Schools And Education Groups

Amersham Museum runs a rich and engaging award-winning programme of activities for school and youth groups. This includes taught sessions in the museum and in schools, a range of handling boxes which can be borrowed, and include object information sheets and suggested activities and a Young Curators group for 14-18 year olds.  In 2020 we were delighted to be awarded a Sandford Award for heritage education. 

Youth groups, including Girlguiding and Scout units, are welcome to visit the museum, or to arrange bespoke sessions to complete badges including Local Knowledge for Cubs, or Explore Skills Builders for Brownies. Contact us to discuss your needs ( [email protected]) or Book your school or group visit here

Handling Boxes

Our handling boxes cover a range of themes including Victorian Amersham and the arrival of the railway, traditional toys, WWI and WWII. They include original objects, which can be handled, documents, maps and photographs, with detailed information about the contents. The boxes are all Covid secure. Make a booking

KS3 Resources on Women’s Suffrage

In addition we also have a pack of resources for KS3 focusing on women’s campaign for suffrage. The pack includes four suggested lessons that directly draw upon local, primary sources and explore how women were involved in the suffrage campaign. The resource is available here. The primary source materials can be emailed on request: [email protected]. The pack was produced with the support of the Heritage Fund. The third session suggests you use our WWI handling box. 

Taught Sessions

Our sessions can be taught in the museum or in school. Our 2020-21 booklet for schools is available here. There is also a session of our session outlines below: Sessions are charged at £5 per child. Book your school or group visit here

Life in the 16th Century: Find out who lived here and how, over the centuries, they improved the house by adding chimneys and new windows. Study the building materials from wattle and daub to Tudor and modern bricks. Find out how people ate and dressed. Write a label with a quill and make a herb bag to take home.

Roman Coins, Handling & Archaeology: Discover how to use archaeological sources to learn about the past by examining Roman artefacts from our collection, before taking part in a Roman coin workshop to learn about ancient currencies and make your own coin.

Victorian Amersham and the Coming of the Railway: Using our handling collection, maps and photographic archives, find out about local jobs, including brewing and chair making and learn out about lace making, straw plaiting and other jobs for children. Learn the story of how the railway came to Amersham and discover the impact it has on the town.

WWII & Refugees: Learn about how WWII changed Amersham, and how the town welcomed refugees from London and Europe. Write a letter home from the perspective of a refugee living in Amersham during the war, describing what life was like in wartime Buckinghamshire. Compare the story of Amersham’s wartime refugees with current events, and explore how war affects the lives of people in the past and present.

Traditional Toys: Discover our range of typical toys from the 20th century and have a handling session with a wide range of toys, including those made in the local toy factory. Children can play with optical toys, construction toys and moving toys and compare differences between old and new. There is an opportunity to talk about what type of materials were used, and compare the toys enjoyed by rich and poor children

Fossils & Prehistory: Look through the collection and incredible illustrations of Robin Reid, a local fossil collector, and learn about ancient dinosaurs and local Amersham geology. Discover how fossils are made, and draw your own primeval illustrations.

Guided walks: Walk around the old town to find out more about why the town is here and how the arrival of stage coaches and the coming of the railway altered the town. Or study the different construction methods and materials used to build the houses in the High Street. Old Amersham is an excellent contrast to other more modern towns for local history studies

Understanding the Central Chilterns: Between 2021-24 we are working in partnership with Wycombe Museum to deliver the Understanding the Central Chilterns project, supported by the Heritage Fund and the Ernest Cook Trust. It offers free sessions for KS2. The project will help teach children how the Chiltern’s natural resources have supported local industry and communities and impacted on the location, type and development of settlements over human history. Our purpose is to inspire the next generation of children to feel a connection with the special qualities of the Central Chilterns landscape.

We can offer:
• FREE Teacher Training (virtual) to help advise teachers with their curriculum planning
• FREE guided tour for your class, to get children learning outside in their local landscape (locations limited)
• FREE museum loan boxes (Covid secure) for use in your classroom

If you know a school that is interested in getting involved, please get in touch with Maddy Baskerville at [email protected] , telling us your year group, topic and the term that you are studying the topic. Find out more

Pre-visit information for schools

Young Curators
Young Curators is an Amersham Museum run after-school group for 14-18 year olds. The group provides opportunities for young people to work with museum professionals to develop their skills and understanding of museum curation. This includes:

• Developing and caring for a museum collection
• Curating and designing exhibitions
• Developing learning resources
• Evaluation techniques

Recognition
Participating in the Young Curators programme can be counted as volunteer time, which can be used as part of the requirement for a Baccalaureate programme or for the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. If extra hours are needed to fulfil the commitments of these schemes, participants can be given additional work to do between the sessions.

Joining Young Curators
A registration form must be completed by parents for those aged 14-17 and by the participant if aged 18. Please click on this link to register.

Click on this link to read our safeguarding policy.