Schools and Groups
Schools and Groups
At The Salisbury Museum we use our collections to inspire, unlocking creativity and imagination. We bring the past to life for all ages and abilities in a way that enriches learning and creates lasting memories.
We value people’s curiosity and opinions and work alongside our local community, including young people and families, to create opportunities for collaboration and ownership.
We are passionate about the Salisbury region and enjoy telling its stories through our diverse collection which includes archaeology, Salisbury history, art, and fashion.
The Salisbury Museum offers a varied learning programme for pre-schools, schools, colleges, universities, and community groups.
Our museum’s range of facilitated sessions available for primary schools are as follows:
- The Amesbury Archer
- Old Sarum and The Normans
- Pottery – Archaeology and Art
- Romans
- Saxons
- Surviving the Stone Age
For the sessions linked to the NEW Devenish Bradshaw Salisbury gallery, natural history gallery and ceramics gallery look at our dedicated page.
Sessions can be adapted to all Key Stages and abilities. We welcome SEN enquiries, community groups and other organisations.
Please find our most recent risk assessment here.
The museum’s collections support a wide range of subjects. It is worth asking if you have a topic which you think we may be able to assist with.
The museum is also a rich resource for any visual arts project for any age or level of study.
Our facilitated sessions are hands-on, promoting learning through enquiry.
For GCSE, A-Level and other post-16 students our collections support a wide range of study areas — Archaeology, Art (painting, ceramics & textiles) and History of Art.
COSTS
Formal Education Groups (including Guides, Scouts, Brownies and all therapeutic groups):
Self guided visits to the museum are FREE for Wiltshire schools.
Other self guided school groups are £2.50 per pupil.
All facilitated visits will be charged at £5.00 per pupil.
Facilitated visits for pre-school groups will be charged at £2.00 per pupil, minimum of 10 children per booking.
Home educated children: £2.50 per child for self-guided visit plus free entry for adults in group. Minimum group size is 10 children. Must be booked in advance. Only applicable week days Monday to Friday during term time.
Contact the museum's Learning and Outreach Officer education@salisburymuseum.org.uk
A sample of some of our School Sessions:
The grave of a man dating to around 2,300BC was discovered three miles from Stonehenge by Wessex Archaeology in May 2002. This was the richest early Bronze Age grave ever found in Britain and contained the country’s first gold objects and is now on display in Salisbury Museum.
This session follows how archaeologists discovered the man who was a big part in Britain moving from the Stone Age to the age of metal. What did they discover and how has science told us so much more about the man, his life and his world?
Using the museum’s unique Stone Age handling collection your class will discover this period of history from the perspective of a contemporary archaeologist and consider the world which the archer lived.
The session is best suited for Year 3+. For a more active or younger class for a Stone Age topic we recommend…
Suitable KS2
Which animals survived the Stone Age, how did they do so and what relation did they have with humans? How would an archaeologist prove all this?
This session invites your class to combine their learning with imagination and to take on the role of archaeologists in exploring the life of Stone Age people. Using the museum’s unique Stone Age handling collection they will discover how people really did survive, and thrive.
The session culminates in the class creation of a giant floor game, and dressed in costumes provided they take on the challenge to ‘Survive the Stone Age’
Suitable KS1 KS2
This session brings your class into direct contact with our extensive Roman archaeology handling collection.
Reflecting on the collection, the session focusses on domestic life of Romans and how archaeologists carry out their work to piece together clues of people long forgotten. The core of the session is every student handling real Roman archaeology and making a record of it. This culminates in every student being shown how to make their own replica ‘shard’ of embossed pottery for display in the classroom.
Suitable KS1, KS2
Presented with evidence of an ancient grave, the class are led step by step on a journey to discover more about a Saxon warrior and his grave by becoming archaeologists and considering the significance of artefacts in the grave and how they reflect Saxon life and belief.
The session includes handling and recording of replicas from Saxon digs and making Saxon art. All the learning is brought together with a light hearted re-enactment of the ‘burying’ of one the students with full Saxon honours.
Suitable KS2
Session is adaptable for both KS1 and KS2 and the focus can be adjusted to fulfil related topics including ‘local area studies’ and ‘castles’.
