School Travel Organiser looks at one of the ways schools can spend a day at the SeaCity Museum in Southampton.
Itinerary: Maritime History at the SeaCity Museum
Provider: SeaCity Museum, Southampton
Subjects: History
Key Stage: 1-4
Schools visiting the SeaCity Museum, housed in the Grade II listed former Magistrates’ Court in Southampton, will learn about the city and its connection with the sea, including its Titanic heritage.
The exhibition, Southampton’s Titanic Story, as well as workshops available to schools, focuses on the tragic story of the Titanic, which left Southampton on 10th April 1912 and left more than 500 households in the city without a family member.
Included in the exhibition are powerful oral testimonies from survivors who describe the sequence of events from the time the ship struck the iceberg to its sinking and the rescue of passengers by the Carpathia.
Students will also be able to discover details such as how many people worked on board the ship and the types of jobs the crew carried out.
The education programme covers Key Stage 1 through to 5 and also supports Higher and Further Education learning. Workshops relating to studies on the Romans and Anglo-Saxons are also available.
One of SeaCity Museum’s exhibiton spaces.
Timings
10am: School arrives at the SeaCity Museum and are shown upstairs to the Grand Hall where they can leave their bags and packed lunches. Here, they will also meet their SeaCity guide for the day.
10.10am: Pupils will begin the day with a SeaCity Discovery session (an hour long guided tour) where they will be taken around the Southampton’s Titanic Story exhibition by their guide for the day. The exhibition tells the story of the impact the sinking of Titanic in 1912 had on the city of Southampton. A 1:25 scale, interactive model of the ship will give students an insight into the lives of the crew aboard the Titanic, many of whom were Southampton residents.
11.10am: Toilet break.
11.20am: SeaCity offers a range of workshops for Key Stages 1 to 4, which take place in the Learning Deck, SeaCity’s education zone. Whilst the subject and content of the workshops available vary for the different Key Stages, the museum’s provides Titanic focused workshops for all age groups. They include artefact handling and a range of hands-on activities to learn about the significant disaster.
12.20pm: Lunch in the Learning Deck.
12.50pm: In the afternoon there is time for schools to tour the museum self-guided. The time can be used as an opportunity to consolidate learning and to have a go on the interactive activities throughout the exhibition.
2pm: School departs.
It is recommended that schools enquire about availability at least two months before a proposed visit date.
For more information call 02380-832810 or e-mail museums.education@southampton.gov.uk or visit www.seacitymuseum.co.uk.
