Working with supplementary schools

The British Museum is piloting new ways of working with supplementary and community schools from across London. 

So far, we have taken two very different approaches to organising visits to the Museum in order to help us identify how supplementary schools can get the most benefit from visiting the Museum.

The first approach was to run a structured activity day with plenty of timed sessions and workshops for schools to take part in, including gallery tours, hands-on coin workshops, spotlight interactive sessions as well as creative opportunities such as art and craft activities.

The second approach was to provide no organised sessions or workshops and instead to let schools explore the Museum as they wished, using the free family trails with a member of Museum staff.

Both days had very positive responses and the feedback has helped inform further developments for the project. In addition to these pilot days, we are running training sessions for tutors who wish to organise visits and we are also looking at how we can develop resources specifically designed for supplementary schools to use on and off site.

If you are involved in a supplementary school and want to find out more about what we offer, please email communities@britishmuseum.org