Although we don't have too many school groups venturing out to see us in January, it is a busy time of year for the Education Officer, updating all the courses, checking that markers on trails are still in place (there can be problems when the instructions on a trail say turn left at the ash tree on the map only to find that it has been cut down!)
Jean, our Education Officer, also makes improvements to the courses and updates them appropriately. See our the range of our courses on our web site at thornham.org.uk and click on the teachers' area and then 2009 course list.
This winter's task is to put follow up/back up material on our web site thornham.org.uk to give added value to a trip to Thornham. For example if you bring a class to do archeology at Thornham then when you return to school you can click on the course list and onto the archeology link to find photos of things which your class will have seen as well as old Thornham Estate maps etc.
This is the site of the old village green at Thornham Magna and Gull Lane an ancient Green Lane in the village which are part of our archaeology course.
One of our History courses looks at the parish church of St Mary's Thornham Magna and we have added information about the wildlife in the churchyard, worksheets we use inside the church 
and photos of various aspects of the church.
We are also taking monthly photos of the same areas around the Estate to help school groups with their follow up work. For example if you come and do our Food, Farming and the Environment course we will eventually have photos each month showing them the fields they have studied and how they change each month. If you study habitats you can compare the pond dipped in June with what it was like in January. Or check how the hedges have changed etc.
