In the late 19th century the founders of the National Trust spoke of preserving the coastline, countryside and buildings for “recreation and instruction”.

However, as the years passed the Trust’s focus on instruction slipped a bit and only now is interest in education re-emerging.

A new director-general, Fiona Reynolds, began work in January by reasserting that one of the organisation’s core aims is to offer lifelong learning and education.

The other two aims are also educational: regenerating the countryside and deepening under- standing of the nation’s landscape and heritage.

Today the trust is striving to shed its cosy, middle-class image and find ever more relevant ways of reaching out to all sections of society. Laura Hetherington, head of education, says the trust is working with new audiences and people who have not traditionally visited its properties.

“There was a phase when education was not seen to be as important as it is now,” Ms Hetherington said. “Then the focus was on schools and children. During the past 10 years the focus has shifted again. Schools are still very important but now we must reach all audiences. We must return to the aims of our founders and give the nation access to its cultural heritage and the countryside.”

As well as sharing the economic and social history of more than 200 buildings and gardens, some 612,000 acres of countryside and more than 600 miles of coastline, the trust wants to share the skills of its staff and volunteers.

“Our staff and volunteers have a vast array of skills in conservation, building, farming, etc. We really need to be sharing that. We need to find new ways of making the trust relevant and of reaching out to and involving communities in helping us interpret the properties.

“We want to say to people: ‘How would you like to interpret the property?’ What stories would you like to see told?” Examples of the new audience the trust is striving to reach are found in a initiative called London Links. This involves reaching out to four groups in the community - refugees, the homeless, people with mental health problems and very young children - with whom the trust normally has little contact.

“The initiative explores the theme of being neighbours and connecting to people,” Ms Hetherington said. “London is actually crammed full of people with very little connection to each other.

“We have been using a number of different art forms to work with groups in four of our properties.”

In Ham House, a grand Stuart house on the banks of the Thames near Richmond, children of Kosovan and Afghanistani refugees worked with puppeteer Helen Manners to make puppets, create scenery and tell stories. The experience of Charles II, who is associated with Ham House, was used to help the children connect with the building. The king was forced to flee to France during the English Civil War, mirroring the story of the children whose families fled to the United Kingdom.

Older children were encouraged to act as translators for younger participants with little spoken English.

Elsewhere at 2 Willow Road, Hampstead, Erno Goldfinger’s exceptional home built in 1939 was the setting and inspiration for work with a group of people with mental problems. Professional artists drew individual creative responses to the house and its unique collection of modern art.

Artists are also to work with three groups of homeless people in a Tudor mansion, Sutton House, in Hackney. In the 1980s the house was a squat and one of the groups invited consists of ex-squatters. They will write, take photographs and create soundscapes.

In Morden Hall Park in urban south west London, Pillar Box, a mother and toddler group from Colliers Wood, have been working with storyteller Kevin Graal and illustrator Rosie Casselden to produce children’s books inspired by the park’s wildlife.

London Links aims to help people tackle issues of social exclusion by exploring the theme of Connecting People through Place. An important element of this will be the coming together of all the participants for a final performance and exhibition at Sutton House in July.

The project is just one of a range of educational activities the trust sponsors. Other schemes include its Norwich Union Guardianship programme, whereby countryside properties have a long-term link with a local school.

The trust has also launched a Science in Trust programme to chime in with the Department for Education and Skills Science Year which started in September. “We run a number of programmes to explain to pupils how we conserve our properties,” Ms Hetherington said. “We look at the science behind conservation. We explain why we ask people not to touch and why we keep the blinds down. What the effects of light, heat and grease are.”

The trust also has a three-year partnership with the Rambert Dance Company, which involves dancers expressing through dance how community groups feel about particular trust properties.

An unusual partnership with the University of Derby has led to the creation of a graduate theatre company to give drama students the administration, financial and communication skills necessary to run their own company.

The company, called Stepping Stones, is taking out a theatre in education performance entitled Whose Land is it Anyway? to its country properties. This production explores issues of access and conservation.

The trust has its own theatre company as well - the National Trust Theatre Company - which this year toured a theatre in education programme in the trust’s gardens. The production, Mud, Mulch and Marigolds, takes a wry look at armchair television gardening and explores issues of sustainability.

The trust also has a number of live interpretation programmes where costumed characters meet visitors at Trust houses. For example, in Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, a grand 18th century house, the housekeeper, Mrs Garnett, welcomes visitors in the way they would have been welcomed in that period. This was seen to be the way to introduce contemporary visitors to the concept of the house not as a home, but as a status symbol.