Skip to content

Primary schools

Inspire your class to engage with real objects, animals and artefacts

Plan and book your visit to Manchester Museum

Primary Learning at Manchester Museum

All school groups must book their visit in advance.

Bookings for 2025-2026 will open in June 2025. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to hear when bookings open!

Our Primary Learning Programme is all built around crucial museum skills: LOOK closely, CONNECT with your experiences, EXPLAIN what you think, and WONDER at what we could learn next

… all wrapped around some exciting BIG QUESTIONS.

There are lots of ways to answer these questions and arrange your visit to us. You can:

  • Book a free, Self-Led Visit with a Big Question package added on, to receive pre-visit videos and activities, a resource bag to use when you come to us, and an invitation to a free livestreamed event with museum curators. (FREE)
  • Book a Workshop to receive all of the above Big Question package, but receive a museum-facilitated workshop instead of the resource bag during your museum visit. (Available for selected Big Questions.) (£)
  • Book a Takeover Monday for a full package of activities while the museum is closed to the public. (££)

Pick your topic to find out more:

Takeover Monday

On selected Mondays, Manchester Museum is dedicated entirely to schools! Our Schools’ Takeover Days include packed timetables of cross-curricular themed activities including hands-on object handling, curator Q&As, gallery games and lots more.

Our new Big Question for Takeover Mondays is:

KS2: What’s Found Under the Ground?

This brand-new Takeover theme for 2025-2026 is a playful and exciting way to enhance Science and History topics including:

  • Rocks
  • Fossils
  • Pre-history
  • Animals and Plants

Bookings coming soon: £250

Sign up to our newsletter to be first to hear about future Schools’ Takeover themes.

RETURN TO TOP

Fossils and Dinosaurs

Our amazing Fossils and Dinosaurs galleries – featuring Stan the T Rex and April the Tenontosaurus, as well as ichthyosaurs, pterosaurs, a fossilised tree, and much more – are fantastic places to get your kids excited and inspired to be palaeontologists!

Choose your Big Question and whether you’d like a free Self-Led package or a Workshop to arrange your booking with us:

KS1: How do we learn about dinosaurs?

This is a playful, engaging place to start younger children thinking about dinosaurs, fossils and what a museum is all about!

KS1/2: Is April the Tenontosaurus real?

This package goes into a little more detail, thinking about the history of our newest prehistoric resident, and linking to topics such as “Living, Dead and Never Alive” and fossil formation.

KS2: Are birds dinosaurs?

This is a great package for upper KS2, linking to Adaptation and Evolution topics.

 

Are none of these Big Questions quite right for your topic?

You can plan your own Fossils and Dinosaurs visit around a standard Self-Led booking instead. We’re on-hand if you’d like to discuss your planning at any stage.

RETURN TO TOP

Ancient Egypt

Our collection of 18,000 objects from ancient Egypt tells stories of the people we now call ‘ancient Egyptians’, illustrating both everyday life and preparations for the afterlife.

Our Big Question for Ancient Egypt topics is:

KS2: Which is the most important ancient Egyptian artefact in Manchester Museum?

Children will need to decide what they we mean by ‘important’ and investigate as many artefacts as they can, before deciding their answer!

 

Is this Big Questions not quite right for your topic?

You can plan your own Ancient Egypt visit around a standard Self-Led booking instead. We’re on-hand if you’d like to discuss your planning at any stage.

RETURN TO TOP

Animals and Plants

From tiny (live!) golden mantella frogs to a huge sperm whale skeleton, and from a fossilised tree trunk to taxidermied snakes, lions and polar bears … we are a great place for pupils to wonder at plants and animals from across the globe and throughout history.

Our Big Question for Animals and Plants topics is:

KS2: Which is the most important scientific specimen in Manchester Museum?

Children will practice taking observational drawings and notes on scientific specimens, and work together to decide what they mean by ‘important’. This package could enhance all kinds of science topics!

 

Is this Big Question not quite right for your topic?

If this question isn’t quite right for your class, you can plan your own Animals and Plants visit around a standard Self-Led booking instead. We’re on-hand if you’d like to discuss your planning at any stage.

RETURN TO TOP

Museums, Careers and Life Skills

Museum careers go way beyond ‘curator’. Did you know that we have designers, marketing specialists, educators, chefs, joiners and many more professions all working here? Museum visits can also allow pupils many important life experiences: navigating a public building, ordering a café, choosing a gift in the shop, and much more.

Our Big Question for a Museums, Careers and Life Skills topic is:

KS2/SEND: Who makes Manchester Museum?

 

Is this Big Question not quite right for your topic?

If this question isn’t quite right for your class, you can plan your own Museums, Careers and Life Skills topic visit around a standard Self-Led booking instead. We’re on-hand if you’d like to discuss your planning at any stage.

RETURN TO TOP

Other topic / General Visit

Of course there are many other reasons for visiting Manchester Museum!

We ask all groups to book their visit in advance. Please click the most appropriate link below to make your booking. Please note that every class will be given a timetable to ensure the comfort of your group and of other visitors to the Museum.

  • Self-Led Small Group (under 12 pupils) (BOOKINGS OPENING SOON!)
  • Self-Led Full Class Full Day (BOOKINGS OPENING SOON!)
  • Self-Led After 1.30pm (BOOKINGS OPENING SOON!)
  • Teacher planning sessions (BOOKINGS OPENING SOON!)

RETURN TO TOP

Things to know before you visit

Getting here   

There is a drop-off point for coaches outside the museum on Oxford Road. Minibuses can park at Cecil Street car park. The museum is also on a major bus route and a short walk from rail and tram stops. 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. For our Primary Workshops, please also refer to our Workshop Risk Assessment. You are welcome to arrange booking 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. 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 during their visit. 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 and the map for schools (including the Zones referred to on your timetable).
  • There is a picnic area on the ground floor next to the Main Hall. Space 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. You can pre-book goodie bags starting from £3 per child after you have made your booking.
  • 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.

Manchester Museum Location Map

View larger map

Get directions

Share this via

Sign up to our newsletter

Be the first to find out about events, exhibitions and museum news

Donate

You can help us care for our collections and bring joy and inspiration to people in Manchester and beyond.

As one of the UK’s largest university museums, we care for over 4.5 million objects, with an internationally-important collection spanning from Archaeology to Zoology, and nearly everything in between. We work with communities, support university students and schools in Manchester and beyond and we are a free, inclusive museum for all. But we need your help. Every object we care for, exhibition, school visit and community event comes at a cost, and you can help make the museum as ambitious and impactful as possible.

DONATE TODAY