Learning

The mission of the American Museum & Gardens is to stimulate and inspire people of all ages to further their understanding of the richness and complexity of American culture. We offer the following learning programmes:

• Onsite – Visiting us
• Outreach – Visiting you
• Video live sessions
• Learning from home

Visiting us

We want your visit to be inspiring and motivational. We will give opportunities for your learners to apply critical thinking to what they see. Come and make contact with real objects from our history. We will give context to our handling collection with links to real lives, stories and places so pupils can really understand.

Visits include:

• Being hands on with real objects
• Exploring areas in the museum, questioning your ideas with our learning guides
• Group discussions of some big concepts and linking those to real events and people
• Take away creative and learning materials to continue reflecting on your visit

You will be led throughout your visit by our Learning Officer and/or a member of the Learning team. You will have exclusive use of our learning room to use as your base camp for your coats and bags.

Hopefully, the weather will give you the opportunity to run around in our amazing gardens, to make a noise and to exercise your bodies as well as your minds. You can eat lunch inside the learning rooms or choose a place outside. We have toilets right next to our spaces which makes quick loo trips really easy for our school visitors.

We recommend the following ratio of adults to students:
• 1:4 for children of seven years and under
• 1:7 for children of eight to 11 years
• 1:10 for pupils of 11 to 18 years

The cost is £140 for 30 pupils. For larger groups please contact us.

We welcome Home Educating groups of up to 40 people with adult and child participants. The cost is £140 for the group for a full learning visit including handling session and museum visit.

To help you plan the visit, please see our Risk Assessment for Learning Sessions.

Please see here for an outlined schedule of our learning days.

Testimonials

Widcombe Junior School
Thank you so much for organising such a brilliant school trip for Widcombe Junior School – the children absolutely loved it. They enjoyed the lecture, drawing, trip to the museum and the 3D crafting. It was a fabulous trip – the provision, the facilities and staff were excellent. Thank you for making it so special. 

Colfox
Thank you very much on behalf of our whole group for the fantastic day and session you arranged for us. The content was fab, and I particularly loved the interactive timeline. The amount of research that had gone into the session was amazing and so useful for the content the sixth form need for the A Level. Thank you for all the effort put in to prepare the session! The group really loved the museum and photography exhibition as well as they did go round twice as you suggested!

Collegiate School
What a wonderful time our school had at the American Museum! Ffion was brilliant with the children and the activities were just right for their age and experience. They learnt so much and had a fun day! We look forward to coming again next year. 

Godolphin School
A huge thank you for all the efforts of your team yesterday to make our visit and enjoyable one. From start to finish we were made to feel most welcome. The slide show and explanation really put the whole collection into context and the ability to handle artifacts really gave them an idea of the role art craft and design played in the life of the people. The volunteers were helpful too giving valuable insights into the pieces of interest in every room. My whole team were very impressed. 

Robert Blake School
“Everything was brilliant.”

Travel grants

We offer travel grants of up to £300 to support schools in visiting us when funding is available. The grant is for schools with a pupil in the visiting group who receives Pupil Premium, FSM, is Looked After or In Care. To claim the grant you need to send us a brief email notification from a senior member of staff that you will have a Pupil Premium child in the group. We would like to thank the Medlock Charitable Trust for their generous support of this scheme.

After your visit, please pay your travel/coach costs and then send us a copy of your paid invoice and school payment details. We will then refund the money to your school account. If you are visiting us on more than one day in a season you will be able to request the grant to help cover your costs for both days of travel.

Visiting you

It may be easier for us to come to you for an Outreach session. If you are within a 90 minute car journey, we will bring the museum to your school for the day. There will be an interactive presentation, objects to handle and investigate, reflective activities to deepen pupil thinking about difficult concepts and perhaps a craft session to learn a new skill which children would have known how to do a 100 years ago.

All of our learning sessions can be delivered as an outreach visit. We can work with multiple groups of pupils of up to 90 as we work in a carousel of activities with carefully thought out activities to thoroughly engage your students.

