Find My Activities

At the moment you’re seeing all our itinerary suggestions for a school trip to St Ives; to refine what you see please click the relevant filters. To save your search download a pdf and keep it on your desktop as a reference.

Please note that all prices are for guidance only and are subject to change. If you’d like more detail on anything do get in touch with the relevant supplier or email us on hello@stayatcohort.co.uk.

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Surf Lesson

Take to the water with the award winning St Ives Surf School for an exhilarating 2 hour surf lesson. All equipment is included including wet suits and students do not have to be strong swimmers as it’s rare that they’ll be in water deeper than waist height and never out of their depth.

Instructors are all DBS checked and experienced at working with schools and young people.

St Ives Surf School are AALA Licensed

£30+VAT per person

Self-led Beach Clean

Pick up leaflets and bags from staff at Cohort who will give you a quick introduction to beach cleaning and tell you what to look out for. Head down to one of our 5 amazing beaches for an hour of beach cleaning. It’s weirdly addictive and also hugely beneficial to the communities in St Ives.

Free

St Ives Society of Artists

Established in 1927 the St Ives Society of Artists’ exhibition programme features work chosen by guest curators as well as guest exhibitions offering a diverse mix of contemporary visual art.

Many of their exhibiting artists and members are workshop leaders and they offer a great variety of art workshops for schools and students of all ages and abilities. Printmaking to craft and fine art to figurative.

£10 - 20 per student

St Ives Treasure Trail

Purchase a St Ives Treasure Trail pack from Cohort or in advance online and divide your students into groups of 4 or 5. This self-guided mystery walking trail will take them all around St Ives, exploring back streets and discovering landmarks they may never have noticed.

This 2.25 mile loop trail can take around 2 – 3 hours depending on the ages of the students and you don’t have to do it all at once! Space it out over the course of the trip, an hour here, an hour there and award prizes to the group who solves the mystery first.

£9.99/treasure trail pack (downloaded) or £11.99/treasure trail pack (printed)

SK8 St Ives

Join the fabulous SK8PZ for a roller skating session at the Island Centre in St Ives. SK8PZ is a roller skating CIC who provide fun and fitness on skates for ages 5 and up.

A 90 minute session will start off with safety information and fundamental techniques, progressing on to skills and tricks which are then reinforced through fun and games. There’s always time for a bit of disco at the end too!

Roller skating has been shown to improve anxiety and loneliness through a pressure-free social activity. Skating facilitates neuroplasticity and reduces stress, which helps pupils overcome adversity and maintain a positive mindset. In short, it’s a great way to spend an evening in St Ives. The Island Centre is a 10 minute walk from Cohort.

SK8PZ has all the relevant risk asessments, safeguarding, DBS checks and insurance in place. Maximum group size 30-35 but larger groups can be accommodated by staggering sessions.

£160/90 minute session (allow 2 hours). All skates included.

Paradise Park

At the fabulous Paradise Park you can discover 130 species of birds, including Humboldt’s penguins, stunning macaws, toucans and eagles PLUS beautiful red pandas, rare red squirrels, cute otters, tiny harvest mice, miniature donkeys and a variety of farm animals.

Just a 10 minute drive or 20 minute bus ride from Cohort you can immerse your class in this fabulous site which is also home of the World Parrot Trust.

Workshops are also available. Lasting 30-45 minutes, they are linked to National Curriculum objectives and make full use of the wonderful range of wildlife at the Park.

Visits to the park can include time in their massive Soft Play area, ideal for burning off the last of the day’s energy or a haven after a wet weather visit.

Prices below are valid for pre-booked groups of 20+ in the school term and assume a ratio of no more than 1 adult to 5 children.

INDIVIDUALS: £9.15/child (including soft play). Staff go free. WORKSHOP: £30/workshop (max. 33 children)

The Leach Pottery

The Leach Pottery Schools programme is based on Bernard Leach’s belief that the most impactful and meaningful way to teach children about pottery is to engage them with the natural roots of the process. He writes, “They enjoy finding and digging their own clay, building their own kilns and making their own colours and glazes potters used to do before the machine age”.