A brief telling of Old Sarum's history and the move to today’s city is presented to the class to set the scene for this session. Following this we have a variety of offers to explore the museum collection, centred on our Old Sarum collection in the Wessex Gallery. Here we set the castle in its historic context and offer a variety of additions tailored to your topic which could include for example Clarendon Palace or Laverstock Pottery. The sessions all conclude with an art exercise which could be looking at pottery, stonemasonry or heraldry through the mediums of clay or card. We are happy to adapt to meet your learning outcomes.
Suitable EYFS, KS1, KS2
Dinosaurs!
Featuring some very rare handling, this is an outreach only session, suitable for younger ones. Aimed at the younger imagination and shorter attention span, we take your class on an exploration through a palaeontologist’s eyes, and using handling, singing and discussion we fire up their imagination on all things prehistoric.
Best suited in the school hall, we are happy to stay on after the presentation and assist with follow up classroom activities such as skeleton sketches and clay fossils
Suitable EYFS, KS1 – outreach only
Toys!
We have a collection of wonderful old toys, ranging from the recent to the very old. This is an outreach only session and is best delivered in your school hall. After a brief introduction to museum collecting and care, we create a rotation of handling for the class, considering topic questions such as materials, aging and entertainment.
This session has a swift pace and duration to keep up young attentions and ends with either a class discussion or sketching of the toys.
Suitable EYFS, KS1 – outreach only
General Pitt-Rivers
If you are looking for a historical character connected with the Salisbury area to study, Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers is well worth considering.
We recommend a quick look on the net to see just what a fascinating story his life makes. Salisbury Museum has his later archaeology collection, along with other artefacts and documents of his. With so many angles which the topic could be approached from, get in touch with the Learning Team and discuss how we can pull together strands of his life to make a brilliant hook for a personality based topic.
Suitable KS1, KS2
Great Fire of London
Salisbury is miles from London, but we can still offer a memorable visit which will bring to life the story of the baker burning down the city and the politicians squabbling over the solution.
Following a request for this from a local school we have successfully rolled out the session to schools over a number of years.
Set in our very grand ‘Kings Room*’ children are aided in costumed roles for mini drama to tell the story. Exploring the museum’s medieval collection we then get a feel for life and technology in 1666. The day includes art making activities and exploring behind the scenes to witness what a real Tudor building looks like, and see how a fire in a bakery could spread so well. * Not suitable for outreach.
Suitable EYFS, KS1
Museum Study
What’s a museum? This is a question which can begin a fascinating student led exploration of collecting, conserving, displaying and sharing artefacts with a museum audience. We offer a museum study which looks at all aspects of work carried out by museums, specially tailored to your class and their interests.
The class will leave the museum visit with a broad knowledge of museum life and a fired up imagination to create their own museum collections back at school.
Suitable KS1, KS2
Mini Museum
This is a project based offer, which is carried out over several days including a museum and a school visit and culminating in a ‘mini museum’ in your school hall for the rest of the school, and the community to enjoy.
A basic template for the project would be;
Day 1 – Outreach to the school. Presentation and discussion on ‘What is a museum?’
Day 2 – Museum visit. Exploring the whole museum and considering how the museum works as well as focussing on a pre decided sub topic e.g. Saxons, Romans etc.
Day 3 – We visit your school again and assist with making artefacts and interpretation for your museum
Day 4 – Morning – we assist with finishing off making
Day 4, Afternoon – we convert your school hall into a ‘mini museum’ using display equipment we bring in and the work created by the students. The rest of the school view the museum, followed by families invited in to see the work. We then assist with packing everything away.
Suitable EYFS, KS1, KS2 and combined.
Origins
Crossing art with archaeology, this is a look at monumental art today and art from Stone Age times and questioning whether contemporary art is anything new. It considers why people have always had the need to make artistic statements in the landscape and why.
Suitable KS2, KS3
Temporary Exhibitions
Keep an eye on our website and our update emails for news of our temporary exhibitions which change three times a year. Including all forms of art and history the exhibitions often compliment a classroom topic. We invite discussion on how we can create learning visits to the exhibitions for your class.
Suitable EYFS, KS1, KS2, KS3
For the sessions linked to the NEW Devenish Bradshaw Salisbury gallery, natural history gallery and ceramics gallery look at our dedicated page.
