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News | 25 September 2026
Our Hands-on History summer course for teachers
This summer we once again welcomed primary school teachers to Hands-on History, our five-day Department of Education and EPV-approved summer course for history teachers.
Building on the success of the course in 2025, we ran it twice this year, with 34 teachers taking part in total. The course explores our projects and programmes, and the ways they can be used to teach history, including our social history museum 14 Henrietta Street and our history-based programming at Richmond Barracks and across the city with our Historian in Residence for Children.
During the course, the teachers went on guided tours, took part in interactive history workshops and games, and had the opportunity to carry out their own local history research. They left the course with lots of new ideas for places to visit with classes, resources to use in the classroom, new ideas for activity-based learning, and experience of undertaking history research.
Here’s what some of the teachers on the courses this year had to say:
A fantastic course from start to finish. Very interesting topics with great tips and ideas on how to bring history into our classrooms and bring our classes out and about on trips. The facilitators were all so friendly and welcoming and there was a lovely warm atmosphere within the entire group - would highly recommend!
Super course, beneficial to all teachers and will be sharing with colleagues in my own school. Opened my eyes to the many resources available around Dublin and further afield.
It was a wonderfully enjoyable course - meaningful, factual, active.
There were also plenty of opportunities to share ideas with likeminded teachers and with us at the Culture Company. They participated in a Tea & Chats session, discussing their thoughts on what schools need to access culture both inside and outside the classroom.
This was invaluable for us as a way to find out more about what we can do to support teachers.
Throughout the week, the teachers met and worked with our Education and Learning Manager, Historians in Residence, Tour Guides, Engagement Coordinators, and others across the Culture Company. This brought a wide range of different types of expertise to the course for the teachers to engage with and learn from.
The courses were hugely successful, as we explored the history of Dublin and the ways we can make history a fun and engaging subject.
Schools resources
We look forward to welcoming more teachers to take part in our course next summer, but in the meantime, teachers can avail of lots of different resources across the buildings and programmes of Dublin City Council Culture Company.
This includes 14 Henrietta Street’s school tours and online teacher resources. These resources include photos, video clips, oral history excerpts, and other historical sources, and are divided into primary school, junior cycle, transition year, and leaving cert. They are available in English and as Gaeilge. You can access our resources here or pick them up on a visit to 14 Henrietta Street.
Teachers can book classes onto our primary school tours of Goldenbridge Cemetery, Inchicore. Dublin-based schools can also avail of free history workshops and projects with the Historian in Residence for Children.
We also invite Dublin-based schools to take part in our special adapted version of our Tea & Chats programme, where children and young people can take part in a free, interactive workshop to share their views on the city and culture.
To get involved with any of our school programmes, or to find out more information, you can contact us at education@dublincitycouncilculturecompany.ie