Bursaries Available!

Herbert Art Gallery & Museum

School Trips

Why book Herbert Art Gallery & Museum for School Trips and Educational Visits?

Our museums offer various options for self-led visits and also facilitated workshops, led by our expert Learning Team. We cover a variety of themes, linking to the national curriculum, that bring our museum collections to life. We approach all facilitated workshops with hands-on learning, providing pupils will memorable experiences.

school trip at Herbert Art Gallery & Museum

school groups Herbert Art Gallery & Museum

Travel Bursary - claim up to £250 towards travel!

Current School Trip Offer

With thanks to funding from the Arts Council and the Department for Education, we are working to increase the number of primary schools taking part in high quality educational visits to museums in Coventry.

By encouraging schools to get pupils out of the classroom and into museums, together we will spark young people’s curiosity and encourage a lifelong passion for culture and learning.

You can qualify for a travel bursary of up to £250 per visit, if the following criteria applies for your group:

- Book two education sessions at Coventry museums. These can take place at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry Transport Museum or a combination of both on the same day.
- Travel bursary of up to £250*, to subsidise transport costs for visits to the museums. Please note, the bursary is only available for schools with more than 20% of school population pupil premium rates.
- FREE use of a lunch space
- Each session must consist of the same pupils.

valid until: March 2025

Teacher Checklist

Bursaries or Funded Places Available

Which Curriculum Subjects do you cater for?

Saxons

Invaders and Settlers Saxon Settlements Saxon Laws and Justice Arts and Culture

Using original artefacts from the collection and exploring the local legend of Lady Godiva, pupils will find out about life in Anglo-Saxon Britain. Through role play pupils will re-enact Lady Godiva’s famous horse ride through Coventry, and by examining the evidence will decide the truth of this story.

The workshop will also explore aspects of crime and punishment as well as art
and culture. Additionally, pupils will have the opportunity to design and make their own Anglo-Saxon print to take away.

Victorian

Crime and Punishment Queen Victoria Factories and The Workhouse Childhood and Schools Inventions

This interactive workshop uses role play, costumes and handling objects to compare past and present. Pupils will experience a day in the life of Queen Victoria’s servants and discover how everyday chores were carried out. Pupils will also be able to see Victorian toys and learn about the games that children would have played.
Changes in national life are illustrated as pupils learn about 19th Century developments in transport and how this enabled people from cities like Coventry to visit the seaside – pupils will find out what Victorians wore on the beach and how they made ice cream!

World War

Women in wartime Air Raids Blitz and Battle of Britain The Home Front Rationing Evacuation

This session enables pupils to discover the impact of the war on daily life using original costume, role play and a wide range of stimulating Second World War objects. It explores the experiences of people in wartime Coventry including the Blitz, air raid precautions and civil defence, and includes an exciting visit to an underground shelter.

SEN

Autistic Spectrum Emotional and Behavioural Disorders Visual Impairment Fully Wheelchair Accessible Disabled Toilet Access Social Skills Raising Aspirations

We are able to adapt our sessions to make them accessible to your groups learning needs and styles, but ask that you assist us in understanding the level of requirement. We welcome visits from SEN and SEBD groups and are happy to explore how we can deliver our sessions most appropriately for your pupils.

Local History

Our facilitated sessions are highly interactive and inspiring learning experiences. We use museum objects to tell the story of Coventry, comparing the past and present and exploring how important events relate to global history. Your pupils will look at and engage with historical evidence to understand how historians make decisions about how historical stories are told.

Using the unique objects of the history galleries and social history collections, local history will be brought to life and give pupils a hands-on and interactive experience outside of the classroom that puts curriculum topics into context, helping pupils understand historical objects in the real world.

Dinosaurs

Fresh from its recent return home to the Natural History Museum, Dippy the Diplodocus (DIP-low-DOCK-us) has stomped into Coventry and set to remain as dino-in-residence at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum until 2025!

Dippy the dinosaur is a life-size, plaster-of-paris replica of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton. It was gifted to the Natural History Museum by Andrew Carnegie and was first put on display in May 1905. Dippy quickly became a star, capturing hearts and imaginations, and went on to tour the UK from 2017 to 2021. After a brief return home to London, Dippy arrived in Coventry this year, and has been delighting visitors since February 2023.

