Sam
2 Mar 2026
I visited Threemilestone Primary School in March as part of the Cornwall Week ahead of St Piran’s Day.
I had a great Cornwall Geologist Learning Geology event in March, where I was invited to run a series of sessions at Threemilestone Primary School during their Cornwall Week ahead of St Piran’s Day on the 5th of March.
These workshops, called “Cornwall Rocks!”, are designed to bring geology to life for students. Most people might love collecting rocks and minerals, but might not know what geology is! The workshop also relates how much the rocks beneath our feet here in Cornwall influence the landscape, history, industry, and culture around us.
The session starts off with an introduction to what geology is, and how to identify the main rock types – igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. I also take in lots of rocks (both Cornish and from around the world!) for students to get their hands on and learn how to identify them. We then bring it all back together with a newfound appreciation of what geology can tell us, and how it has influenced Cornwall.
Cornwall’s geology obviously has a huge influence on our mining history, and the story of St Piran (the patron saint of Cornwall) has its roots in geology as well! St Piran is also the patron saint of tin miners, being attributed to discovering tin in Cornwall (not quite historically accurate, as tin was being mined in Cornwall for 3,000 years before he came along!). The story goes he collected some black rocks to put around his fire, and was surprised to see a silvery-white liquid ooze out of them when they got hot. This is of course the tin mineral (the black rock), and the smelted tin metal (the silvery liquid), both are represented in Cornwall’s black and white flag.
I ran four sessions during the day, two to Year 2s and two to Year 4s. It was great fun and I was thoroughly impressed by the knowledge of the students. I was absolutely knackered at the end of it though! I have a huge amount of respect for primary school teachers who deal with that level of energy day in day out!
A huge thank you to the headteacher Suzannah Teagle for inviting me, and to teacher Mel Brown for organising the day. Another massive thank you to the brilliant students as well. I had a blast.
Learning Geology is the branch of Cornwall Geologist that provides geology and Earth science learning activities for all educational levels. These include classroom-based workshops and field trips. Find out more on our website - https://www.cornwallgeologist.co.uk/learning-geology
If you would like to book Cornwall Geologist for educational activities, please contact me at sam@cornwallgeologist.co.uk
