We welcome school visits from all age groups and the Visitors' Centre is anxious to make your visit as interesting, useful and enjoyable as possible. An audio-visual presentation, The Life of Lichfield Cathedral, is available and we provide trained guides who will not only help the children to understand the Cathedral and its community, but also help you to make use of the resources of the Cathedral for meeting your learning needs. The Centre is available as a working area and for your comfort and refreshments.

Free Preliminary Visit
We strongly advise a preliminary visit before you bring a class. This enables you to see what we have on offer, to plan your visit to maximum advantage and to undertake preparation work in the classroom before you come. You may find our Teachers' Guide helpful and the Resource Materials for visiting at Key Stage 1, at Key Stages 2 and 3 for History, and at all ages for Religious Education. There is a list of resources which you may find helpful below.

The Visit
In order to avoid clashes with worship, organ practice and other events, guided tours, which must be booked, are normally arranged between 10.00am and 12.00pm, and 2.00pm and 4.00pm. Whilst your tour will be central to your visit, you may like the children to see the video presentation at the Visitors' Centre, as an introduction and then spend time - perhaps after a 'picnic' lunch - studying some particular aspect of the Cathedral, its history and its life to complement their classroom studies.

May we stress that there is plenty to occupy the whole day, here at the Cathedral, and in other attractions in Lichfield; that you should allow plenty of time to get here; and that we are very happy for any number of helpers to come, free, with the students.

Standard tours introduce the visitor to the long history of the Cathedral, highlight some of its important moments, and visit the main places of interest. A special emphasis can be given to your own needs (on Anglo Saxons or Symbolism, for example). You should allow at least one and a quarter hours for the tour, and note that the video lasts for 22 minutes. Special studies can be undertaken, following your general introductory tour. For all, there is the opportunity to explore the changing life of the Christian community in Lichfield over a period of 1300 years, to study the work of craftsmen in stone, glass and tiles, and make specific study of topics, which complement classroom studies, at all ages.

Materials are available which relate a visit to the Cathedral to classroom studies in Religious Education and History at all ages, but work can be done on numeracy and literacy etc. In particular, for KS2 and KS3 students, there are project sheets on:

• reading the glass
• the Civil War in Lichfield
• the life of St Chad
• the Medieval Cathedral
• the development of architecture
• the Christian religion

• 10.00 - Arrive at the Visitors' Centre - Welcome
• 10.10 - Video presentation
• 10.40 - Guided tour of Cathedral
• 12.00 - Lunch - picnic or at the Centre
• 12.45 - Project work in the Cathedral on a selected topic
• 13.45 - Classroom work etc., or visit to Heritage Centre, or Dr Johnson Birthplace, or Erasmus Darwin House

Accidents
Schools are reminded that the responsibility rests with them to notify the appropriate LEA office, and ensure that full insurance cover is provided for the visit. The Chapter cannot accept responsibility for accident, injury or loss during the course of your visit.

Costs
There is a standard charge for all school parties. In the current academic year we are asking for £1.90 per child (£1.70 for Associate Members), with a minimum charge of £22.00 This charge entitles you to use all our facilities, including the AV presentation and the classroom. There is no charge for return visits by the same children during the current academic year but these must be booked in, please.

Booking
There is a booking sheet and order form available online by clicking here. It would help us if you would consider what sort of visit you want to make, and fill in the sheets accordingly. Do ring if you need further information, and return the form to the Visits Officer. 

The forms are in PDF format which requires Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer. If clicking on the link does not display the forms, you will need to download it, for no charge, from www.adobe.com.