Please get in touch to discuss how we can meet your needs.

The cost is £140 (including VAT) for 30 pupils plus travel costs. For larger groups please contact us.

Learning sessions

What is America?
Age group – EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) and KS1

• Explore the world of North America in our museum and gardens 
• Using a giant map, look at the variety of American animals and where they live  
• Handle wooden spoons, deer antler and buffalo horns and several fur samples, and talk about how they can be used
• Walk to our Redwood trees, see the differences between evergreen and deciduous leaves, look for wild mint and wonder what may live in our streams
• Touch a very old quilt which has kept someone cosy, and make a similar pattern with tissue paper pieces 
• Visit the museum to talk about the strange things people have made

English Inspiration
Age group KS1–5, Literature students

This session will give pupils strategies for exploring how unique objects and places can be inspirational for their creative writing.

Led by a published author and specialist teacher, pupils will work from our historic rooms and handling collections using discussion, collaboration, visualisation and drama.  Students will be supported with vocabulary acquisition and developing their writing techniques in different genre.

Learners will also be encouraged to empathise with indigenous tribes, their stories and culture alongside a growing understanding of the motivations and actions of settlers with examples of literature from a wide range of sources.  Sessions will be tailored in discussion with the teacher to meet the needs of students.

Liberty for whom? A 500 year guide to voting rights in the US
Age group – KS4 & 5, Literature & History students

Aim – This is a contextual session looking at how different cultural groups gained civil rights, citizenship and voting rights in the US. We will see how social and political power has been granted, taken, denied and given at times over the past 500 years. This discussion opportunity will support students in understanding how different experiences have shaped lives for a range of peoples in diverse geographical situations.

The day can include;

• Looking at Liberty – does the iconic statue truly represent freedom?
• Handling collection – an opportunity to be really hands-on with some of our collection and see how the items may have been used by individuals
• Meet up – consider how real-life individuals would be affected by rules, regulations, laws and societal expectations

Museum tour or visit – You may wish to take advantage of a detailed tour explaining how our collection relates to your period of interest, or you can tour the house freely as you wish.

Art in the Garden
Age group – KS 2–5 according to learning objectives and needs

Aim – An art, design and textiles workshop which uses our unique gardens, arboretum and parkland as creative inspiration for pupils.

Students will observe different natural elements, respond to their choices with different medium and individually experiment with a range of materials to create 2-3 pieces during their visit.

Activities can include:

• Mark making, patterns and examining surface textures
• Collage and construction with papers, fabrics and natural items
• Manipulation of materials and a range of substances
• Embellishments, applique, stitched layers and simple embroidery
• Fabric painting
• There is an opportunity to work with the artist, Claire Richenda Todd, and be inspired by her varied portfolio
• Visit our historic collection of quilts to see a range of techniques and creative ideas
• Understand the varied social contexts in which pieces were made

This session can be adapted to suit KS2-3 as well as GCSE Art & Design, Deign & Technology and Textiles.

The cost of £150 includes all materials for approx. 30 pupils.

The day is from 10.00am – 2.30pm which allows time for students to observe, respond and create 2-3 pieces. There is an additional cost of £50 if you would like Claire to work with your pupils on creating their pieces – https://claire-todd.squarespace.com

Native Americans – their landscapes and lifestyles
KS1, KS2, Geog, Early civilisations, Place knowledge, Human geography
DT – investigate & analyse products

• See how the lives of Native American people were lived in different landscapes
• Look at lifestyle changes over 500 years with new technologies and contacts
• Explore sources and handle innovative objects from Native American lives
• Appreciate how the European world was changed with knowledge from indigenous people

Road Trip USA
KS1, KS2, Cornerstones, Roadtrip USA, Place knowledge, Physical geography, Human geography

This session ties in with the Road Trip module from the Cornerstones curriculum

• Use your passport and see how the physical geography made different settlements and trade routes
• Examine evidence of how the lives of Native American people were lived in different landscapes;
• Look at lifestyle changes over time with new technologies Explore a range of sources and handle innovative objects from past lives
• Look at how both indigenous and European lives were changed through travel and trade

