School Visits & Outreach
We are open all year round for outreach and educational visits to the Mill in a setting close to three other educational sites Sutton Hoo Ships’ Company, Woodbridge Riverside Trust and Woodbridge Museum, which we regularly work with to offer aligned trips.
The Tide Mill provides unique learning opportunities, for both first hand and theory based education, in a wide and exciting range of subjects or cross-curriculum at all levels and for all ages.
A visit to the mill costs £3 per student with accompanying adults free and we can organise a free pre-visit for teacher/s too. Many of our educational resources are available and downloadable from our website as pre and post visit activities and we offer a generic Risk Assessment form as guidance.
On visits the tour of the Mill is highly immersive with many hands-on activities, working models, a working stone quern, a weather and climate research station experiment, mini generator, welcome film, CGI films, and even a mouse trail! We can tailor a visit to your learning interest but all visits focus on the historical, food, scientific and craft story of sustainable engineering. It is best to come at low tide as this is when the giant 4.96m diameter waterwheel turns to create a feeling of being inside the most powerful yet gentle machine!
For more details please email: education@woodbridgetidemill.org.uk
Our learning programmes include:
Eco-warriors – exploring the climate emergency to develop students’ voice on the issues involved through learning about activism communicated through art and poetry.
NHS (Nutritional Health Service) – exploring sustainable food processing, kitchen science and nutrition of the grain to mouth processes (outreach includes baking bread)
Gears and Pulleys – understanding the relationship between the River Deben, set with an area designated as a National Landscape, and the Woodbridge Tide Mill’s mechanisms which rely on the river as a natural resource for renewable energy.
How the Moon Makes a Sandwich – an illustrated poem takes children on an educational journey of the science and technology behind how a Tide Mill harnesses power derived from the tides; transforming wheat grain into flour to make the bread for a sandwich.
Other programmes available – Grain to Mouth, Soil to Sandwich and the Miller’s Day.
For more details please email: education@woodbridgetidemill.org.uk
The Tide Mill is a Learning Destination
We are also developing new programmes with Lego Education, the Mill as Art Studio (drawing and printmaking) and the Mill’s Climate and Weather Research Station.
We are proud and ambitious in being recognised as a rich educational asset and the Mill has secured numerous awards (e.g. British Science Association for its engineering learning opportunities and Gold Carbon Charter Award), and funding awards to diversify and develop our educational programmes.
Building on our Heritage Lottery Fund award in 2011 we continue to view the Mill as a community cultural asset and as such the present team are proud stewards of its present and future. So we are keen to welcome your interest to use the Mill as a dynamic and welcoming place to experience the heritage and future of the last working tide mill in the country. We are experienced in hosting all kinds of events such as exhibitions, performances and feasts – so please do get in touch.
For more details please email: education@woodbridgetidemill.org.uk