The Leach Pottery offer a collection of creative workshops and tours for school groups for all ages (KS1 – KS5 and beyond) and abilities. Students discover the story of how the Leach Pottery revitalised the tradition of handmade pottery and, taking inspiration from the ceramics made by the Leach Pottery, will make their pottery as they learn about the journey clay makes from ground to kiln.

Visit their website for a comprehensive list of workshops and teacher resources.

Please note: Across 2024 the Leach Pottery will undergo capital development works to improve and expand our facilities and learning studios. At times it may not be possible to welcome groups onsite but the Learning & Participation programme will continue to offer workshops at other locations. Please get in touch to find out more.

Penlee House Gallery & Museum

Built in 1865 and set in the grounds of a sub-tropical garden in Penzance. Penlee House is home to many paintings by members of the Newlyn School. A programme of changing exhibitions celebrates the skill and craftsmanship of painting in west Cornwall in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They offer introductory talks for all school visits (free) and can organise workshops based on your themes and the National Curriculum. Penzance is a 30 minute bus / 20 minute coach ride from St Ives.

Free (small charge for workshops)

Newlyn Art Gallery Sketch Tour

These 90-minute sessions are led by a member of the Learning and Participation team. After a brief introduction to the exhibition, the group will be encouraged to discuss thoughts and opinions on the work and then to respond creatively.

Students must bring their own sketch books, all other materials are provided.

£8 per person

Land’s End

Visit the most westerly point in the UK and see the iconic signpost – a legendary Cornish icon.

The Land’s End Peninsula was formed around 270 million years ago producing magnificent cliffs which are of national significance.

For a great (and easy) walk park at Sennen Cove (a beautiful fishing village in its own right) and walk the mile to Land’s End to appreciate the coastal scenery in all its glory.

Free

Congition Learning STEM Workshops

Cognition Learning brings hands-on problem based STEM learning challenges to your pupils across KS2 and KS3. With links to topics and your curriculum planned into the sessions children can learn contextually whilst solving problems, having fun and learning with their peers. 

Cognition Learning use LEGO Education robotics and block coding to build and design robots that are up to any challenge. With links to Science, D&T, Maths, Geography and even History and Literature they create the scenario and your pupils design the solution. 

Cognition Learning will conduct the workshop on site at Cohort or in an external workshop space.

Maximum number of students: 36. Duration: half a day.

£250-300/workshop including materials

St Michael’s Mount

One of the most famous of Cornwall’s landmarks, St Michael’s Mount is situated in the village of Marazion – a 20 minute drive from St Ives. The mount is home to a small community, a stunning castle and gardens that would be the envy of a fairytale. The ‘castle on the rock’ dates back to 14th Century and is accessible by foot when the tide is out or by boat at other times.

Working with schools the learning programme at St Michael’s Mount is designed to engage children and young people in creative and collaborative experiences that bring the history of the island and its locality to life. Especially ideal for Cornish Schools where local history and culture is high priority on the curriculum.

This is an easy 1/2 day or full day out for your group – with tours available of the castle and gardens; or just explore on your own. Read more on their Schools & Learning page HERE.

Free for Cornish Schools OR (for out of county schools) Buy a National Trust Education Membership to access this site for free OR £7.50/student for visits to the castle.

Hayle Towans

The Towans, Cornish for dunes, mainly comprise broken-down seashells which have been blown onshore. They are calcareous and support lime-loving plants rarely found in Cornwall, which is predominantly made up of acidic granite.

It is the richest botanical site west of the River Fal, supporting a quarter of all the plant species ever recorded in Cornwall.

A great example of sand dune succession and an opportunity to investigate primary, secondary and tertiary dune bio-diversity for KS2 & KS3 geography topics.

