Education

Giving access to our heritage

Royal Mail is providing significant financial support for a new centre for The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA).

The new Postal Museum will provide access to the BPMA’s unique collections of 400 years of postal, social and design history, including photographs, posters, vehicles, postboxes, employment records of millions of people and a world-class stamp collection.

Under a plan endorsed by the Government, the new centre will be established at Calthorpe House on London’s Mount Pleasant site, where the country’s oldest mail centre is located. It is close to the existing home of the BPMA at Freeling House, which has very limited space for exhibitions and displays.

The new centre will allow the BPMA to exhibit objects from its fascinating museum collection, which is currently held in storage. It will also include educational facilities for visiting schools. 

Royal Mail Group will grant a lease of 999 years for Calthorpe House, a property which will provide a secure foundation for the BPMA once redeveloped and extended.

Agreements have been signed with Royal Mail and Post Office Ltd for a £6 million long term, low interest loan to fund the conversion of Calthorpe House to meet the basic needs of the organisation. In addition, Royal Mail and The Post Office are providing other support, including a £500,000 grant.

Supporting education

We supply free resources for teachers in primary and secondary schools across the UK.  Our free educational magazine, Teacher's Post, is distributed to more than 26,000 schools in the UK.

It highlights educational themes including addressing, letter writing and grammar and signposts to our resources designed to help with classroom exercises.

We also provide primary school education resources and activity packs, including letter writing, role play and reading, with supporting interactive materials for teachers. For more information, please visit the Teacher's Post website.   

Young Letter Writers Competition

Our Young Letter Writers Competition enthuses and engages thousands of pupils every year while helping improve their literacy.
The competition is open to Children aged 7-11 with a ‘Special Achievement’ category for children who have overcome exceptional difficulties to enter.