Special Ancient Greece schools offer at World Museum

We recently sat down with Alice Demba, Schools, Young People & Adults Lead at National Museums Liverpool, to talk about school workshops at World Museum, one of their seven venues. They’ve just released workshop dates for the first term of the 2023-24 academic year, including a special offer for classes studying Ancient Greece.

Hi Alice. Can you tell us about World Museum and some of your workshops?

Hello, yes of course! World Museum is in Liverpool city centre and there’s loads of amazing things to see here - we’ve got an aquarium, a bug house, and a planetarium, as well as a dinosaur and natural history gallery. We have amazing ancient Egypt and world cultures collections you can see too.

Our Learning team at the museum offer 11 workshops for schools and groups, on topics ranging from sea life to outer space. We cater for all ages, from Early Years Foundation Stage up to higher education. All of our school sessions are led by our team, who use objects from our collections and exhibitions to engage students and encourage them to learn.

Do your sessions link to the curriculum and have learning outcomes for students?

Yes, all of our sessions are linked to the curriculum and have clear learning outcomes for the relevant key stage. You can find all the information for each session on our website, along with practical information about the length of the workshops and the number of students we can accommodate for each one.

What does a day at World Museum look like for schools?

It’s hard to answer this one as our sessions are so varied, but I’ll try! First things first, schools usually arrive with us by coach or train - we have drop-off facilities right outside the museum and we’re just across the road from Liverpool Lime Street station, which is really handy.

Coming into the museum, you’re met by one of our Learning Facilitators, who will take everybody to the gallery or learning space where your workshop takes place. Most of our sessions last between 50-60 minutes and combine hands-on-activities - like touching artefacts and interacting with live creatures - with conversations, Q&As and quizzes.

If you’ve booked a free self-led visit to take place before or after your workshop, you and your students can then explore the museum and find out even more about the topic being studied. You can book one of our lunch rooms too.

There really is so much to see at the museum so before you visit, I would definitely recommend reading all the information for schools on our website and taking a look at our learning resources. Risk assessments and our code of conduct are there too.

Can you book more than one workshop per visit?

Absolutely! We know some schools do this to minimise travel costs. All of the dates and timeslots for each session are available to view on our website, so you’ll be able to see how sessions can fit in to your visit and map out your day.

For schools studying ancient Greece, we’ve just launched a special 'buy one get one half price' offer where key stage two groups can enjoy two workshops in one day. One workshop, Discover Ancient Greece and Rome, will take place at World Museum, while the other - Storytelling with the Greeks - will take place at our sister venue Walker Art Gallery, which is just 100 yards away. It’s a saving of £49.50 per class and your school will be able to book a lunch room free of charge too.

That’s a great offer. What will students learn about ancient Greece?

During our Discover Ancient Greece and Rome session at World Museum, students will find out what life was like at that time and use handling artefacts to learn about things like pottery and warfare. At the Walker Art Gallery workshop, the children use one of our paintings to learn about myths, monsters and mortals as they immerse themselves in Greek mythology and discover what happened when the ancient Greeks angered their gods.

We are currently hosting an exhibition, Return of the Gods, at World Museum, which showcases the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome, so there’s no better place to be if your students are studying the topic this year!

Is there anything else that teachers should know about your workshops or World Museum?

Booked individually, our workshops at World Museum cost £99 per class and cater for between 30-32 students. World Museum is part of National Museums Liverpool, which is a charity, so profits from workshops help to support the work that we do across all of our venues.

Another important point is that we have loads of free learning resources on our website. You don’t have to have visited World Museum to use them, but if you have, they can really help to reinforce what your students have learned during a workshop. We have a dedicated resources section on our website in the Learning area, where you can find everything you need.