Free

PK Porthcurno (Museum of Global Communications)

Discover a museum experience that explores the amazing story of our interconnected world, and how a tranquil valley in Cornwall became the centre of worldwide communications.

The museum has a regular programme of curriculum-linked workshops for schools and groups, which combine hands-on activities with time to explore the museum.

Workshops can be tailored to meet your groups’ needs or specific learning outcomes. You can also extend your Porthcurno learning experience with pre-and post-visit activities.

£6/person for a workshop and visit. Staff go free.

Atmospheric Mixed Media Painting

Pioneering abstract painter Sandra Blow often used tea, cement, sawdust and burlap to create coarse textures and an earthy palette to her paintings.

Join artist educator Rowena Tarplee who will lead you through experimenting with mixed media and colour to create your own textured and dynamic landscape or abstract painting inspired by your trip to St.Ives. 

Key skills: texture, relief, abstract, composition, colour, light, painting & colour mixing.

Suitable for all ages. All materials provided. Duration: 2 hours. Download the details of this workshop HERE.

£15/student + room hire if applicable

Melodies of Cornwall

Join singer songwriter Nicole Tesseyman for a fabulous musical session on site at Cohort.

Nicole will sing and play some of her own, St Ives/Cornwall-inspired songs and sea shantys explaining the meaning behind them and how she came to write them. She will then teach the group a couple of Cornish songs to sing together; finally leading the group to write their own Sea Shanty.

This will encourage them to reflect on what they have learned about St Ives, build new creative skills, gain in confidence and – more importantly – have fun with music.

Great for all ages and a perfect take away from any trip to St Ives. Sessions last between 90 – 120 minutes depending on the size of the group.

£150 for groups of 30 students or less; £180 for groups of 31 students or more (staff excluded)

Barbara Hepworth Soap Sculpture

Join artist educator Rowena Tarplee for a workshop exploring scale, dimension form, space, light, perspective, surface and texture based on the work of Barbara Hepworth.

Make preliminary sketches in charcoal and pastel, then use carving techniques to sculpt your own abstract sculpture.

Suitable for all ages. All materials provided.

Maximum students: 20 – 30, depending on age range. Duration 2 hours.

£170/workshop for up to 20. Additional charges apply for larger groups. Plus room hire if applicable

Bodmin Jail

Discover the darker side of Cornwall’s history at Bodmin Jail. Experience the Dark Walk where the stories of Bodmin Jail will come alive in this immersive experience.

Educational group tours can be tailored to your learning outcomes or subject focus so speak to the education department in advance. It’s a great option for on the way down to us or on the way home as it’s around 1 hour from St Ives by coach.

Allow 2 – 3 hours for a visit (depending on the size of the group).

£6.60/student and staff go free

It’s a Hard Rock Life – Talk

Join Cornishman Clint Hosking and friends to gain a colourful overview of Cornish mining culture and history and why it is important enough to have received World Heritage status.

Clint will bring rock samples, photographs, tools, mining equipment, clothing, etc which form part of Geevor’s handling collection. Pupils can explore the artefacts for themselves so it is a very hands on interactive session.

This engaging talk can be conducted on site at Geevor Tin Mine or at Cohort and can be adapted for any age group or curriculum focus. It can take place during the day or evening and is highly recommended for all groups looking to understand a little more about Cornish culture.

Duration: 1 hour. Maximum group size: 60.

£65/session

Suez Recycling Centre

Cornwall Energy Recovery bring an innovative solution to the management of Cornwall’s waste and recycling. They boost recycling, composting and re-use and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. Visitor centres at St Austell and Bodmin (both an hour’s drive from St Ives) offer students a unique insight into waste management strategies, offering opportunities to investigate sustainability, energy and resource management topics.

Great for students of all ages as visits can be customised to meet learning outcomes and linked to KS3 and GCSE topics.

