5 best educational days out

As a tutor, one of the hardest things can be motivating your students and making the topics come truly alive for them. But placing study in context, or providing the opportunity to be hands-on, can be hugely beneficial to a student's retention of the topic. Here we pick the best 5 days out, not including museums, nationwide.

1. Historic Royal Palaces - Actually five attractions in one, HRP looks after the most exciting of the country's old royal homes including Hampton Court, Henry VIII's stronghold and the notorious Tower of London, complete with Beefeater tours.

2. The Eden Project - A theme-park of plants, constructed in a worked-out mine pit to showcase sustainable building methods. This park, with its bubble-like biomes explores the relationship between nature and humanity.

3. MAGNA Science Adventure Centre - Housed in an old steelworks, MAGNA lets you explore science, using the framework of the four elements, Earth, Air, Fire, Water. A fifth zone, power, completes the experience.

4. Portsmouth Historic Dockyard - Located on one of only three operating Naval bases in the UK, part of this Portsmouth site is given over to the Royal Naval Museum. It is most famous for housing the ghostly wreck of Henry VIII's warship, the Mary Rose and Nelson's impressive flagship HMS Victory.

5. Ironbridge and Blist's Hill - The first cast iron arch bridge in the world is an awe-inspiring site and a powerful icon of the Industrial Revolution, the nearby museum tells its story. Just up the road is the fantastic Blist's Hill, an open-air re-creation of a Victorian village - complete with sweetshop.