We welcome school groups for learning sessions in our engaging and memorable museum in the Oxfordshire countryside.
Pendon Museum offers hands-on learning sessions for primary school groups, Our sessions use our unique, world-renowned 1920s-1930s miniature landscapes and model railways as primary evidence: pupils look closely, reason from what they can see, and reach their own conclusions. Every session is curriculum-linked, facilitated by trained museum staff, and designed to be educational, genuinely memorable and fun.
We currently offer sessions for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils in history, geography, science and DT. Visits can include a single session or a combination of sessions across a full day. Each Session includes a resource pack for pre and post visit activities; we also offer loan boxes for use in the classroom before or after your visit.
To discuss a potential school visit to Pendon, please contact us at learning@pendonmuseum.com.
To view information on our schools resources sessions, please click here.
Learning Sessions
Your visit to Pendon Museum can include just one or two sessions, in a full-day visit. Sessions include:
The living Landscape: Pupils use Pendon's Vale scene as evidence to discover the geographical and historical reasons behind the shape of a 1930s English village.
Chidhood, School and Play: Pupils explore what life was like for children in the 1930s, from homemade toys and playground games to helping with chores and walking miles to school.
Health and Hygiene: What did it mean to stay healthy before the NHS? Pupils investigate health and hygiene in 1930s rural England using real objects and model evidence.
Wool and Weaving: Pupils follow the journey from sheep to jumper, discovering the traditional crafts of spinning and weaving and how families in the 1930s made their own cloth.
Bridges and Brunel: Pupils work as engineers to investigate bridge structures in the landscape, analyse how Brunel solved the problem of crossing a wide, flat floodplain, and present a justified crossing recommendation for a specific point on the model.
Life on the Railway: Pupils journey back through and beyond living memory to explore the jobs and daily lives of the people who worked on the Great Western Railway.
Practical Information
School visits for up to 60 people (including children and adults) can be arranged on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, except when the museum is open to the public (you can check our calendar here)
Exclusive access: Your group will have exclusive access to the museum galleries and facilities when it is closed to the public.
Group size: Up to 30 pupils per session. Whole-class delivery.
Facilities: Indoor lunch space, accessible toilets and free parking for one coach (permit required).
Accessibility: We welcome pupils with additional needs and we are happy to discuss adjustments in advance
Booking: Please note that we require at least three weeks' notice to plan a School visit.
Risk Assessment: Risk assessments are available on request. We are also happy to support preliminary visits for staff.
Access to the shop: Souvenirs can be purchased from the shop and goody bags are available on request