Archaeology

Discover the amazing creatures that lived in Coventry and Warwickshire during the time of the dinosaurs. Presented in collaboration with Warwickshire Museum, Warwickshire's Jurassic Sea is a free fossil display will take you back in time to the Jurassic era, a time when much of the region was underwater.

A selection of fossils drawn from both the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum and Warwickshire Museum collections offer a fascinating insight into the strange sea creatures that swam through Coventry and Warwickshire between 200 and 145 million years ago. The display includes our star fossil - an ichthyosaur skull found in Harbury.

Geology

Fossils

Warwickshire's Jurassic Sea is a free fossil display will take you back in time to the Jurassic era, a time when much of the region was underwater.

A selection of fossils drawn from both the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum and Warwickshire Museum collections offer a fascinating insight into the strange sea creatures that swam through Coventry and Warwickshire between 200 and 145 million years ago. The display includes our star fossil - an ichthyosaur skull found in Harbury.

Medieval

Medieval Society and Feudalism

Coventry enjoyed a 'golden age' in the medieval period, which is reflected in our extensive collections.

Coventry has had a rich religious heritage that began with St Osburga's Nunnery and then the Benedictine Priory. By the end of the 1100s Coventry had become established as an important city based on the cloth and leather trades. The archaeological finds from medieval Coventry illustrates both city life and the city’s trade links. Objects include pottery, small dress accessories, cloth fragments, leather shoes, belts and pieces of saddlery and occasionally a coin.

By the 1400s Coventry was enjoying a 'golden age' of prosperity and importance and the collection reflects this. Material from this period numbers over 1,500 objects ranging from rings and jewellery to brooches, points, buckles, decorative studs, nails, tools, horseshoes, keys and strap ends.

Highlights of the collection include a 1400s sallet (helmet), a wooden carved figure of St. George and the Dragon, a leather face mask used in mystery plays, choir stalls from Whitefriars and over 1000 carved stones excavated from the Benedictine Priory.

John Bailey Shelton, a keen local archaeologist, built up a large collection of material through the 1930s and 40s. His collection formed the nucleus of the archaeology material held by the museum.

Art

Craft History of Art Painting Design Sculpture Drawing Printmaking

The Herbert’s permanent galleries showcase objects drawn from the social history, archaeology and visual art collections.

On the ground floor, the History Gallery tells the story of Coventry and its people from the medieval period to the present day. It includes sections which look at the city’s watchmaking and ribbon weaving industries, the impact of the Second World War and the boom years of the 1950s and ‘60s.

Discover Godiva is a family-friendly interactive exploration of the famous story of Lady Godiva, which includes many of the museum’s paintings of Godiva – you can decide if she really did make her famous naked ride! The Peace and Reconciliation gallery tells the story of Coventry’s role in promoting peace and reconciliation, starting with the Blitz of 1940 and the destruction of the cathedral. The story is told through objects, artworks and oral history interviews.

In Gallery 2 on the first floor you can see our largest painting, Bacchus and Ariadne, painted by Luca Giordano in the 1600s, alongside other paintings from the 1500s to the 1900s. Sculptures from the collection are displayed in the Long Gallery.

Do you offer on-site classroom facilities?

We offer multiple classroom facilities, that can accommodate different session topics, including painting, pottery, art's and crafts, and traditional learning.

Do you offer access for visitors with disabilities?

We have an accessible entrance way, as well as a functional lift to all floors. We also offer gender neutral toilets to visitors.

Who are Herbert Art Gallery & Museum?

Gain a fresh perspective on the legend of Lady Godiva, discover your ancestors’ history in the Coventry Archives, and explore Coventry's history from the 1500s onwards. All of this is just a stone’s throw away from Coventry Cathedral.

As well as the art gallery’s ever-changing displays which are often created in partnership with national museums, the Herbert offers a wide range of detailed talks, fantastic events and inventive workshops for adults and families. The Herbert Art Gallery encourages creativity, exploration and fun.