Schools: General Information
What a fabulous day for our @PresdalesSchool Year 11 Design and Technology girls @FrogmoreMill Would recommend to all school settings and Key Stages, such a fantastic place, here in Hertfordshire!
We offer a range of education experiences and are able to adapt them for specific group need – just talk to us and we will see what we can do! We can support your curriculum and engage your class in a variety of hands on workshops, tailored to requirement. We deliver to all abilities including special needs and home learning groups. We are Learning Outside the Classroom accredited. Everyone can get something from a visit to Frogmore Paper Mill.
Travel/Coaches/Arrival
Please note that Coaches cannot safely travel down Frogmore Road. Coach parking is available on site with the entrance being on Frogmore Road rather than Fourdrinier Way. Coach drivers should use the postcode HP3 9RW to navigate to the correct entry gates. On turning into Frogmore Road, the coach parking gates are on your immediate right. Passengers can safely disembark in the Coach Park. Ring us 5 minutes before you get here and we can be ready to open up when you arrive.
Group size
We take groups from 10 to 60 students, for a half or full day experience, but please be aware that groups of 60 need the full day visit. Groups of 12-15 will remain a single group, but larger numbers are broken into smaller sub-groups due to the practical nature of the activities and for reasons of Health and Safety in a working industrial location.
Timing
Typically groups arrive at 9.30 or 10 am for a 2.5 hour session, but we can do other variations, so please discuss your requirements with us. The individual workshops run for 30-40 minutes each, dependent on numbers as activities are largely hands-on. Every effort is made to run to time (a schedule is sent to you prior to arrival) but occasionally there may be delays due to machine problems. We make every effort to ensure our visitors can see the 1902 Fourdrinier No4 in action but due to its age and production schedules, in very rare instances this may not be possible.
Schools are welcome to bring and eat a packed lunch here. We build in time for a 15 minute refreshment break. Students may also visit the shop, where we have a range of smaller souvenir items from £1.
Health and safety
Teachers are invited to undertake a Health and Safety pre-visit by prior arrangement. Risk assessments are available for all activities and can be downloaded below. We are an industrial site and although our visitor centre is modernised, the working mill area is not and can be cold and wet, so please ensure your groups wear sensible clothing and footwear.
Costs
Students are charged at £6.50 + VAT per head, with staff and adult helpers up to our usual staff:student ratios free.
Key Stage 1 – 1:6
Key Stage 2 – 1:7
Key Stage 3 – 1:8
Key Stage 4 – 1:10
Please note that there is a minimum charge of £80+VAT, so if your group is of 12 or less, you may wish to add a couple more to your party and get full value from your funds.
Helpful and friendly staff. Interesting information and the children enjoyed themselves.
Standard Modules
Presentation
Typically the session begins with a short presentation, which sets the scene for all that the group will see and do. Larger groups will be divided into smaller sub-groups to undertake papermaking, the mill tour and third/fourth workshop.
A plan of your day will be sent prior to arrival so that teachers are able to consider how they wish to divide the full group up.
All sessions begin with an introductory presentation as grounding for everything else we do. This is followed by a papermaking session and mill tour, then a third workshop (2.5 hour booking) plus a fourth for whole day sessions.
The venue was perfect for our students as there were no member of public in at the same time as us. All outcomes have been achieved.
The papermaking workshop picks up on facts presented in the introduction by demonstrating the papermaking process for making sheets by hand using a mould and deckle. Each group member is invited to make their own sheet of paper which is dried ready to take back to school. Groups should have a clear understanding how paper is made by hand and the relevant terminology. Demonstrators make clear the professional process and how it is transferred to that of the machine. Fact filled but a 90% hands-on workshop with plenty of opportunity to ask questions.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here. For Outreach papermaking click here
The tour enables students to see an industrial working environment and observe how the hand made process transfers to mechanisation. Our tours are guided by Frogmore staff or trained volunteers, many of them ex paper or print industry and very knowledgeable. Occasionally we have a new tour guide shadowing the tour. Any such persons will be introduced to you. All of our staff are interviewed and checked but we insist that there are always members of school staff with groups. We try to limit tour groups to around 12, so a group of 30 children will become 3 groups once here.
Tours are always guided and group members must stay together. Health and safety is emphasised throughout. The tour starts with our visitor centre displays, covering Louis Nicholas Robert, pulping methods and the canals link. There is much to reveal but tour guides will keep it relevant. The tour continues with letterpress and bookbinding and into the machine room where paper is still made almost daily on a 1902 Fourdrinier machine (No4). The machine process is explained. The tour guide can then lead your group to the mill race, Watford pulpers, No2 Fourdrinier (1895) and if there is time or specific interest, the Heritage Fire Brigade display.
Those on tour are free to ask questions.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here.
KS 1/2/3/4 Modules
Weaving Workshop
Paper weaving is an ancient human craft with many applications which we encourage the young people to think about. We can also liken it to the process of paper formation.
