Programmes and resources
The Museum Collections Unit offers a wide range of programmes and visit types tailored to meet the needs of your pupils at all age and ability levels. Arrangements can also be made for home-schooled pupils.
Please contact a member of the Learning & Access Team to book all visits.
Facilitated visits
Learning & Access museum staff can lead sessions across all our venues. These can range from general or more focussed tours of a museum or exhibition to workshops which investigate a particular theme. All sessions are designed with the Curriculum for Excellence in mind and can be tailored to meet the needs of your pupils. If topics you wish to cover are not currently available we may be able to develop sessions if appropriate advance notice is given. See what's currently on offer at MUSA.
Self-led visits
Resources can be downloaded from each venue page to enable teachers to guide their students in activities or tours of our sites without the aid of staff. Copies of the teachers’ guide Hands On: Learning from Objects and Paintings, produced by Glasgow Museums and the Scottish Museums Council, are also available in MUSA to facilitate your visit.
Loan boxes and outreach visits
Can’t make it to St Andrews? Museum staff from Learning & Access are sometimes able to visit your school to deliver sessions using artefacts from the University’s collections. Resources on two themes are currently available:
World War II
Pupils can investigate a range of fascinating objects, including newspaper clippings and a strange mystery object, to learn more about life in Fife during World War II. Topics include rationing, the blitz, investigating objects and the use of written and photographic source material. The visit is led and facilitated by a member of Museum Collections staff.
Bugs
Bugs are fascinating subjects for art and design. Pupils can think about how the insects move and practice their drawing skills using specimens they may not previously have had the chance to examine. Opportunities for 2D, 3D and animation artworks can arise from the session and students can discuss which medium might be best suited to the insects they see.
Loan boxes on other topics are currently being developed.
Teachers’ focus group
We are constantly looking to improve and extend what we can offer to schools. To help us do this, a group of teachers meet regularly to discuss future and ongoing developments at our sites so that pupils gain the greatest possible benefit from the University’s collections. The group also has the opportunity to see behind the scenes.
If you are interested in joining the teachers’ focus group please contact Alison Hadfield, Learning & Access Curator. Email: alh10@st-andrews.ac.uk; Telephone: 01334 461683.
