A visit to the Brontë Parsonage Museum is a wonderful way to enrich your students' understanding of 'Jane Eyre', whether they're looking at extracts in Year 8 or preparing for their GCSEs.

Though an exciting and rewarding novel, 'Jane Eyre' can be a challenging text for key stage 3 and 4 students. Seeing where Charlotte grew up, visiting the rooms where she put pen to paper, and engaging in our walks, talks, and workshops, can help bring the book to life for your students and really engage their enthusiasm.

Aside from 'Jane Eyre', the Parsonage and its setting is also a rich source of evidence for History studies. Haworth is a fascinating example of a rural village which, in the Brontës' day, was undergoing transformation through the industrialisation of the textile industry.

Choose from our options below to give your students a memorable and enriching learning visit.

Please email [email protected] to arrange your trip and include 'learning visit' in the subject line.

Talks, walks and workshops

Context talk: 'Jane Eyre' - KS3/4 English Literature (45 minutes)

As a writer, Charlotte Brontë often drew on her own experiences. She faced many obstacles, such as having little money, and the lack of choices for young women at the time. But she had plenty of inspiration too: the books and journals she grew up reading, the landscape surrounding her… and falling in love!

Perhaps her most important inspiration was her own siblings, collaborating with them as children and creating stories around an imaginary world which sparked Charlotte’s love of writing.

This informal talk explores some of themes and influences in 'Jane Eyre' by relating them to Charlotte’s life, and the changing world she and her sisters were living in.

Guided walk: KS3/4 English Literature or KS3 History (45 minutes)

Explore the historic and atmospheric village of Haworth, in which Charlotte and her siblings lived almost their entire lives.

Find out about the overpopulated churchyard only a garden away from the Parsonage, and the grim story it reveals about life and death in Haworth - as well as what Babbage tells us about the conditions in the crowded cottages and terraces of Main Street.

Students will build a picture of life here which shaped how Charlotte Brontë saw the world, as well as providing fascinating evidence for History studies.

Creative writing workshops: KS3/4 English Literature (1 hour)

Where better to flex your creative writing muscles than the home of the Brontës? Choose one of the workshops below:

Gothic

Beginning with some spooky writing exercises, we move on to look at passages from the Brontës’ writing. How do they build atmosphere and mystery in their descriptions? How do they create their eerie, uncanny effects?

The students will then write their own blood-curdling Parsonage-based ghost story!

I Am…

We have an amazing collection here at the Museum of all kinds of artefacts, each with its own intriguing story to tell. In this workshop, the students will choose their own artefact and, with help from sources, build a story around it.

Nature writing

The Brontës loved nature – walking in it, reading about it, and writing about it.

Get out into the landscape that inspired the Brontës and look, listen and breathe…! Shut out distractions and focus in on the details around you. We'll then turn these impressions into haikus.