Plan your school visit

All school groups must be booked through the Learning Department, please see links on Schools Sessions page for details of the sessions available, you can request to book dates via these links. Most sessions and services are free, and travel bursaries are available for schools meeting our criteria.

If you need to contact us about a booking please email education@fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk or telephone 01223 332904.

The short film on this page has been designed to prepare school pupils for their trip to the Fitzwilliam Museum, and our volunteer Lesley Sainsbury used the creation and evaluation of the film as the basis of her MA thesis. The format and script is based on educational theories evaluating preparing children for school trips.

This indicates that reducing areas of concern to the children (e.g. lunch and location of the toilets) and increasing their expectations will result in enhanced experiences and learning outcomes.

Preparation

Please make sure you understand which parts of the visit are your responsibility and which are ours. We will hand over to you when your teaching session has finished, so you will need to prepare activities for the remainder of your visit. You might find our learning resources useful: these will enable you to research and structure your time spent self-guided. If you would like to arrange a pre-visit to the Museum a member of the Education team can also meet with you to discuss all aspects of your visit.

• Photography of the collections is permitted.
• Flash photography or video recording is prohibited.
• In some exhibitions, photography is prohibited.

Class sizes and adult/student ratios

The upper limit on group sizes varies according to the galleries being used. For museum teacher led sessions we can accommodate a maximum of 2 classes of up to 30 per day.

We do ask that the student/teacher ratio in the Museum should be:

• 1:7 pupils for KS1
• 1:10 pupils for KS2 and KS3

Lunch facilities

We have a schools’ lunch room which can be booked for your group. You may also eat in the grounds of the Museum or under the portico at our Main Entrance.

Transport and Parking

• There is no public parking space at the Museum, but there are two-hour meters in the immediate vicinity.
• Coaches may drop off and collect outside the Courtyard Entrance. The museum is also in the process of building partnerships with local coach companies. We plan to recommend affordable transport companies to our visiting school groups. More information will follow shortly.

The Museum gates open at 10.00am. Please note that we are unable to admit access to the Museum or its grounds before this time. We aim for morning sessions to start in the galleries by 10.15.

Book your visit

It is absolutely essential that you book well in advance. The Museum reserves the right to refuse admittance to non-booked school groups. The office is very busy, and we are still mainly working from home, therefore email is the best way of making contact. Please be as flexible as possible and have alternative dates ready. Do not book transport until your museum visit is fully booked.

The more we know, the more we can help. We will ask you about pupils that have any type of special needs, but beyond this, the more we know about your aims, requirements and pupils, the better we can achieve your aims.

Email: education@fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

Call us on: 01223 332904