This is the simplest workshop aimed at our youngest visitors and requires some dexterity. It may also be useful to special needs groups.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here.
Suitable for Key Stage 1, Braille begins with a Q&A session to see what groups already know and can share with others. This is followed by a run through of the life of Louis Braille, his invention and how the braille system works. Groups then carry out an exercise to test their understanding, ending with an opportunity to to type their name on one of our Perkins Braillers.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here
Letterpress Workshop
Staff refer to its impact on mass communication and how many of our modern terms in general language and on computers can be traced back to Gutenberg’s invention.
The workshop is hands-on and each student will get a chance to have a go at printing with one of our Adana printing presses.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here.
Science -fibres
Suitable for Key Stages 1 and 2. This workshop builds on the the understanding of fibre that runs throughout the introduction, papermaking and the mill tour. It is useful for those looking at changing materials and manufacture.
Groups work in small teams and using digital microscopes, examine a variety of commonly used paper fibres to understand their individual qualities, then how these differences may be utilised by papermakers, to form different paper stocks. The session ends with a slide show of more highly magnified fibre images and examples their typical application.
The workshop is accompanied by individual worksheets on which students draw the fibres, describe their attributes and complete the questions. These sheets are taken taken back to school and may be used for reference or further discussion in the classroom.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here.
History – Victorian mill workers
This workshop is ideal for Key Stages 2 and 3. It requires a bit more listening than the other workshops but covers local history, the Industrial Revolution and Victorian working conditions in the Mills. It is great for local schools, but also for all school groups as a comparison to modern life. Delivery is related to the age of the group.
The session is based on an 1841 government report into working conditions in the mills. We compare working ages, hours of work, holidays, wages and the mill jobs of the boys and girls to the lives of the children there. This tends to be an eye-opener for most of the audience as children could work in the mills from the age of 10.
The information is accompanied by a Powerpoint presentation. Questions are welcomed. Some schools choose to pre-prepare questions to encourage participation, however the workshop is far from talk at.
There is an accompanying worksheet which students may take away with them. It recounts some of the basic points and allows for their own note-taking and drawing. It can be used for further discussion in schools and if teachers would like a copy of the staff notes, just let us know.
The workshop is accompanied by individual worksheets on which students draw the fibres, describe their attributes and complete the questions. These sheets are taken taken back to school and may be used for reference or further discussion in the classroom.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here.
Sustainable paper
Flat white stuff that is green all over! Papermaking is one of the most inherently sustainable industries in Europe and yet many still see it as the ‘baddie’ that cuts down endless trees and uses immense amounts of water.
This workshop intends to reveal the true paper industry facts; an industry supported by well-known environmentalist and author Jonathon Porritt, a regular face on our television screens in the 1970s representing the Friends of the Earth charity.
This workshop takes the data and explains it in a clear practical way for children to understand, so is as practical and active as possible. Groups are encouraged to vent all their criticisms relating to paper production and then together we review the facts; reinforced by seeing machine made paper in action and making their own handmade sheet.
There is a teachers fact sheet available for use back in the classroom.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here.
Canal Workshop
Frogmore Paper Mill sits on the River Gade which connects to the Grand Union Canal. A very short 2 minute walk takes groups to Lock 65, where after a brief canal related H&S talk, students learn about what a canal is and the importance of the canals for transportation in Victorian times. This workshop covers Victorian history, the development of canals and a maths activity.
Staff demonstrate (with a bit of student help), how to unlock a lock gate and adjust water levels; frequently we are lucky enough to have a boat pass through the lock.
Children then do a calculation of lock volume using estimation skills. They add notes and calculations to the supplied work sheet which accompanies the workshop. This handout can be taken back to school.
Please make sure children are suitably dressed and consider the weather when booking.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here.
GCSE Design and Technology
Paper and Board – we can cover this part of your curriculum with ease. Students can absorb unit content by doing and seeing in an industrial setting. We are very informative and sessions are very hands on.
A standard visit lasts for 2.5 hours, which includes an introductory presentation, followed by extended papermaking and an extended mill tour. This option allows for additional detail and depth, to which students are welcome to bring pre-prepared questions.
To download the Risk Assessment for Bookbinding, please click here.
To download the Risk Assessment for Printing, please click here.
KS3,4 – Enterprise Days
We also deliver full (10am-3pm) Enterprise Days to give a ‘real life’ experience of the workplace with a bit of fun thrown in for groups of 50-60 ideally. Working in groups, teams are given individual job roles within ‘their company’ to brainstorm, produce, market, cost and present paper based products. Teams hit a few typical hindrances along the way, with staff holidays, health and safety issues and indecisive client whims, all of which add an edge and allow students to experience more of the mill, while adding a touch of reality.
Enterprise Days are offered at £18 +VAT per student.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here and here.
School Assemblies
We offer recycling assemblies as outreach for £60 +VAT. The assembly consists of a Powerpoint, demonstration and discussion about paper recycling to kick off your recycling weeks and initiatives. The presentation is far from dry and can be delivered in your school hall. Please ring us to discuss.
