Essential Information

All school or group visits (including self-led visits) must be booked in advance, please contact the venue directly to do this. Alternatively please use our online workshop enquiry form.

When you enquire about a visit please have the following information to hand:

• Name and address of school
• Contact Name
• Telephone number
• Email address
• LEA
• Number of pupils & year group
• Preferred dates
• Packed lunch requirements
• Access requirements

All facilitated workshops must be paid for in advance of the booked workshop taking place. Payment can be made in two ways:

Invoice – Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums will invoice your school for workshop you have booked. If you wish to use this method of payment please email the completed ‘Facilitated Workshop/Visit Confirmation Form’ with the following information:

• School name
• Full address including postcode
• Point of contact (this is usually your school business manager or member of the administration team)
• Purchase order number (if required by your organisations financial procedure)

Newcastle City Council Journal request - If you qualify for this method of payment please email the completed ‘Facilitated Workshop/Visit Confirmation Form’ with the following information:

• School name
• Point of contact (this is usually your school business manager or member of administrator team)
• Cost Code and Sub Code

A member of the venue learning team will contact you as soon as possible; we aim to reply within 5 working days, either by email or phone. The staff member will highlight the options available to you and discuss the details of your visit.

Confirmation - Once this has happened you will receive a ‘booking’ email. Check the details on here thoroughly and read the attached terms and conditions. If all the information is correct and you want to confirm the booking send back the ‘Facilitated Workshop/Visit Confirmation Form’ within five working days as confirmation.

Failure to confirm your booking within five working days will mean your booking will be cancelled and the slot given to another group.

If you have to cancel a booking please contact the venue immediately to arrange an alternative date.

If Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums have to cancel and no agreeable alternative is found or re-scheduling is not possible a refund will be offered.

If bad weather or other circumstances result in the school closing so that the visit cannot take place, the session will be re-arranged or an alternative found where possible. Refunds will not be offered in this instance.

Pre-booked workshops vary in length from 30 minutes to all day, the duration of each workshop is stated on all material related to the workshop and will be communicated to you when you book your visit. As both Tyne and Wear Archives and and Discovery Museum are based in the same building many schools take advantage of Discovery Museum's packed lunch spaces and can spend a full day combining a workshop with a free self led visit in both venues.

Yes! We highly recommend you make a preliminary visit to help you get the most out of your trip, especially if you are on a self-led visit. The Learning Team are happy to discuss your visit with you, ensuring you and your pupils get the most from it. Please contact them directly for more information on the resources available or to arrange a meeting to discuss your requirements.

Unfortunately we do not have a Risk Assessment you can download, as the Department of Education's publication 'Safe Keeping' states, ‘the group leader should carry out a risk assessment’. However each venue has a Hazard Identification Sheet which, along with your preliminary visit, will help you write your risk assessment.

The Hazard Identification Sheets can be downloaded from our learning website here. For further help please contact the venue Learning Team directly.

There is no restriction on the number of adults you can bring on a visit, however we expect all visiting groups to follow current guidelines appropriate for the age and needs of their individual group. It is your responsibility to ensure your pupils safety and conduct whilst visiting the venue. We suggest you prepare your pupils and adult helpers for the visit, ensuring a valuable and enjoyable experience for all.

Certain workshops will have different ratio recommendations, please ask the venue Learning Team for specific information when booking.

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums actively try to make our venues as safe as possible. However, our venues (especially outdoor sites) can still be hazardous. Members of staff are always onsite to ensure, as far as possible the safety of visitors. However, ultimately your pupils are your responsibility, never leave them unsupervised.

Please ensure that your pupils are suitably dressed and are wearing appropriate footwear for the weather and activities they are participating in.

On arrival, groups should sign in at the desk in the entrance of Discovery Museum and staff will assist with bag storage (please note that this storage is not secure, please do not leave any valuable items). If you have booked a schools workshop a member of the Learning Team will meet you. If you are a using the Archive as an individual or with a small group on a self directed please follow the signs from the museum entrance directing you to Tyne & Wear Archives.

Two lunch spaces are available at Discovery Museum. Groups using the Archive are welcome to book these spaces too, If you require a Lunch space as part of your visit confirmation of your lunch space booking will be included on the documentation for a facilitated session.

There are is a small shop in the Archive Search Room.

There is also a larger shop in the Discovery Museum. For this shop we ask that a maximum of 10 children, with a supervising adult visit at any one time to help ensure a quick and efficient visit to the shop.

All our venues have accessible male and female toilets - The nearest are on the ground floor inside the museum

Hazard Identification Sheets, teachers packs and resource sheets are all available in the Downloads section of the Schools website. You can find these here.

To ensure you are up to date with the latest opportunities from TWAM make sure you sign up to our e-flyer on TWAM Learning homepage

TWAM also regularly hosts free twilight teacher CPD sessions both in school and in venue. These sessions include CPD sessions which are subject specific and linked to specific exhibitions.