Free

Minack Theatre (visits)

The Minack is a unique open air theatre perched on the cliffs above the Atlantic Ocean. Built by one extraordinary woman, Minack is an amazing place to visit in a spectacular setting.

Combine a visit with the PK Porthcurno for an awesome day out.

Please note: You cannot take a coach up to the Minack Theatre (minibuses are fine). If you are in a coach you must organise parking with PK Porthcurno (£45) and walk from there (10 minutes up a steep hill); if you are visiting in the busy months (June / July) then you will likely have to be dropped off at the end of the lane and it’s a mile walk from there.

5-15yrs £5/person 16yrs+ £10/person

Goonhilly Earth Station

The UKs space communication gateway and a recognised centre of excellence in Communications Engineering, Teleport Services, R&D, Manufacturing, Training, Outreach and Education.

They are a huge supporter of STE(A)M (Science, Tech, Engineering (Arts) & Maths) and offer fantastic opportunities for schools to engage with workshops, tours of the site, lectures and project work.

Goonhilly is a 30 minute drive from St Ives.

From £4.80 per person (minimum 15 students)

St Ives RNLI Lifeboat Station

Visit the St Ives RNLI Lifeboat station, just a few minutes walk from Cohort. Learn about the bravery and dedication of the RNLI, see the amazing lifeboat up close and learn about water safety as part of the RNLI’s mission to prevent their services being needed.

Their website is packed full of resources to take your learning back into the classroom or give your pupils a grounding before the visit.

The visit is free but we do encourage schools to think about bringing a donation along donating to the RNLI during the visit.

Free

Big Beach Day

Spend the day with St Ives Surf School learning about the RNLI, ocean safety and participating in water sports.

The day includes an RNLI safety talk, volleyball, rounders, body-boarding, wet suits, surf lesson, deckchairs, windbreaks and a VIP area on the beach.

Runs from 10am – 4pm with a break for lunch.

St Ives Surf School are AALA Licensed.

£55+VAT per person

Geevor Tin Mine

Situated on the stunning Cornish coastline around Pendeen, Geevor Tin Mine gives your students the opportunity to visit a real mine and learn what life was like for a Cornish Miner.

A typical day includes hand-drilling and rock-crushing sessions, a tour of the processing mill, an underground tour of the mine, panning for minerals – as well as your selection from one of their workshops:

The KS2 Hard Rock Challenge workshop focuses on the properties of rocks and their formation as metamorphic, sedimentary or igneous. This workshop explores how this affected the mining and separation processes used at Geevor Tin Mine.

The KS2 It’s a Hard Rock Life is a workshop that explores the lives of Cornish miners and Bal Maids. It provides a great living local history study and an in depth exploration of Cornwall and its culture that miners took with them throughout the world. These worldly travels led to the now famous expression ‘if there is a hole anywhere on Earth, you’re sure to find a Cornishman at the bottom of it.’

£5.85/student. Staff go free.

Monoprinting Workshop

Landscape Printmaker Oliver West offers a choice of three versatile mono-printing processes. Suitable for any age group as it can be offered as simply or elaborately as desired. Mono-printing is great for image making directly in the landscape as certain techniques can be used to take advantage of the current weather conditions.

These workshops are always fun, as this easy process quickly takes the activity of mark-making to another level. There is the element of surprise as the image is only revealed once the maker decides that its ready to print and peel!

Group size: 18 – 30. Timings: Half day. If you’d like to make a day of it two of these workshops can be run back-to-back and students can experience two types of monoprinting

£20/student. Includes all materials and access to the mobile printmaking set up

Expressive Clay Mask

Learn how to sculpt your own Expressive Clay Mask using air drying clay. Understand facial proportions, modelling techniques and surface decoration.

Rowena Tarplee is an experienced secondary Art teacher and Art practitioner and this workshop can be adapted to suit individual interests, projects and themes such as Expressionism, Multi-Cultural Art, Identify and Portraits.

