Education groups can benefit from cheaper access to National Trust properties. Membership of the scheme is available to all non-profit-making education groups with full-time students. Subscription rates for statutory-aged education are banded according to the number of students on role and are charged at pound;14-pound;45. Each Education Group Member will receive:

* Free entry to all NT properties

* Education handbook

* Time Tracks (bi-annual magazine)

* National Trust members’ magazine three times a year

* Trust Tracks poster and factsheet

* NT members’ handbook

* The opportunity for two group leaders to make planning visits to properties in preparation for their booked group visit.

Members also have access to Education and Learning officers who can help plan visits or lead on-site activities.

For more information, contact: The National Trust Membership Dept, PO Box 39, Bromley, Kent BR1 3XL; Tel: 0870 458 4000.

National Trust website

The National Trust has a Learning and Discovery website to help in planning curriculum-based activity. The site has three interactive games: Pest Detective, Arranging Rooms and Whose Land is it Anyway? Each game has curriculum links, including Education for Sustain- ability, Science, History and Citizenship.

Under the header “learning” there is a drop-down menu giving access to pages for teachers. Within these pages is the facility to search for Education Visit options, as well as resources, curriculum links and pages dedicated to supporting students.

www.nationaltrust.org.uklearninganddiscovery

Theatre partnerships

Whose Land Is It Anyway? is a participatory performance for key stage 3 and 4 pupils by Stepping Stones, a partnership between the National Trust and the University of Derby. It explores issues of sustainable development, the environment, land use and individual responsibility. Bookings are available for June 20 at Hughenden Manor (Bucks), July 1 and 3 at Coleshill Estate (Oxon) and July 11 at Frog Firle Farm in East Sussex.

For further information and to book, contact Stepping Stones on 01332 592096; or email: enquiries@steppingstonestheatre.org.uk

National Trust Theatre

The National Trust Theatre has been a professional company for more than 25 years. Its performance of Mud, Mulch and Marigolds (reviewed in The TES, May 2001) is touring National Trust gardens in June and July. The production invites key stage 3 pupils to take the role of an outside broadcast audience in a fictional TV gardening programme. It supports the citizenship and geography curriculum, tackling issues of human impact on the local environment, bio-diversity and the media in society. Bookings are available for Beningborough Hall, York on June 12 and 13; Nostell Priory, near Wakefield, on June 18, 19 and 20; and Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire on July 16, 17 and 18.

For further information and to book, telephone 020 8986 0242.