Paultons Park, the UK’s number one family theme park, has bolstered its schools offer with the development and launch of two new, bespoke KS3-appropriate maths workshops.
The attraction’s team of in-house secondary education specialists has created workshops to complement the KS3 curriculum and bring the subject to life. The new programmes, based on statistics, speed, distance and time, use Paultons Park’s real data to demonstrate maths in action.
Pupils learn how statistics are used across the park, how to interpret and compare different statistical diagrams (pie charts, bar charts, scatter graphs and time series graphs), and explore how data informs decision making.
Andrew Chapman, education and sales manager at Paultons Park, said: “Our new workshops are designed to prove the role maths plays in real life problem solving and decision making. For our secondary school students, we want to inspire a love for numbers and demonstrate the importance of the subject for a variety of exciting and inspiring careers.”
The addition of the KS3 workshops follows the announcement of Paultons Park’s largest investment to date; Valgard – Realm of the Vikings. The £12 million themed world sees the introduction of two new rides and is aimed at older children and teenagers.
Valgard opens in spring 2026 and features Paultons Park’s first inverting rollercoaster. Drakon is set to become the park’s most thrilling ride with a vertical lift hill and two twists taking riders upside down. The new world also includes a brand-new Vild Swing that swirls riders 12 metres in the air, a themed high-capacity restaurant, and a new playground for younger visitors to enjoy. Valgard sees the retheming of Cobra, a famous favourite ride at Paultons Park, into a bobsled adventure. The ride will be renamed Raven to complement the Viking village experience.
In May 2025, Paultons Park’s Learning Outside of the Classroom Quality badge was successfully renewed. The attraction has retained the badge for six years, demonstrating the quality of risk management and educational provision at Paultons Park.
Andrew added: “The New Forest is a fantastic destination for school trips. We have lots of schools from the southwest joining us for the day, while many groups visit us as part of a wider residential trip. We’re proud to attract schools from across the UK and from as far as Blackpool.
“Our education package is designed to be exciting for students and straightforward for teachers. We purposefully manage capacity in the park each day, ensuring students spend their time on the rides, not queuing for them.
“Parking for school coaches is free, and we invoice schools after their trip for only the number of children that actually entered the park. With family values at our core, but with plenty of attractions to excite a range of year groups, we strive to offer a relaxed, easy, and safe destination for schools.”
Paultons Park delivers a range of curriculum-based workshops from its Professor Blast’s Learning Lab – the UK’s first dedicated interactive education facility in a theme park. Outside of the classroom, students can enjoy over 70 rides and attractions as well as discover a range of gardens, birds, and animals.
New for 2025 is Paultons Park’s first ever indoor dark ride, Ghostly Manor. The latest attraction adds to the theme park’s five themed worlds. Alongside the hugely popular Peppa Pig World, Paultons is home to Midwestern Americana themed Tornado Springs, famous for its free-spinning Cyclonator ride that reaches heights of 25 meters and thrilling Storm Chaser rollercoaster.
Students can immerse themselves in Wild Lands, home to a variety of animals including Fennec Fox and Slender-tailed meerkats, and discover the curious creatures of Critter Creek. The park’s dinosaur themed world, Lost Kingdom welcomed the mini log flume Splash Lagoon in 2024, expanding the offering for primary school visitors.
Paultons Park is situated near several convenient transport links into Southampton and Portsmouth and is also a short two-hour coach journey from London.
Teachers can find out more information on the Paultons Park website: paultonspark.co.uk/tickets/school-trips/