Suitable for all ages. All materials provided. Duration: 3 hours. Download the details of this workshop HERE.

£15/student + room hire if applicable

Beach Sculpture Workshop

Join artist educator extraordinaire, Greg Humphries, on the beach for a fun, imaginative experience that will use sand as a sculpting material.

Tapping into our love of building sandcastles, Greg starts by demonstrating some sand sculpting techniques then sets a series of challenges that aim to creatively connect the group.

£190/workshop or £360 for two workshops on the same day (10% discount for groups of less than 20 students)

Bosavern Community Farm

A visit to this unique farm is a special, life-enhancing experience where the importance of sustainability, caring for bees, growing food without chemicals, respect for the land, (including tree and soil care) and for Nature in general, is brought to life.

Spend the day learning about where our food comes from; how they grow seasonal vegetables, herbs and salads on organic principles and raise happy, free-range chickens on GM-free food. The beehives house native Cornish Black Bees and the Community Bee Garden houses an Observation Hive where their own Beekeeper and bee hosts explain the importance of bees as pollinators. They have a Community Woodland, wildflower meadows, a Farm Trail and much more.

A day is typically 9.30 – 3.30pm. Suitable for groups of up to 32 + staff and activities / talks can be adapted for all ages. Shorter visits by special arrangement.

From £28 + VAT/student inc, lunch & all refreshments

The Core

An amazing space at the St Ives Community Orchard at the top of town.

Ideal for workshops, mindfulness or use it as a space to review your day with your students. Surrounded by the peace of the St Ives Community Orchard The Core is available for schools to hire or explore mindfulness workshops, yoga workshops or anything to do with nature.

Just a 15 minute walk from Cohort, The Core gives you the opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle and truly review your time in St Ives. Max size: 60

£40/hour

Great Flat Lode

One of the world’s best conserved mining landscapes. The mines here closed around 1920. Since then the area has remained relatively undeveloped and it now contains some of Cornwall’s finest remains of engine houses, tin dressing floors and other mining structures.

The trail runs from 2 – 7 miles and is a 25 minute drive from St Ives.

Allow at least half a day for exploring, analysis or sketching.

Free

Eden Project

Visit the Eden Project on the way to / from us or have a superb day out from St Ives. From over 35 workshops on a variety of subjects through to outdoor learning and free, downloadable trails the Eden Project has something for every school group and is a truly amazing site in the heart of Cornwall.

Discover the perfect workshop on their School Trips page: scroll to School Workshops at Eden and filter for age group and subject area.

Allow 1 hour by coach / minibus to get there from St Ives and 3 – 4 hours on site (6 hours if you’re doing 2 workshops).

£7.20/student for a self-led visit. £8.25/student for visit which includes a workshop.

Beach Clean with Beach Guardian

Beach Guardian, an award winning social enterprise, aims to engage, educate and empower against plastic pollution. They can organise an engaging session on the beach where the group will not only clean but learn what plastics to look for, why they are so dangerous, where they have come from and what they can do when they leave St Ives.

Suitable for all ages.

Free

Tate St Ives

Discover the magic of Tate St Ives, where art meets stunning coastal views. Immerse yourself in both the current exhibition and the permanent collection of St Ives Artists, including works by renowned painters such as Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.

School groups of all ages can explore this amazing space independently or with a Tate gallery guide, discovering the stories behind the artworks and the artists who created them.

After recently undergoing a transformative renovation, Tate St Ives has earned its place on the international art scene, making it a must-visit destination for everyone. Located on the site of the old gas works in St Ives, this gallery boasts one of the most beautiful settings in the world.

Open year-round (except for November-February when closed on Mondays), a trip to St Ives simply isn’t complete without a visit to Tate St Ives.

The visit for students under 19 is always free however they do offer a number of paid-for workshops, view / download the options HERE.

Free for U19s if booked as a group in advance. Pay £9.50/staff member (£7.91 excl. VAT). Free for Cornish schools staff.