Education Resources / Schools Offer
Leas Lift Education Packs
The Leas Lift has been carrying passengers up and down Folkestone's cliff face since 1885. It's a story worth exploring in the classroom.
To help bring that story to life, we've created four Education Packs for Key Stage 2 pupils. Each pack is a ready-to-teach, cross-curricular resource, complete with lesson plans, presentations, hands-on activity materials, and everything a teacher needs to run an engaging session, with no preparation from scratch required.
Covering STEM, history, geography, and art, the packs use the Leas Lift as a real, local case study to bring national curriculum topics vividly to life. Every session is built around the kind of pupil discussion, dialogue, and cross-curricular thinking that today's classrooms, and Ofsted's own priorities, value most highly.
Each pack can be delivered as a standalone session in school, but they all work especially well alongside a visit to the Leas Lift itself, which can be added to your booking as an optional extra.
Browse the four packs below to find the right fit for your class.
Pack 1:
Victorian Seaside
Subjects: Science, Art & Design | Key Stage: 2 | Duration: Half day
Step back into the 1880s with the camera obscura — one of the Leas Lift's original seafront attractions. Pupils discover how light travels in straight lines to form an inverted image, drawing direct comparisons with how the human eye works. Then it's time to get creative: pupils dress up in Victorian-style hats they've made themselves, pose for a "photograph" using our camera obscura, and craft a decorative metallic photo frame to take their finished image home.
A brilliant blend of science and art, this pack gets pupils thinking like Victorian seaside visitors while grounding it in real optical principles.
Pack 2:
STEM — How the Lift Works
Subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths | Key Stage: 2 | Duration: Full day
How do you move a carriage up a cliff without an engine? Pupils find out by building their own working model of the Leas Lift's water-balanced funicular system. Working in pairs, they construct model carriages, then test and refine them using marbles to represent water and passenger weight — predicting, experimenting, and problem-solving like real engineers.
It's hands-on physics and engineering in action, rooted in a genuine piece of Victorian innovation right here in Folkestone.
Pack 3:
Local History
Subjects: History, Geography | Key Stage: 2 | Duration: Half day
Using a collection of genuine historical Folkestone postcards, pupils become history detectives — examining stamps, handwriting, and messages to piece together clues about the past. They plot postcard destinations on a map, build a class timeline, and explore how tourism, travel, and communication have changed over the decades. The session ends with pupils designing and writing their own Folkestone postcard.
This pack can be delivered in school or at Folkestone Library. Schools travelling from further afield can ask us about combining a visit with a day trip to Folkestone.
Pack 4:
Materials — Then and Now
Subjects: Science, History | Key Stage: 2 | Duration: Half day
What was everyday life really made of in the 1800s? Pupils investigate a handling collection of genuine Victorian and Edwardian objects, working out what they were used for and what materials they're made from — before comparing them to their 21st-century equivalents. Along the way, they explore big ideas about sustainability: durability, biodegradability, and single-use versus reusable design.
A hands-on introduction to materials science with a thought-provoking history and sustainability angle.
How to Get an Education Pack
Each Education Pack comes complete with everything needed to deliver the session — lesson plans, presentations, activity materials, and resource templates. A fee applies per pack to cover the cost of materials.
To find out more or to book a pack for your school, email us at hello@leaslift.co.uk letting us know:
- Which pack(s) you're interested in
- Your preferred date(s)
- Whether you'd like to add a visit to the Leas Lift as part of your session
We'll get back to you to confirm availability and arrange collection of the pack.
Packs are in high demand during term time, so we recommend getting in touch at least a term in advance of your planned session.
