A new educational venture is set to be launched at the first home of Wisbech’s most celebrated daughter.
Octavia Hill's Birthplace House, a museum dedicated to the memory of the social reformer and co-founder of the National Trust at 7 South Brink, is preparing to host a series of Wisbech Weekend Workshops.
The 3W project will reflect "the values of Octavia's parents, who helped to change the face of education in the town".
Two English classes will kick-start the educational programme on a Saturday morning.
A Saturday School for Year 10 students studying GCSE AQA English Language will run from 9am to 10am, offering support to work already being carried out in schools as well as for home-schooled pupils.
An English help shop, taking place from 10.30am to 11.30am on Saturday mornings, is designed for speakers of other languages who wish to build their skills and confidence in English.
Peter Clayton, chairman of the Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum Trust, said: "The distinguishing feature of Octavia Hill's life and work was that she identified community needs and responded to them herself without waiting for others to do it.
"In the Birthplace House we already attempt to address such demands, but the new 3W Saturday morning classes will feature needs that are either not being addressed at all or being catered for inadequately or at times inconvenient to most working people."
Other workshops are set to include how-to-do practical sessions, heritage and craft skills and a variety of community support groups.
Octavia's father, James Hill, built an infant school which was run by his wife, Caroline, the first Englishwoman to teach using the methods of the Swiss pedagogue, Johann Pestalozzi.
The school building, now the home of the Angles Theatre, also reached out to a wider age group and was open in the evenings as the 'hall for the people', a community centre for adult education and recreation.
A question and answer and registration session about the 3W Project will run from 10am to 12 noon on October 12, with the same the following week on October 19.
Classes start on October 26.
Email info@octaviahill.org with 3W in the subject line or call 01945 476358 for more information.
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