Primary School Programme at Royal Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum

Come to Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum for a fascinating and educational visit, set within the beautiful and inspiring Royal Pump Rooms. All of our sessions are based around our extensive collection of artwork and historical artefacts reflecting the development of Royal Leamington Spa from rural village to thriving Victorian spa town. Choose from a range of topics and allow us to add an extra dimension to your pupils’ learning. All sessions are led by our wonderful staff in order to give the children a valuable and fun experience.

Victorian Leamington (KS1/KS2)

Join us in our Victorian Leamington session, where we explore the Victorian history of Roya Leamington Spa. Choose from the following workshops:

• How did children and their families live?
• What made Leamington Famous?
• All about an elephant named Haddie?

We use a range of resources and activities to bring the past to life and enhance the topic of life in Victorian Britain.

Sample timetable

Cost: £150 x 30 children

Arrival at 10:00

10:00-10:30 – Formalities (fire drill, toilets, coats, rules in the museum, etc…), class stays together for a short history of The Royal Pump Rooms, then at 10:30, the class will separate into two groups. Children will have already been divided into 2 groups of 15 (or equal numbers as appropriate).

10:30-11:30 -Group A will go to the Craft Room and proceed with making clay elephants, Group B will be able to undertake a self-led tour of the museum. We will supply you with appropriate trails looking at the art gallery and the museum. There will also be some little activities for the children to do.

11:30-11:45 – short break – if the weather is nice they can be taken out to the park for a run around – school staff will monitor this part of the day as gallery staff will set up for the second session

11:45–12:45 - the groups swap over and do the relevant activities

12:45-13:00 – Groups come together, take coats, etc.. and leave promptly at 13:00.

Literacy at the Royal Pump Rooms (KS1/KS2)

Are you looking to inspire your class with their writing? Why not try something different? Bring them along to our setting and use us as the basis of your writing. You could:

• Choose an artwork and base your writing on that
• Use our setting to create a persuasive text – a newspaper report, a report about museums and art galleries, a historical report?
• Create your poetry around our art collection

These can be self-led, or we can offer our staff to help with your requirements to lead a session. Get in touch to find out how we can help you to inspire your children.

Art at The Royal Pump Rooms (KS1/KS2)

Join us and inspire your children with an art workshop that will focus on our extensive collection of beautiful artwork. Choose an artist or one of our artworks to focus on in your workshop. There will be a taught session and then the children will undertake a related piece of artwork. We have a myriad of artistic styles and artists in our collection – visit Art UK to check them out – or come and visit the gallery in person and have a chat with us. 

Art UK | Home

Terry Frost, Orange Umber 1960

Toys from the Past (KS1)

Your pupils will explore how toys from the past linked to the lifestyles of the time, stretch their knowledge of how people lived and how this reflected in their toys, e.g.: differences between rich and poor children, materials that were available, and see some of the beautiful toys from our collection. They will also be involved in a craft session where they will make their own peg dolls and thaumatropes to take away. A varied and fun session that wil enhance the study of toys from the past.

World War 2 in Royal Leamington Spa (KS2)

Do you know the links Leamington had with World War 2? Do you know about the camouflage that was created by artists living in Leamington? Bring your children along and take a different angle on the events of World War 2, link them to the local history of the town and see how Leamington played its part in helping to win the war.

General Information

Currently, class sizes are limited to 30 children per workshop.

Sessions run from 10:00 to 13:00. Activity timings within the these times will vary depending on the nature of the workshop, but we will work with you in order to create a workshop adapted as far as reasonably possible to the needs of your pupils.

Workshops are taught by our in-house, trained staff and held in our Craft Room (messy activities) and in the Art Gallery and Museum.

If you have any requests or ideas regarding any art or local history workshops that you may like to explore, please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your request and potentially work with you to create a personlised workshop for you.

For further information about any of our workshops, or to book one of our workshops, please contact:

Giovanni Vinti (Learning and Engagement Officer) at engagement@warwickdc.gov.uk.