The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham

Founded by the Lady Richeldis in 1061, destroyed by Henry VIII in 1538, restored in 1922 by Father Hope Patten, the Anglican Vicar of Walsingham - the Shrine has had an eventful history that spans nearly a thousand years. This medieval place of pilgrimage, which rivalled Canterbury, was visited by thousands of pilgrims from across Britain and Europe. Walsingham became known as England's Nazareth because of the nature of the vision which the Lady Richeldis experienced. In the modern era, the past 100 years have witnessed the dramatic restoration of pilgrimage to Walsingham. The Education Department is dedicated to providing opportunities to promote students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through curriculum based programmes with a special emphasis on Christian faith.

The Shrine has the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality badge and has also been awarded a third Sandford Award for excellence in heritage education. The Sandford Award Administrator wrote to the Department as follows: The Anglican Shrine of our Lady of Walsingham offers a unique opportunity to immerse students in exploring the Christian faith across different denominations of Christianity. Sessions have been well developed in conjunction with teachers and education professionals. Students will come away not only with learning objectives met but having benefitted from a totally unique bespoke experience. The team have a clear, concise and confident offer which puts the learner at the centre of all they do.

We offer a number of educational programmes to suit various age groups; most of these last a whole day (usually 10.00am to 2.30pm, but timings can be adapted to suit your needs). Whatever else may be provided, our programmes always explore the theme of pilgrimage and include a visit to the Shrine Church. We also have a range of resources to support teaching including teacher guides and videos available on our website. Residential visits offer greater scope for planning an extended programme and we can tailor-make a package to suit the needs of your students. Visits are led by our team of experienced and qualified teachers. All visits are adaptable for a variety of needs including SEND and gifted and talented. The programmes are carefully planned to enhance and supplement your teaching across the curriculum. They are linked to the National Curriculum and Local Agreed Syllabi for RE and can help meet OFSTED and SIAMs objectives concerning spiritual and personal development.

Examples of areas we can cover include:

1. RE / RS: Pilgrimage
2. Christianity
3. Places of Worship
4. Beliefs and Practices
5. Festivals
6. Moral and Ethical Issues.
7. Art: Religious Art
8. History: Medieval times
9. Spiritual and Social Development: Discussion and reflection

Visit https://www.walsinghamanglican.org.uk/youngpilgrims/schools-department/school-programmes/ to download our programme guide and supporting documents, including our teacher guide.