The 1805 Club’s Education Programme

Since its inception, education has been a key aim of The 1805 Club, with the purpose of broadening public knowledge of the navy of the long eighteenth century and of the career of Horatio, Lord Nelson.

The Wooden World workshops

The cornerstone of this aim is our teaching programme ‘The Wooden World’, which explores the life at sea of the Georgian navy, together with the story of Nelson and those who served with him.

Jerome Monahan, a former teacher and journalist and our chairman Peter Warwick have together developed a package of active learning resources to be used flexibly as a whole day or half day workshop or as a series of lessons. The resources are highly creative, open-ended and liberating and are focused on literacy skills, providing a scaffold for children’s speaking and listening, reading and writing, as well as building self-confidence and enhancing personal resilience. Delivery is interactive and borrows from a wide-range of sources including storytelling techniques, theatre, art and film to create memorable learning experiences.

Designed to be cross-curricular they draw on literature, drama, history, geography, art and the mathematics associated with early 19th Century navigation, which means the outcomes of the learning are highly transferable.

A display of children’s work produced after a Wooden World workshop

Students explore ship-board life and lore two centuries ago through a range of writing, drama, film and still image. The focus is on the nitty-gritty of such an existence: food and health, the daily routines and the types of job they would do and how they might spend their leisure time, the principles of navigation and to top it all the Battle of Trafalgar and the death of Nelson. Our sources are contemporary accounts both personal and official with plenty of scope for students to try their hands at capturing their learning in prose or poetry and even song.

Chairman, Peter Warwick in role at a Wooden World workshop

This is an introduction to a rich moment in history and some of its broader themes, not least the issue of leadership as practised by Horatio Nelson himself.

The workshop has so far been delivered to classes in Key Stages 1,2 and 3 at no charge to the schools, thanks to funding from the Club itself, from The Worshipful Company of Shipwrights and the Libor Fund grant. We aim to extend the programme to schools along the Trafalgar Way and the workshop will be part of the Cornwallis events in 2019.

The Libor funding will also give us the opportunity to commission online materials linked to the Wooden World workshop. These will ensure the sustainability of the programme and broaden access to educators everywhere.

Royal Navy Lecture Programme

The Libor grant has allowed us to bring to fruition a long-held ambition to deliver a series of lectures to the Royal Navy, linking historical events to the theme of modern leadership. These are being given by leading academics, experts in naval history, and each lecture will be recorded and uploaded to the Navy’s digital learning platform, allowing access to learners throughout the fleet. In 2018 the first three talks will be given by Professor Andrew Lambert of King’s College, London, who has kindly agreed to help with the development of the curriculum, coordinating with our contacts in the training section of the Navy. The support of our President, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, has been invaluable in the development of the programme.

Admiral Lord Nelson School

The Club continues to maintain its links with Admiral Lord Nelson School in Portsmouth and every year since 2005 has sponsored the annual Endeavour Award, which is presented to the student who each year achieves most through adversity. The school is also now the home of the Dr Colin White Memorial Library – all of our founding chairman’s books on Nelson, which he bequeathed to The 1805 Club.

Gillian Knight – July 2018

Education Officer