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Museums for Schools

 

Sandwell Museum Service provides a wide range of activities for schools. Scroll down the page to find out more information and click to print off our booking forms and guidance notes.

Children making foodChildren cleaning dressed in Victorian costumes
Children writing, dressed in period costumesChildren sampling food

Scroll down this page to find out what we have to offer.

Why Bring Your Class to a Museum?

  • Museums offer a unique learning environment where children can learn in a completely different way to how they would learn in the classroom.
  • Museums can inspire and motivate.
  • Museums can stimulate all the senses, as well as nurture creativity.
  • Activity sessions in museums can provide an holistic approach to learning, working accross the curriculum at the same time, using topics from history and art, to speaking and listening, creativity, English and citizenship. They can cover whole topics in a few hours.
  • Museum work can also be the basis of projects and follow up work back at school, including ICT and design and technology.
  • Children who often find traditional classroom based activities difficult respond well to the hands on and visual nature of museum visits.
  • Museums offer children a taste of the past which they can see, smell, touch and hear.

Why Visit Sandwell Museums?

Sandwell museum offer a wide range of activities across our sites as well as loan boxes covering a wide range of topics. Our sessions have been carefully tailored to meet the needs of the national curriculum for different key stages and we aim to continuously develop them by listening to teachers and children to meet changing needs. We are also very happy to work with teachers on specific one-off projects at any of our sites.

What we have to offer:

Keep checking this site as we are developing new activities all the time!

Please click the links below for more information, booking forms and guidance notes or call the relevant site.

  • The Oak House - 0121 553 0759
  • Haden Hill House - 01384 569 444
  • Wednesbury Museum & Art Gallery - 0121 556 0683
  • Galton Valley Canal Heritage Centre -0121 558 8195

Cheap Coaches for Sandwell Schools!!

We have negotiated a deal with a coach company through Sandwell's passenger transport unit for cheaper deals for Sandwell schools to visit Sandwell museums main sites. This means that Sandwells schools can visit our site with a coach fair of just £109. Call one of our sites for details.

Victorian Living History for KS2 at Haden Hill House

Children from different social backgrounds in Victorian times. The children travel back to 1855 and live the lives of Victorian children from different social baackgrounds. Will they be an urchin, a servant or a lady or gentleman? The day is undertaken in costume and in character.

Victorian Time Travelling for KS1 at Haden Hill House

Victorian Time Travelling enables children to travel back to Victorian times and visit the house long ago, meeting real Victorian characters to learn about toys and homes. Staff are in character and children are all given a costume.

Tudor Living History for KS2 at The Oak House

This session enables children to learn about the past in the best possible way - by stepping into it. The children become either rich Tudor children or poor servants in Tudor times and the session is undertaken in costume and in character

Tudor Time Travelling at KS1

The children travel back to the Oak House in Tudor times to learn about houses and homes and toys long ago. The children meet Tudor characters and have their own costume to wear (Suitable for year 2 and year 1 in the summer term). 

Home Front. A look at life during World War II on the Home Front  - at Haden Hill House

A look at life at home in World War II with a day of varied activities which give the children a chance of handling real and replica items

  • Learn more about our Home Front sessions and see some photographs, and print off a booking form and guidance notes.
  • If you have visited us before and would just like a booking form click the Home Front booking Form link. 
  • We also now have a teacher and pupil resource site at www.homefrontinsandwell.org to use after your visit or as a stand alone session.

A Taste of Homes in the past for KS1

Bring your KS1 class to Haden Hill House for a morning learning about homes long ago. The children will undertake three activities including taking a tour of the house led by museum staff, learning about housework in the housekeeper's room and looking at household objects in the past and modern objects and conmaring the two. This is a half day session. Don't forget our full time travelling full day session in costume, scroll up the page to find out more. Call the house for a booking form and guidance notes for a taste of homes long ago on 01384 569 444

Guided Tours and Guided Tours with Workshops

We offer guided tours and tours with workshops at our historic houses focusing on your choice of topics from, a taste of the Tudors, the Victorians, homes in the past, rich and poor, to look at patterns and designs as part of an art project, to look at conservation as part of a citizenship projects, you chose! Click this link to find out more about the tours we can offer.

Life of the Canals - Galton Valley Canal Heritage Museum

For more information about Galton Valley Canal Heritage Centre, or to book a session for your school, please call 0121 558 8195 or click on Galton Valley.

Toy Handling Sessions For KS1 at Wednesbury Museum

More information and booking forms and guidance notes on Toy Handling Sessions.

Special Exhibitions in 2008

We have lots of temporary exhibition which you may wish to use for projects across the curriculum. You can talk to the museum on how you could use these exhibitions to fulfil your curriculum needs or there may even be special activities for schools organised. To see what temporary exhibitions are running in 2008 click here.

Eg: Its all Greek to me - Wednesbury Museum & Art Gallery

September - December - Special school activities will be available.

Handling Loan Boxes

We have collections of original artefacts and replica items available for loan to your classroom on the following themes- To find out more about our Loans Collections of Museum Artefacts for schools.

Why not use our Permanent Collections?

Why not use out collections on permenant display as the basis of project work across the curriculum including our Ruskin Pottery Collection and the stories of the people who worked in the factory, our Victorian oil paintings and the designs and patterns in the furniture and on the walls of our Tudor house. Speak to our Education Officer based at Haden Hill House Museum about your ideas. You will find more about some of our permenant collections on this site.

Why not work with us on a special project?

Speak to our Education Officer and why not work with us on a one off or special project for your class. In the past we have undertaken specialist projects around citizenship, storytelling, drama, art, English and creative writing and much more.

Citizenship & Democracy

citizenshipanddemocracy.org.uk is a website for Sandwell schools with a downloadable teacher's pack linked to the life of Baroness Betty Boothroyd first woman Speaker of the House Of Commons.

It is designed to help with the tricky task of explaining European, National and local government to teenagers.

Other useful information about our Schools Service

Please always ensure that the teacher in charge of the group reads the instructions carefully

Please note that we cannot accept internal payments for our schools visits. We accept cheques and cash.

Sandwell Museums Education & Exhibtions Officer is based at Haden Hill House.

External links

Sandwell Council is not responsible for the content of external websites.

  • MLA West MIdlands - The Government body for Museums, Libraries and Archive.
  • Home Front in World War II - An excellent pupil and teacher resource, with photogrpahs, activities, printable material and information whether your school is in Sandwell or not.