[dropcap type =”circle”]T[/dropcap]he Duchess of Marlborough hosted the prestigious Annual Heritage Awards celebrating academic excellence amongst primary school pupils. To award the prizes Her Grace inspects a large variety of work, which is submitted by students following their educational visits to Blenheim Palace.
Prizes are awarded for individual and group efforts; this year prizes were awarded in History, Art, Literacy and Science.
Schools who attended included: Madley Brook CP School, Millbrook Primary School, St Michael’s C.E.Primary School, Woodstock C.E.Primary School, The Marlborough School and Abingdon & Witney College.
There were also individual prizes awarded to Bladon C.E. Primary School: Art & Science Prize,
Lady Barn House School: History Prize, and Middleton Cheney Primary Academy: Art & History Prize.
The event was attended by VIPs including Cllr Ian Hudspeth, and Cllr Cllr Frank Collingwood.
Her Grace, the Duchess of Marlborough said: “It was a pleasure to see so many talented school children and present them with their awards. I am proud of Blenheim Palace’s education programme and it is inspiring to see the work that the students produce following a visit to the Palace.”
Karen Wiseman, Head of Education said: “This year we welcomed a remarkably interesting body of work, making judging for the final prize-giving very tough! Our education programme continues to grow and we look forward to seeing what will be submitted next year.”
Blenheim Palace has been supporting education for many years, with its most popular ‘school visit’ being life at Blenheim Palace during World War II. The evacuees of Malvern slept in the Long Library, studied in the Staterooms, and enjoyed P.E. lessons on the Grand Court and South Lawn. They resided here between 1939 and 1940.
Blenheim Palace delivers enriching and engaging educational visits, and welcomes over 30,000 school children to the Palace per year.
