This is a special one-off creative session for home educating families as part of the Wild Escape project (funded by the Art Fund). The session is free and is separate from our monthly Amazing Artefacts sessions; it will take place on Wednesday 18th January (10:30-11:30 Juniors, 12-1 Seniors).
The Wild Escape project aims to connect children with the wildlife in museum collections and we will be exploring specimens and creative artefacts inspired by our urban wildlife to create some artwork of our own. We will also be discussing bug hotels with the aim of some of the children going on to take part in a further session led by Louise from Play Wild (date to be confirmed), where they will assist with the practical building of a bug hotel in Ellenborough Park East. Due to the health and safety considerations of tool use etc, places for this second session will be offered firstly to the children in the Seniors group, with any remaining places being offered to Juniors with the stipulation that they will be strongly supported by accompanying adults.
Sessions are designed to be active and accessible for a mix of ages and abilities with 2 separate sessions for younger or older children. The morning session will be aimed at slightly younger children aged approximately 5-8, nicknamed our Juniors, and the afternoon session will be aimed at the slightly older children aged approximately 9+, nicknamed our Seniors. If you would like to attend as a family group with mixed ages, then just pick whichever session you feel would be most suitable for the group as a whole. If you would like to let us know about any specific considerations for your children then we would welcome this, just get in touch.
Spaces need to be booked for each child attending, but grown ups do not need to book a separate place. It usually works best for the younger or less confident children if grown ups stay and join in with activities. Whereas for older or more confident children it is usually fine for grown ups to not stay in the session, although they will need to stay within the museum building whilst the session is taking place.
Tickets are free for this one-off session and can be booked via Ticketsource or by popping into or phoning the museum directly. In order to give fair access to all families to this free session, I have limited tickets to a maximum of 3 per booker. I’m fairly sure that there aren’t any home educating families in the local area that have 4 or more children that might want to attend these sessions, but please do let me know if this is incorrect.
The Wild Escape is made possible by lead support from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants, with additional support from Art Fund.
