Light Up Education Team

I've been working with children and in performance since I was a teenager and always had a fascination with history. Following both GCSE and A-level history courses, I chose to do History and Politics when I went to university. When given the opportunity a few years later, I did a second degree in history through the OU.

One of my other passions has always been heritage steam, I have volunteered at a local railway museum and got myself into helping with and then managing the school visits in between my job as a party entertainer.

In June 2018, two of my very best friends both achieved their doctorates: one in zoology and conservation, the other in adolescent psychiatry. It lit the proverbial fire under my backside. Inspired by both of them and my employer, who has taken his company from a single-man operation to nationwide, I began to have a think...

Feeling motivated, I decided that I wanted to create something educational (like the museum visits), fun and exciting (like the parties) and history-based to tie into my knowledge and passion.

Peter Sawyer Living History was born in September 2018. I based my marketing material on the information that I produced for the railway museum and began to search for equipment and costume online. I found a free-to-use logo and I emailed around 250 schools offering Viking, Saxon and Medieval workshops and expected that I may get 1 or 2 enquiries. I had 10 in the first week. 

On 17th October 2018, I did my first Viking workshop for 60 Year 3 pupils in Harlow, Essex. Honestly, I bluffed my way through most of it. But I did it. By Christmas that year, I had done 10 workshops, gaining confidence every time. In the new year I was already getting recommendations and referrals and enquiries for new time periods. At Easter 2019, I introduced a Roman Centurion workshop and was blown away by the popularity. By the end of my first year, I had done 26 workshops- 16 more than I anticipated.

In September 2019, I added Greek workshops to the list- offering Athenian and Spartan options and made a conscious move to redesign and professionalise. The company colours changed from burnt orange and black to black, claret and white and I contacted almost 1,800 schools. I began to make plans to expand and diversify further as I had a very busy autumn. And then Covid hit, closing down schools and with all the attendant horrors and difficulties. Despite this, 2019 was busier than my first year.

Covid was personally devastating for me, losing friends and family members, but the restrictions meant that many schools wanted to keep education as engaging and exciting as possible and, despite losing almost 3 halfterms to lockdown, I had my busiest year, adding Tudor and Gladiator options to the workshop options. 

A lightbulb above the head is a long-established symbol of inspiration and new ideas and so it seemed like an ideal representation of my new ideas and next steps. Another colour change too: black, yellow and white!

I have always believed that the best way to learn anything is to experience it. I've witnessed the wonder and the retention of pupils during school visits to the railway museum and this was part of my motivation to create my workshops. It is not just history that this rings true for, so Light Up Education is exactly what I want to bring into schools: the opportunity for pupils to experience education and to give them the benefit of being immersed in the subjects.

Light Up Education also marks the end of my solo gig as I begin to take on extra help: this will allow the company to cover more of the country, offer lower prices as travel costs are reduced and offer more expertise and availability. 

My goal is to make Light Up Education the leading provider of educational workshops in the UK. In 2018, the whole thing was just a stupid idea. Next year....