Children from a Kent primary got to walk in the shoes of the Victorian explorer who founded Thanet’s Powell-Cotton Museum after winning a county-wide green-travel challenge.

Pevensey class at Bromstone Primary School in Broadstairs were treated to a special workshop by the museum after winning the challenge with the KM Charity Team’s Active Wow initiative.

Classes at schools across Kent competed to see which could record the highest number of green-travel journeys on January 29, with Pevensey class coming top.

Powell-Cotton Museum learning and engagement officer Fiona Moore took a cabinet of curiosities from the venue’s natural-history collection to the school for a pop-up museum experience.

The children were tasked with imagining they were explorers in the mould of the museum’s Victorian founder, Percy Powell-Cotton.

Fiona said: “I had a brilliant time with the children. The class was really engaged and enjoyed the session.

“It’s a privilege to support the KM Charity’s Active WOW initiative. The challenges are fun and show children that their actions really can make a difference.”

Fiona took along a collection of stuffed birds, skulls, skins, and hides collected by Powell-Cotton during his travels in Africa and Asia.

Active Wow encourages families to walk to school, with participating schools’ classes competing each week to be awarded a green class of the week trophy.

Monthly inter-school green-travel challenges award winning prizes including celebrity story-time sessions and tickets to or experiences with leisure attractions such as Diggerland and Wildwood.

The scheme is supported by Volker Highways, Countrystyle Recycling, Golding Vision, Specsavers, Kent, Maidstone, Medway and Ashford councils, the Morrisons Foundation, Buckland Media, Ashford International Hotel and the Education People.

Find out more at Kmwalktoschool.co.uk or by contacting Active Wow coordinator Kathy Beel at KBeel@thekmgroup.co.uk or on 01227 475966.