Terrific Time Travel with Longney School

Albert Einstein told us, “If you want to know the future, look at the past…” and the Platform team were happy to follow this advice to inspire young people to get creative with travel!

Just before half term, the team met an excited class of Year 4s and Year 5s, from Longney Primary School, at Gloucester Train Station to begin their time-travelling adventure on the train.

The children came prepared with personalised tickets that they had made after Emilie had visited them in school to deliver a pre-travel rail safety workshop. At Platform, the team strive to make learning as “sticky” as possible and so Emilie and Imogen were delighted that the students remembered all of their rail-safety prior learning when quizzed on the platform.

It was then “All aboard“for 40 minutes on the train where students were kept busy spotting farm animals and fancy houses, and checking off the stations, before arriving at Worcester Foregate Street. A 5 minute walk from there and they arrived at the Worcester Civic Society Pod ready to begin a ‘Terrific Time-Travelling’ history of transport workshop.

The children discovered how transport has changed over time and discussed the best and worst features of the main modes of transport: cars, trains, planes, boats and cycling.

Lastly, they were challenged to get creative and invent their own sustainable mode of transport for the future. The Longney students really impressed the adults with their imaginative and innovative ideas. The team particularly loved one suggestion of a bus with a green roof to ‘encourage biodiversity’ – amazing!

A well-earnt reward after all that hard work was a short walk across the river to Cripplegate Park for a run around and clamber over the adventure playground. The autumn colours were sensational, the rain threatened but never arrived, and the huge climbing frame was a temptation for even the adults on the trip.

On the train back to Gloucester, the team introduced the children to their favourite badger, the hero of ‘Arlo’s Adventures – There and Back Again’, as each child was given their own copy of the book to read and take home.

Maggie Kirby, a teacher from Longney School, said: “Emilie and Imogen were amazing and kept the children engaged for the whole day. Safety was paramount and everything had been thought out and shared with us, meaning we could relax and know we were in safe hands. The children loved it, even those who previously had refused to get on trains as they were so nervous. Highly recommended, and thank you.”