and words into our wild woods.

Let Nature be Your Teacher Walk

This interactive walk encourages students to get to know and understand the landscape around Dove Cottage which so inspired the Wordsworths. The walk includes lots of activities designed to help students gain a different perspective on the natural world.

Discover the Gothic (Upper KS3, KS4 and A level)

An introduction to the what, where, when and who of the Gothic period. After a look at the context students will explore at least one extract of Gothic text and will delve into some of the dark passages of Gothic fiction, using extracts from some of the most influential texts of the period. We can then explore the use of the Gothic in a text of your choice. It is possible to see some original Gothic books and manuscripts at Wordsworth Grasmere including an original publication of Frankenstein.

Discover Romanticism (Upper KS3 and KS4 and A level)

This session focuses on students becoming familiar with some of the major writers, themes, and history of the Romantic period: who were the Romantic poets, what inspired them, how did they respond to the world around them? We will then explore the ‘Romantic’ nature of a Wordsworth poem. We can extend this session by looking in more detail at one or more Romantic poems, addressing questions such as: what makes the poem Romantic, how this is revealed in language and imagery, how we approach a text written more than two-hundred years ago and how the poem/s might link thematically with each other, or with more contemporary poems.

Real Live Writers (KS3, KS4, A level)

This workshop offers the opportunity for students to work with a poet for the day. The sessions can include a mixture of poetry readings and workshops to get students writing creatively for themselves.

Arts Award Wordsworth and Water (KS3)

This programme of onsite sessions and offsite workshops uses water as an umbrella theme for looking at the writing of Wordsworth and the Romantics and for students’ creative responses. The work the students produce can lead to the achievement of an Arts Award at either Discover or Explore level.

Living Letters (KS3)

In this workshop pupils will develop their letter-writing skills by looking at life in the Lake District in the early 19th century. Children will be encouraged to think about how communication has changed, explore letters from our collections then use quill and ink to write their own.

Narrative Poetry (Year 7 and 8)

Using either Wordsworth’s ‘Lucy Gray’ or ‘Goody Blake and Harry Gill’ this workshop will help pupils develop an understanding of how poetry can tell a story through rhyme, plot and characterisation.

William Wordsworth and his Poems (KS3)

In this workshop children will learn about the life of William Wordsworth and his inspiration for writing poetry. They will then explore one or more of his most popular poems using (depending on the poem/s): extracts from Dorothy Wordsworth’s journal, facsimile manuscripts, objects, illustrations and paintings.

Litcraft Workshops (KS2 and KS3)

Reluctant Readers? Look no further! Do you want to use Minecraft as a tool for exploring poetry with your students, including exploring Boat Stealing or Ice Skating from The Prelude in-game? LITCRAFT uses the popular Minecraft gaming platform to build accurate scale models of literary worlds which are then creatively and imaginatively linked to reading to help motivate children to enjoy reading through play. If you want to attend FREE training in Litcraft please get in touch with our Education team.

Virtual Tours of Dove Cottage

Would you and your students like to see our reimagined Dove Cottage, but aren’t sure you will make it in person this year? Why not book a virtual tour for your class. Available most days of the week at a cost of £30 for a 40min tour and 15min Q&A. Follow up images and resources to prompt creative writing also available.

Introduce your students to the poetry of William Wordsworth with some simple digital resources.

The resources for each poem include:

• Context about Wordsworth: his life and poetry
• Activities to help students explore the vocabulary, themes and imagery of the poetry
• Resources to extend engagements such as pictures, web-links, film clips
• Suggestions for both short and longer creative writing activities linked to the poems and their themes

Wordsworth’s poems to chose from: ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’ (daffodils), ‘There was a Boy’, ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’, extract from The Prelude (ice-skating).

Introduce your students to the Romantic poems and poets in your GCSE anthology

• A short film, ‘Introduction to Romanticism’ looking first at context and then individually at the six major Romantic poets: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats
• Resources for the Romantic poems in the GCSE anthologies. These take the form of power point presentations, which can either be presented by you, or sent to students to adapt for their own use.
• Resources available for all the Romantic poems in the AQA and Edexcel anthologies including: ‘London’, ‘Ozymandias’, Extract from The Prelude (boat-stealing), ‘When we Two Parted’, ‘Love’s Philosophy’, ‘The Destruction of Sennacherib’, ‘A Poison Tree’, ‘She Walks in Beauty’, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’, ‘A Complaint’, ‘A Child to his Sick Grandfather’, Extract from The Prelude (ice-skating), ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge’, ‘To Autumn’

Prices from 1st September 2025

Visits to Wordsworth Grasmere

• Full day at Wordsworth Grasmere: £8.25 per pupil
• Half day at Wordsworth Grasmere: £6.25 per pupil

Workshops in schools

• Full day in school: £160
• Half day in school: £90
• Additional staff to work with more groups are charged at £25 per hour.

Real Live Writer School Visits

• Full day in school: £300
• Half day in school: £180