LEGOLAND: fun is at the heart of our workshops

How can you make a school visit as memorable as possible?

A classroom should, in my mind, always be a place where children feel comfortable to express their thoughts and ideas in an environment where they can explore freely and have fun at the same time. We have three classrooms in the middle of the Resort, and when you couple that with the engaging activities we offer, from designing and building rollercoasters, programming robots and creating movies to building creative and imaginative LEGO constructions, the memories become stronger and stronger. Fun is at the heart of our workshops.

Why is LEGOLAND a good option for schools?

We offer a unique learning experience, delivered by trained teaching professionals, using world class resources created by The LEGO® Group in one of the country’s top attractions for young people. The team strive to make this journey as seamless and smooth as possible, all the way through from the booking process to the day of the visit and we understand that different schools have different requirements. We all try to make a connection with the schools that visit and we feel this is partly why we have so many that return to see us year on year.

How long have you been at LEGOLAND?

I was lucky enough to join the team in July 2021 having spent 15 years teaching in a junior school environment. This meant that I was able to combine two of my passions in one place; the joy of teaching and my lifelong connection with LEGO.

For three years now, I have had the pleasure to come to work in a place that allows me to continue to develop as an education professional and maintain the high standards learnt in the classroom, while at the same time, allowing my inner child to thrive and grow and inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers, designers and LEGO master model builders.

When is the best time for schools to visit?

We are open for school visits in all three terms of the academic year offering school trips from March – October. I would recommend visiting the Resort any time across all three terms, the Resort has a great variety of resources to benefit your school trip whatever time of the year that you are visiting. We also offer an awesome range of events throughout the year including our annual Halloween Party, Brick or Treat, it’s definitely worth considering this when booking a trip to us. Keep an eye on the website for more details on our events coming up in 2025!

Is there a certain session that you love teaching?

Absolutely! Just like the children, we embrace the fact that we all have different interests, abilities, styles and methods in the way we approach our workshops. I have always enjoyed the scientific process, so any workshop that involves digging into physics or biology, such as rollercoaster construction or animals and habitats, is something I always look forward to. Take the Science of Rollercoasters session for example.

We can take children through three distinct phases of their learning by first giving them the opportunity to talk through and discuss the various principles involved with a rollercoaster, such as forces, friction, air resistance, gravity, kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy. We then give them time to put these skills into practise by building a model rollercoaster using LEGO bricks, making sure that they adapt and refine their designs as a team if they do not initially function as intended.

The final part of the journey takes place in the wider Resort on one of our actual rollercoasters and we encourage all groups who take part in this workshop to experience this, even if they are a little nervous at first. The opportunity for a whole class to ride a rollercoaster together and attempt to speed it up by ducking down and reducing drag is a remarkable sight!

Why is it important for children to learn through play?

The name LEGO comes from an abbreviation of the Danish words ‘leg godt’, which literally means ‘play well’. Learning through play is a philosophy that many practitioners of Early Years teaching will be familiar with but it can be just as powerful with children in Key Stage 2 and beyond.

Our robotics sessions now include a build using LEGO’s current and most up to date robotics kits, but also coding challenges to enhance the build further. If the children can imagine their robot performing particular functions and moves, we then work together through play and experimentation to achieve their goals.

A combination of individualised learning and play allows children to advance in the direction of their choice and this has led to a full range of outcomes from synchronised dancing robots, filming drones, somersaulting cars and many more. None of these would have been possible without allowing children to play, knowing they are in an environment where exploration is the key to success.

This in turn builds resilience, perseverance, teamwork, fine motor skills, communication skills… the list goes on and on. The act of ‘doing’ rather than just sitting and listening allows children and adults to create new neural pathways in their heads, thus skills are learnt and stored more deeply, leading to a greater ability for recall in the future and the fact that we can use LEGO bricks in all of our workshops, means there is always a practical element at the heart of our learning.

For first-timers, what would you say to them to tempt them into a visit?

For me, the most important factor of a school visit to the Resort is the fact that every child matters. No child who comes here is left out. No child leaves feeling they have not achieved something. No child is ever restricted by age, ability or gender and every single one of our workshops allows children to explore freely at their own level and challenge themselves and each other to achieve bigger and better things.

We have opened our workshops to children with a wide variety of educational and special educational needs, to children from different countries and ethnic backgrounds and religions and to the adults that accompany them all on their visits. Teachers and parents are learners too and it is just as important for us that they also leave having felt welcomed and perhaps rekindled that small child in all of us that remembers learning through play with LEGO Bricks.

We firmly believe that the Resort is a place where everybody can achieve through the medium of LEGO bricks and take away meaningful experiences and have a lot of fun in the process.