Arnos Vale is becoming more and more popular with teachers and a fantastic day out for their classes.  You may see groups of children busily scribbling on clipboards.  They are working on all sorts of subjects from Victorian history, map making and World War 2 to insect hunting and even food chains.

There are loads of learning opportunities for schools, colleges and even universities.  Every year Bath Spa college and City of Bath College come and visit to find about how a cemetery can be used for learning as part of their heritage in practice course.

If you do know any teachers or teaching assistants, please do let them know what Arnos Vale can offer them.

As you may have noticed, we have also started running events for families.  We plan to run family events every school holiday, so keep your eyes peeled.

In February we ran a Dinosaur activity session for families called Dino Discovery.  Although there are no dinosaurs at Arnos Vale, we do have a Dinosaur discoverer.  Samuel Stutchbury was involved in the discovery and subsequent scientific work on the Bristol Dinosaur - Thecodontosaurus Antiquus.

Theco is one of the oldest plant-eating dinosaurs and its name means ancient socket-toothed dinosaur.  It was originally not described as a dinosaur and there was great discussion about whether it was just an inferior saurian (related to the crocodile).  However, after much research, in 1870 (after the death of Stutchbury) it was finally dubbed a true Dinosaur. 

We are working with the Bristol Dinosaur Project to help people from Bristol find out about this fascinating Dinosaur.  There was an opportunity to handle real fossils and build a dinosaur. 

The family event took place on 22nd February in the Spielman Centre.  This event was over-subscribed and due to the deman we will be running further workshops this year - so watch this space for more details!