Educational Visits
The Food Museum is a place where your pupils and students can enjoy informative and fun learning experiences that will help them understand the role that food has played in shaping our history and culture.
We offer pre-booked free visits that allow you and your pupils to explore the Museum and our wider 75-acre site. Alternatively, we have bookable Learning Sessions that are led by experienced and knowledgeable members of our Learning Team. These Learning Sessions have been developed to further enrich classroom learning. We use our landscape, buildings, and our collections to bring a range of subjects to life. Our food-based sessions allow your pupils and students to get more hands-on with how food is grown, produced, cooked, and eaten.
We are part of The Great British School Trip powered by Hyundai! This new scheme offers schools financial support for trips to the Food Museum. Click here for more details and how to apply.
Booking an Educational Visit
Whether you want to book a staff-led Learning Session or just bring your class for a free visit, please fill out this form and someone from the Learning Team will get back to you shortly.
Pricing
Learning sessions led by the Learning Team:
- £85 per hr + VAT (Please see specific Learning Session for duration/cost)
- 50% discount for SEND classes
- Max 30 pupils
- Available Tuesday to Friday
- Tailor-made sessions may incur a further charge depending on time and resources required.
School visits without Learning Sessions:
- Free
Key information to help you plan
Before you book please consider:
- Staff-led Learning Sessions need to be prebooked and we kindly request at least two weeks’ notice. These sessions are available on a first come first serve basis
- Free visits must also be prebooked.
- The Museum opens at 10am and shuts at 5pm.
- The Food Museum is a large open site and we strongly advise that appropriate clothing and footwear be worn.
- We offer free pre-visits for teachers to enable you to prepare risk assessments for your trip. These will be provided when your visit is booked.
- Limited coach parking available. Must be booked in advance.
- Limited lunch spaces available. Must be booked in advance.
Learning Sessions
Our museum-led sessions are the best way to enhance your educational visit. These fun and interactive events are run by expert members of our team, and really get children (and adults!) engaging with the subject at hand.
These sessions work on a first come, first served basis so booking is essential. If you don’t see a suitable session for your group please get in touch and we will try to accommodate your requests. Tailor-made sessions may incur a further charge depending on the time and resources required to create them, so we’ll need a minimum of two weeks’ notice to arrange things.
Mathematics: Throughout all our sessions we aim to embed the use of simple mathematics e.g.: by asking the group to divide themselves equally.
Language and Literacy/English: In every session we encourage children to ask questions, convey ideas and justify them with reasons, allowing them to explore new ideas and develop their vocabulary. We always allow time in our sessions for discussions, questions, conveying ideas and evaluation of their experience.
Session Times are:
10.30 – 11.30am
1.00pm – 2.00pm
School Sessions
FIELD TO LOAF
120 mins (The length of this session can be adapted according to need)
Age: Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4
Subjects: Science, Food Education, Geography,
Pupils will gain understanding of how wheat grows, how wheat plants are processed into grain and then flour. Students will undertake a bread-making activity that culminates in their bread being baked on our wood fired oven.
The learning session begins with your students making dough from freshly milled flour. Whilst the dough is proving, a member of our learning team will lead a short interactive presentation on how wheat grows and how it is milled into flour. This part can be tailored depending on Key Stage, Subject and desired learning outcomes. After a short break, the students then shape their dough before taking it over to the wood-fired oven to be baked. This ends the learning session. However, we recommend that you and your group follow our bread trail to discover our GROW area, watermill, and much more.
VICTORIAN FARM LABOURER
60 min session
Age: Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2,
Subjects: History
Enrich your pupils’ understanding of the Victorian era with this Farm Labourer Learning Session. This session will explore the roles that children had in rural life. The session starts with a fun question and answer session about Victorian era objects from our handling-collection. Then, a member of our Learning Team will lead your class in a carousel of the hands-on jobs that children in the Victorian era undertook.
BUTTER MAKING
60 min session
Age: Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2
Subjects: Science, History, Food Education
Discover how butter was made in the past and the processes involved. Make your own individual pat of butter and find out about the butter making process through handling old dairy items including three different kinds of butter churns, butter pats, skimmers and more.
Learning Outcomes:
Pupils will
- Learn how butter was made in the past
- Learn the process of turning cream into butter
- Try something new by making their own butter
- Experience an authentic: we will use real objects from the past
- Be excited, inspired and engaged; above all your pupils will have fun!
MINIBEASTS
60 minutes; summer term only
Age: Early Years Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2
Subject: Science
Discover the fascinating world of minibeasts in the Museum grounds. Find out what minibeasts are, see some specimens from our handling collection and explore the gardens to investigate minibeast habitats.
Please note: This is an outdoor session. An alternative indoor session will run only in the case of severely adverse weather.
Learning Objectives
Pupils will
- Learn to identify a range of minibeasts and their habitats.
- Understand the differences between an insect and other invertebrates.
- Be actively involved; have the opportunity to be ‘hands-on’, ask questions and have discussions, contribute to the session.
ANIMAL SKULLS AND TEETH
Age: Key Stage 2
Subject: Science
60 min session
Why do animals have skeletons? What are the different types of teeth for? Handle a range of real farm animal skulls such as pigs, dogs, cats and sheep, and study their teeth to identify carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. Challenge yourself to guess the animal from the mystery skulls. After the session, follow up by exploring the Heritage Farm and meeting our friendly farm animals.
Learning Objectives:
Pupils will be able to
- Identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores.
- Make predictions about what an animal would eat from looking at their teeth.
- Identify animals from their skulls.
EXPLORE THE FARM – ANIMALS
Age: EYFS, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3
Subject: Science
60 min session
Explore the Heritage Farm with a guided tour of the animals. Meet the animals, discover what they eat, learn about the different breeds and why they have been bred to look the way they do.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify and name a variety of different animals.
- Find out what different animals eat and what their needs are.
- Find out about different breeds of animals.
- Be excited, inspired and engaged; have fun!
- It will be a positive and inclusive outdoor experience in a museum.
- Be actively involved; have the opportunity to be ‘hands-on’, ask questions and have discussions, they will contribute to the session.
EXPLORE THE FARM – PLANTS
Age: EYFS, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2
Subject: Science
60 min session
Explore the Heritage Farm with a guided tour of the crops and farming methods. Find out about the crops we grow; how our four crop rotation farming method works and dig in to help with a seasonal farm job.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify and name a variety of different plants.
- Discover what different plants need to live and grow.
- Be excited, inspired and engaged; have fun!
- It will be a positive and inclusive outdoor experience in a museum.
- Be actively involved; have the opportunity to be ‘hands-on’, ask questions and have discussions, they will contribute to the session.