Colonists & settlers
KS2, KS3, Migration factors, Historical evidence, Historical enquiry

• Use this session to examine how quickly the 15 000 years of Native American history and life changed with the landing of European settlers and colonists
• Use primary resources to gather evidence of how people lived
• Come with questions and examine the evidence for those
• Work with materials to make your own quilt square (sewing skills not always needed) for group display

GCSE American West, AQA, Edexcel and GCSE WJEC A Nation of Contrasts, 1920-1929
KS4, GCSE History, American West

GCSE module in a day

• Use real life character profiles to chart the effect of government and state policies on Native American people; Asian migrants; African Americans; 49ers; a cowboy and a mid-west settler
• Handle objects which illuminate the lives of people and their living conditions
• Explore our rooms to see how people came together in historical settings

A Level Learning

We offer a unique learning opportunity for your students to be close to the story of the American continent and the people within it. We will support your students in appreciating the conflicting concepts of the many different cultural groups of North America. We can work within your specific date range giving students an opportunity to consolidate their contextual knowledge and deepen it with both handling items and genuine narratives.  

Our museum shows some of the variety of Native American cultures in the heritage gallery and our historic rooms display the European settlements from 17th century to 1880. This presentation is of great compliment to our own handling collection which includes many objects from Native American peoples, settlers and plantation type pieces and a further collection of 20th century items. All these artefacts give perspective to the lives of real people. 

The day would include; 

• 60 mins Power Point talk and activity
• 45 mins handling collection
• Lunch
• 1–2 hour museum visit (with learning topic guide if appropriate)

Legacy & lives – how the trade in enslaved people still impacts all of us today
KS4, KS5, Slavery, Racism, Anti-racism, BLM, British values, Liberty, Respect, PHSE, GCSE History, Empire

Pupils will be given positive images of black culture in the UK & US. They will be introduced to a range of historical sources and objects to deepen their understanding of a difficult history.

Your students will be guided through a series of activities to understand the aspects of transatlantic slavery and their legacy.

Topics covered – types of slavery and attitudes to race, forced migration, plantation life & narratives from enslaved people, resistance, abolition movements and the link to contemporary issues including Black Lives Matter.

This learning opportunity demonstrates the massive impact of transatlantic slavery and the ways it still impacts on all our lives today.

Video live Sessions

As many schools are too far away to be able to visit our unique museum, we offer live video learning sessions via Zoom or Microsoft Teams. We want to give your pupils the opportunity to see items from our learning collection and to ask questions, even if they are unable to visit us in person.

We offer two online sessions, each lasting 60 minutes. We suggest a week apart for each session. These will be accompanied by two sets of PDF’s to use with your class to deepen their understanding.

We suggest the following structure –

• The first 60 mins online session covering the geography of the North American continent and exploring how Native American people farmed, traded, made homes and lived full and creative lives with their families. Students will also be shown items from our collection which are unique to Native American heritage including a ‘Mohican style’ headdress.
• PDF’s will be supplied for use in class, covering Native American leadership qualities and use of the feather as a symbol of leadership and community thanks.
• A second 60 minute online session will look at how the lives of Native American people were changed by European settlers and the advent of ‘public’ transport into the continent. This session will include further items to look at from the lives of European settlers.
• Further PDF’s for class use on Native American people today, as well as two famous people to research.

We are happy to use Microsoft Teams or Zoom to deliver the session to your class.

This session and PDF materials also costs £140.00.

Please email [email protected] or use the form below to request a learning session.

Learning from home

If you’re missing school or college, we’ve put together some free AM&G Discovery sheets. The sheets focus on objects in our collection and we hope they inspire you to create your own.

Discovery sheet 1 – Porringer
Discovery sheet 2 – Quilt squares
Discovery sheet 3 – Weaving
Discovery sheet 4 – Moccasins

If you’d like to see any specific objects or subjects featured on our Discovery sheets, do let us know by emailing [email protected]