‘Explore’ sessions are exploratory workshops developed in consultation with SEN teachers specifically designed for children with Special Educational Needs. Explore sessions are ideal for children attending special schools who have severe or moderate learning disabilities and who may have complex needs. This session make full use of Snibston’s exciting galleries with flexible timetables being created to ensure the needs of pupils can be tailored for each activity.

Based on an interactive story the cross curricular session activities include:

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: All day visit (flexible timetable)

Suitable for: Key Stage 1-3; History, Art & Design and Science

Price: Please Contact Us for current pricing

Colliery Guides take students on a fascinating tour of the Colliery buildings and the large mining equipment trail.  As all our Guides are former miners, students will learn and understand what it really meant to be a miner working underground.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: All key stages

Price: £1.50 per student (additional to admission charge)

In this delightful new session, you will hear the tale of the 'Coblynau', the mining fairies who live underground at Snibston.  Find out why all the shiny metal objects started to disappear from the Museum and how the Toys from the Toybox gallery solved the puzzle and saved the day!  
Pupils will learn about magnets and which objects stick to magnets, they will see how some magnets 'attract' and some 'repel' and help us sort out the magnetic items from the non-magnetic items in the Treasure Chest.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: Foundation Y1 Science

Price: £2 per student (additional to admission charge)

Come and handle a selection of toys from the past and present. Pupils will be encouraged to identify the forces involved in playing with the toys and experience the forces at work - push, pull and gravity. Pupils will also be encouraged to identify the differences between toys from the past and toys from the present, by looking at the different materials they are made of, thinking about who the toys were made for and how they work, eg, push along car vs battery powered.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: Foundation Y1 Science & History

Price: £2 per student (additional to museum charge)

This session uses museum collections and handling objects, as well as smelly and touchy-feely resources, to teach pupils about the five senses (see, hear, smell, touch, taste), and the corresponding sense organs (eye, nose, ear, mouth, skin). Pupils will also meet Boris the skeleton and some of his animal friends and learn about the similarities and differences between humans and animals and between living and non living things.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: Workshop: 1 hour

Suitable for: Foundation Yr1 Science

Price: £2 per student (additional to admission charge)

Pupils explore and handle our rocks, fossils and minerals collection. After investigating and describing the features of their chosen specimen, pupils design and create a collage based on its unique characteristics.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: Key Stage 1 & 2 Science and Art & Design

Price: £2 per student (additional to admission charge)

This session will introduce your class to the basic forces of gravity, push and pull. Using three hands-on activities, children will experience first hand the effects of these forces. Activities will vary depending on the age range of the group.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: Key Stage 1 & 2 Science

Price: £2 per student (additional to admission charge)

Take a tour through the Industrial Revolution with George Stephenson, James Watt, Ned Ludd and Lord Shaftesbury.  Our costumed characters bring Snibston’s collections to life and explain the importance of their inventions and the impact they had on the lives of ordinary people who lived during the new industrial era.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: Key Stage 2 History and Science

Price: £2.50 per student (additional to admission charge)

Pupils will get hands-on with fashion as they explore the themes of our fashion gallery. Pupils will explore why we wear clothes, how fabrics have changed over time (natural/synthetic materials) and how body shape can be changed through clothing. Pupils will then be given a design challenge to complete back at school based on what they have learnt. This is a cross-curricular session covering aspects of history, science, art and design.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: Key Stage 2

Price: £2 per student (additional to admission charge)

Pupils get a chance to become ‘rock detectives’ to find out about Leicestershire’s geology. Using identification keys pupils will identify local rocks and minerals and find out about local geology. Pupils will also have a chance to explore our gallery displays to discover what we use rocks and minerals for today. Pupils use detective notebooks to note down what they have learnt which they can take back to school with them.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: Key Stage 2 Science

Price: £2 per student (additional to admission charge)

A thought-provoking interactive drama.  Using Snibston’s costumed characters follow a chronological narrative centering on the treatment of Jews.  This evocative presentation raises challenging issues that can be followed up in the classroom (activity suggestions provided).

Availability: This session can be arranged throughout the year - please Contact Us to discuss availability

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: Key Stage 3 PSHE and History

Price: £2.50 per student (additional to admission charge)

Students work in pairs or small teams to design and construct their own wind turbines using k-nex and plastic bottles. Teams are encouraged to test and refine their designs using a desk fan to improve the efficiency by reducing friction and increasing the amount of power which can be collected. This session also looks at the shift from fossil fuels to sustainable/renewable energy sources.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: Key Stage 3 Science and Design & Technology

Price: £2 per student (additional to museum charge)

Snibston’s Design Day is aimed at students who have chosen to study Art and Design. The day includes two 90minutes workshops plus a sketching activity in the Fashion Gallery.  Students will work individually and in teams to respond to design briefs. At the end of the day, students will have designed and produced a sample of wallpaper using lino printing, and a garment inspired by Snibston’s fashion gallery.

Availability: anytime

Length of session: All day session 10am – 2:30pm

Suitable for: Key Stage 4 Art & Design

Price: £5 per student

Explore the issues surrounding discrimination with this through-provoking presentation that is delivered by our staff in your school.  The presentation raises a number of issues which are then followed up in the classroom with activities led by museum staff.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 45 minutes - 1 hour

Suitable for: Key Stage 3 and 4 Citizenship and History

Price: £2.00 per student (plus mileage* for Museum Educator)
* Mileage is based on a rate of 40p per mile and calculated from Snibston to your school and return

This session links to the History and Science curriculum and draws on Snibston’s long history as a coal mine.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 60minute

Suitable for: KS2

Price: £2.00 per student (plus mileage* for Museum Educator)
* Mileage is based on a rate of 40p per mile and calculated from Snibston to your school and return

In this hands-on workshop, pupils will learn about the wildlife that inhabits Snibston’s country park.  Using specimens from the Museum’s Natural History collection, pupils will investigate diets and food chains, and start to understand the features which help these animals survive in the search for food.

Pupils rotate around four hands-on activities which include; identifying animals from their skeletons, investigating the diet of owls by dissecting owl pellets and identifying bones, and looking at food chains and learn how birds with different shaped beaks forage for different foods.

Availability: Anytime

Length of session: 1 hour

Suitable for: Key Stage 2 Science

Price: £2 per student (additional to admission charge)