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Primary schools

Here you’ll find school resources, our Carbon Ruins competition and information to help you plan your visit.

Resources, activities and visits

Free self-led visits

Cost: free

We want to support educators to make the very most of a museum visit and explore the galleries at your own pace.  All self-led visits will include access to galleries (including time in the Golden Mummies of Egypt exhibition) and a short ‘welcome to the museum’ in the Belonging Gallery on arrival.  

Self-led visits can be enhanced through the use of a range of free resources. A welcome film will show you what to expect when you arrive and downloadable resource packs are available to use before, during and after a self-led visit. More self-led resources will be released throughout 2023. Sign up to our Primary e-newsletter to find out more

To book a self-led school visit, please complete our booking form.

 

The Big Questions

Cost: free

The Big Question is the ultimate way to enhance your self-led visit to Manchester Museum. Bring your topic to life and connect with our curators through a combination of free pre-and post-visit resources, all helping your pupils to look, connect, explain and wonder.  

A short film presented by one of our curators will frame your museum visit around an open-ended enquiry prompt that will support you to plan a whole topic linked to the collection. Alongside this you will have access to a downloadable (and editable) resource pack to help introduce the enquiry question before visiting with simple classroom activities, ideas for using the galleries during your visit, and prompts to use back at school. Feedback your ideas, answers and questions to us at the end of your project, with museum-led livestreams coming in summer 2023.   

Find out more about our Big Questions.

To request a self-led visit with The Big Question, please complete our booking form.

 

Monday takeovers

Cost: £250 per class  

On selected Mondays our museum is dedicated entirely to schools! Bring your class for a whole day at the museum to explore a particular theme, through gallery time, object handling, trails and a chance to meet the curator.  

Themes: 

  • 22 May – Golden Mummies of Egypt 
  • 5 June – Our Shared Environment  
  • 26 June – Golden Mummies of Egypt
  • 10 July – Golden Mummies of Egypt 

More details about our Monday Takeovers will be released soon. Sign up to our Primary e-newsletter to find out more.

To request more information, please complete an enquiry form .

 

Inflatable Museum

1 class in a day: £250 
2 classes in a day: £380 
3 classes in a day: £500 

The wondrous Inflatable Museum is an immersive learning environment designed to bring the wonder and imagination of Manchester Museum to school halls across Greater Manchester.  It can accommodate a full school class and their accompanying adult helpers; approximately 36 people in total. We can visit schools within 30 minutes’ drive time from M13 9PL.  

We offer two sessions: Our Ancient Egypt workshop will ask your class to take on the roles of Egyptologists and Curators and, using object handling and team work, they will create their own Museum of Egyptology. In our Curious Classification Workshop your students will use our taxidermy handling collection to explore different ways of approaching classifying and grouping creatures from around the world.

To book the Inflatable Museum, please complete our booking form.

Find out more about the Inflatable Museum and how it works.

 

Pop-up Healing Chapel

  • 1 class in a day: £250 
  • 2 classes in a day: £380 
  • 3 classes in a day: £500 

Our Pop-Up Museum recreates an ancient Egyptian ‘Healing Chapel’ in your school hall. The workshop uses real artefacts, an interactive trail and more to compare how the ancient Egyptians kept well with how we look after ourselves today. This workshop is a great way to build on an ancient civilisations topic whilst supporting class discussions about wellbeing.   

Find out more about the Pop-up Healing Chapel.

To book the Healing Chapel, please complete our booking form.

Carbon ruins

Imagine a future zero carbon world where we’ve learned to live more sustainably

In a Museum for the Future, what object would you include to show how society has changed to reach zero carbon? What is the story behind that object?

Carbon Ruins Manchester is our new project for KS2-4 that will create this exhibition, showing what a future museum would display.

We are calling for every school in Manchester to submit the object they would like to be displayed in the Carbon Ruins Manchester exhibition. Just like the ancient and extinct objects and specimens that you will find in Manchester Museum, the Carbon Ruins Manchester exhibition will display items that are familiar today but, in a fossil-free future world, will be obsolete. Your pupils and students will become the curators for this exhibition; selecting one single object that represents the change that they believe must happen in order for us to reach zero carbon.

 

Find out more and get involved

Things to know before you visit

Getting here   

There is a drop-off point for coaches outside the museum on Oxford Road. Mini buses can park at Cecil street car park. The museum is also on a major bus route and a short walk from rail and tram spots. Plan your visit here.

There is limited disabled parking available for school group transport. Please contact school.bookings@manchester.ac.uk to discuss this or include this information in your booking or enquiry.

Space for everyone   

  • All of our programming has been made with SEND in mind.
  • We are working on video tours and additional information to support students with SEND and help them prepare for a visit to the museum.
  • Our lifts offer step-free access to all museum spaces.
  • Please let us know of any access requirements when you book your visit.
  • More information on accessibility can be found here

Risk assessments and group visits   

  •  Our Museum Hazard ID document and General Site Risk Assessment are available to support you to produce your own risk assessment for your visit. You are welcome to arrange book a site visit ahead of your school visit to carry out your risk assessment and we are happy to arrange for you to meet a member of the team to discuss this: please email school.bookings@manchester.ac.uk to arrange this.
  • Teachers (or other accompanying adults) remain responsible for the general health and safety of children, as at school. Teachers (or other adults) should remain with their primary and secondary school groups at all times.
  • The minimum adult to pupil ratios that we recommend for schools visits is: 1:6 for Early Years & KS1; 1:8 for KS2, 1:15 for KS3, KS4 & Post-16. Note this excludes adults providing 1:1 support.

Facilities  

  • View the museum map here.
  • There is a picnic area and café on the ground floor next to the Main Hall. Space for school groups will be allocated for school groups through the booking process.
  • The Museum Shop is full of souvenirs inspired by our collections and prices start from 50p.
  • There is a water fountain in the Welcome area.
  • We are able to arrange for storage of coats, bags and lunches for school groups through the booking process.
  • We have lots of toilets throughout the museum including a fully accessible Changing Places toilet and all-gender toilets

Find more information to help with your visit.

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