Schools

We have a wide programme of services for schools, which link to specific areas of the National Curriculum. Teachers can arrange for our learning staff to visit their classrooms to run hands-on sessions with real objects, or they can bring their pupils to the Petrie or Grant Museums.

Our resources for Primary schools are limited so outreach visits are available only to Primary schools in the London Boroughs of Camden, Islington and Newham. We work with a wide range of Secondary schools that are on UCL Outreach's list of target schools.

Our range of loan boxes can be borrowed by any school, and teachers can download lesson-plans to explore some of the subjects that our Museums cover.

Outreach sessions in schools

We run hands-on curriculum-linked workshops in schools, using object-based learning with genuine museum artefacts. Our learning team offer the only schools outreach service for natural history and Egyptian archaeology in London, as well as other archaeological topics.

The sessions typically last one hour with one class (approx 30 students) and we can visit between two and four classes in one school in a day. We can only visit a school when we visit more than one class (except with Rocks workshops). We support the Primary and Secondary Curricula and are happy to discuss other ways of working in your school. To book or enquire about outreach services please contact the Head of Learning and Access.

Outreach workshops are free. We may be able to provide additional Rocks workshops charged at cost, please enquire for details.

You can choose from the following workshops supporting these subjects:

Science Outreach for KS 1, KS 2, KS 3, KS 4 and Post-16

Ourselves (KS 1)

  • Body parts in people and animals: What are the differences?
  • The senses - can you match up what you feel with what you see?
  • Comparing teeth.
  • How similar are humans to other animals?

Fossils (KS 1)

  • What are fossils and where do they come from?
  • Create fantastic animals from the past using modelling clay and lots of imagination.

Life-Cycles and Variation (KS 1 and KS 2)

  • Grouping animals (KS1) or Classification (KS2).
  • How people and animals grow.
  • How animals reproduce.
  • ON REQUEST: Animals in the Local Environment (KS1).

Teeth and Eating (KS 2)

  • What are the different types of teeth?
  • What are the teeth for?
  • Herbivores, Carnivores and Omnivores

Habitats and Adaptations (KS 2)

  • Predators and Prey
  • How do animals protect themselves?
  • Adapting to your environment
  • ON REQUEST: Conservation

Moving and Growing (KS 2)

  • Bones and skeletons: What are they?
  • What are skeletons for?
  • What do animals without skeletons do?
  • How do animals move?

Rocks and Minerals (KS 2)

  • Where do rocks come from and how to they form?
  • An introduction to the three main rock types and to the Rock Cycles.
  • Children are encouraged to bring along any specimens they may have from home (including fossils).

Habitats and Adaptations (KS 3, KS 4 and Post-16)

  • Environment and feeding relationships
  • Adapting to your environment
  • ON REQUEST: Evolution
  • ON REQUEST: Conservation

Rocks and Weathering (KS 3)

History Outreach for KS 2, KS 3 and GCSE

Mummification (KS 2)

  • Introduction to Ancient Egypt.
  • Rituals of mummification and its role in beliefs about life and death.
  • Ancient Egyptian understanding about the body and how bodies were mummified. 
  • How to investigate objects.

Ancient Greece (KS 2)

  • See similarities and differences between modern life and those of people in the past.
  • Look at clothing styles, art and architecture, children’s games, trade and commerce.
  • How to investigate objects.

Slavery (KS 3)

  • Supports Black Peoples of America unit.
  • Introduction to some of the issues around the Transatlantic Slave Trade
  • The archaeological evidence of the slave trade
  • How to investigate objects

Ancient Medicine (GCSE)

  • Workshop is currently in development.

Citizenship Outreach for KS 3 and KS 4

Citzenship and Identity (KS3 and KS 4)

  • Can physical appearances tell us anything about people?
  • Take your own fingerprints.
  • Measuring head size, looking at glass eyes (Biometrics).
  • ID Cards and identity debates.
  • Who was Francis Galton?

Visiting UCL Museums with your class

The Grant Museum of Zoology and Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology run curriculum-linked sessions for Key Stage 1 to Post-Sixteen classes in the museums. These typically take place in the morning and last two hours. The Grant Museum can accommodate one class per session (approx 30 pupils), and the Petrie Museum can take up to two.
For details of the specific workshops available, and to book a museum visit go to the museums’ individual learning pages:

We can also offer special visits to UCL that combine activities in the museums with an introduction to university. These are ideal enrichment days, involving a visit to one or more of the museums and a tour of the university, as well as a talk about university life, run by current students. For general enquiries please contact the Head of Learning and Access.

Evaluation Study of Science Outreach

In autumn 2009 Culture:Unlimited, a leading think-tank for the cultural sector undertook a thorough evaluation of the science outreach offered to primary schools by UCL Museums. They measured the efficacy of the service in raising students' confidence, enjoyment and aspirations to learn, and the extent to which students were engaged with science and Higher Education, and what methods proved successful in these areas.

Download the full document here (214 KB PDF file).

Benefits of using real objects in learning

  • They provide a direct link with a topic or ‘the past’ and can really enhance young people’s interest in and understanding of a topic/subject.
  • They encourage young people to use all their senses – especially touch, sight and smell.
  • They help to develop the important skill of drawing conclusions based on an examination of evidence, together with an understanding of the limitations and reliability of evidence.
  • They are ideal for generating group and class discussion.
  • They promote the value of museums and encourage young people to visit museums and galleries with their families to further their learning.