Boat Race
If there is time and we can build it in, your visit can end with one of our loud and exciting boat races. Groups of pupils make paper boats within the limitations given and we race them in our backstream. A good end to a session which tires them out for the journey back to school.
To download the Risk Assessment for this workshop, please click here.
Please read the sections above.
Home learners are warmly welcomed. Such groups often attend with more adult helpers and may have slightly different needs. It’s important to talk to us. As with all groups, carers supporting individual students will not be charged for their visit, however where home learning groups bring many family members above our usual child: adult ratios, we will charge for those extra adults and siblings over 5 years old. Effectively they are included in the activities and number breakdowns, for health and safety.
Please read the sections above.
All groups can have special requirements and we wish to tailor our delivery to provide a great experience for all. Carers supporting individual students will not be charged for their visit but we make groups smaller to keep to the same number of individuals on tour. We have a 2 person lift to our pulper floor for those who cannot manage the first flight of stairs. The second set of stairs (to the currently static Fourdrinier No2 machine) can be avoided by having one extra Frogmore staff member to hand, to take those visitors via an external ramp.
We welcome your guidance on level of input and workshop choices. Above all we wish everyone to have a happy and rewarding experience here at Frogmore Paper Mill.
Please call 01442 234600 or email education@frogmorepapermill.org.uk for further details.
Education Grant
Epson believes that education should be fun and interactive, as well as informative and insightful. We understand education, and we use this knowledge to design technology that makes learning continuous and efficient. Our solutions keep information moving; they connect collaborative groups, capture attention and empower both teachers and students.
We also believe that sustainability is in the hands of the future generations and by using our technology for change along with educating the minds of tomorrow, we can make a real and positive impact for environmental change now.
For this reason, we have created the Epson Education Grant in partnership with Frogmore Paper Mill. The Epson Education Grant is a financial contribution towards the entrance fee of up to 30 pupils to the Frogmore Education Programme
Frogmore Paper Mill is the world’s oldest mechanized paper mill, birthplace of Paper’s Industrial Revolution. Just like Epson, Frogmore wishes to encourage all learners to explore the benefits of curriculum linked activities to enhance their learning. Together, we believe (and our feedback supports this), that we can offer exciting, unique, hands-on learning which allows visitors to discover just how fascinating paper can be!
The grant is open to any school looking to visit the paper mill for the first time and those who have not been in the last 3 years.
To be considered for Epson’s Education Grant, please complete the short questionnaire.
Frogmore Paper Mill is Learning Outside the Classroom accredited and has held the Quality Badge for your assurance and safety since 2012.
You can also book a trip via Plan My School Trip, who also offer funding support.
We are also registered with Kaddi.com where you can see more about us and read past visitor testimonials.
We have developed a Teacher’s Pack, to help you with your delivery of Key Stage 1 and 2, Science (Paper). If you cannot get to us, or even if you can, these packs complement what we do on a visit. The packs are curriculum linked and written by experts from Frogmore Paper Mill and the paper industry. They consist of illustrated A4 cards, which contain, teacher notes to swot up, activities to do in class, worksheets to copy and question sheets to test learning. In addition, there is a memory stick containing 3 short films – how paper can be made in school, how a paper machine works, and finally, how the process of handmade paper was developed into a mechanised process – plus a Powerpoint, to accompany what your sessions. Your class will quickly understand how paper is made, what it is made from, how important it is and why our mill was the first in the world to have a mechanised paper machine.
We even include a mould and deckle so you can make paper in school. And we are not adverse to an email asking for advice.
Everything comes in a card box for easy storage, so you get a lot for your money. The kit costs £75 +VAT which as a teacher remarked is only £2.50 per chid for a class of 30, and you should be able to use it for years. Any questions, please do email: education@frogmorepapermill.org.uk
Local Studies Teacher’s Pack for Primary Schools. How to get your class out and learning about the local area and seeing the history around themselves. The packs focusses on Hertfordshire and the Mills of The Gade Valley but the principles could be applied on other parts of the country.
If your school is based in Dacorum, especially Apsley or Nash Mills, the walking maps here may help you with Local Studies delivery. Download them, print them and feel free to use them. See buttons below.
Click the following link to discover instructions for making a traditional papermakers hat. A fully trained artisan papermaker, would make a paper hat at the start of each day. You need a large (A2) sheet of paper per hat. Choose as thin a paper as you can find, such as newsprint.
If you wish to make paper in school or at home, please click the button below for instructions. These pages are taken from the Frogmore Paper Mill Teacher’s Pack – Materials KS1 and KS2. The pack contains many activities to use in class.
I can’t thank you all enough for the hard work, time and effort you all put in yesterday. The buzz around rooms and at the end of the day was fantastic – more than I was hoping for! Students and staff alike were full of ideas and I know one school – not mine… – has already seen the head about things they want to do which is great!
