This week, pupils in Devon return to school. A new school year usually means a new teacher. For some it will be the first day at school, for others a transition to a new school, preparing for exams, and maybe the first steps toward higher qualifications.

For all of them, their experiences at school will have lasting consequences for their life and future.

We often hear how schools have few opportunities to teach outside of the constraints of the curriculum. For heritage charities, who usually have education and informing young people and community as part of their objectives, this is sometimes frustrating as teachers are unable to organise visits or use resources offered unless they fit with their wider objectives.

In primary schools, the curriculum encourages using local history as part
of lessons and, with some imagination and co-operation between charities
and schools much can be achieved. This September, classes from Westcroft
School will be visiting the Steamship Freshspring. It’s not just a jolly, although hopefully it will be a happy day, it’s also an opportunity to understand something about steam power. The charity has developed STEM (Science, Technology. Engineering, Maths) kits that help even young children to experiment and appreciate how pressure can generate movement and be used to power machines. The other part of their class project is to look at bridges. They will use the ship as a base from which to draw both Bideford Long Bridge and Torridge Bridge before visiting the exhibition of the Long Bridge upstairs in The Burton. This will followed up by more class activities on the theme. 

Next year 2025 will mark one hundred years since Bideford Long Bridge was last widened in 1925. There are plans being drawn up to mark this centenary – a mere blink in the 600-year-plus history of the bridge, which is one of the longest medieval bridges in England and a Grade I listed building. 

In comparison, the high Torridge Bridge is a mere youngster, opening in 1987. It is designed to resist the impact of a 2,500-ton ship traveling at 6 knots with a 2.5 knot following tide in conjunction with 60 mph winds, and it won the1988 Concrete Societies Award.
How do we measure success? When we have young people come to visit the ship on the Sunday open days, bringing parents and other siblings, and proudly telling us ‘yes I’ve visited Freshspring before with school’, then we know we’ve made an impact.

MT