Toys from the Past

Standard / non-member rates

For groups of 15 or more children
1-hour experience – £4.78 per child

For groups of fewer than 15 children
1-hour experience – £71.70 per group

Magical Museums member rates

For groups of 15 or more children
1-hour experience – £2.18 per child*

For groups of fewer than 15 children
1-hour experience – £32.70 per group

*If available, your member school's free hours will be used first.

Please note: SEND groups are charged at our Standard per-child rate plus a £10 administration cost.

What to expect from your Experience Day

What toys and games were popular with children in the past? Children will handle a range of historic toys and games, comparing them with modern equivalents, developing their understanding about the materials used to make toys in the past. They'll make their own optical toy to take back to school before having the chance to play with a selection of toys, including yo-yos, Jacob's Ladders, kaleidoscopes, flick books and tumbling figures.

The led session includes:

• Introduction to the site and setting the scene about the session
• Exploration of different types of historical toys and games, making comparisons between modern day equivalents
• Making their own optical toy to take back to school
• Playing with a range of replica toys including yo-yos, spinning tops, flick books and kaleidoscopes
• Plenary and evaluation

Group size

We can accommodate up to two groups from your school per available date – with a maximum of 35 pupils per group. If you’d like to bring more than two groups (70 pupils), please book additional days.

Timings

We deliver sessions from 10–11am for the first group, and 11am–12pm for the second group. If you’re bringing two groups to/from the museum at the same time, we strongly recommend you book self-directed time (you can find out more about this below).

Make a full day of your visit

When making your booking through Eventbrite, you’ll be asked if you want to book a space for lunch and self-directed time, too.

Self-directed time is essentially a booking to explore the museum in a large group. You need to book it in so we know we can accommodate your class alongside other visitors. It does not include any activities led by museum staff – so please plan your time accordingly.

Pre-visit info

To make the most of your visit, make sure you download and read the following documents. These include detailed information on what to expect from the day. For example: timings, locations, T&Cs and risk assessment.

Schools Visit Pack (PDF, 350kb)
Toys from the Past Experience Day info pack (PDF, 216kb)

A link for these will also be included on your confirmation email and ticket.

We also have the following resources and documents available to help with your visit planning:

Book the Toys from the Past Experience Day for your school

We are currently using Eventbrite for bookings while we move over to a new system. Any reference to FREE on the Eventbrite system relates only to not being charged at the point of booking. These sessions are NOT free – all schools will be invoiced following your visit based on the booking details you provide. Prices are listed above.

Bookings are now open for all schools to book for the Autumn Term. Our bookings for the Spring Term will open up to Magical Museums member schools in late Autumn 1 half term, and to all other schools in late November 2024. 

Cancellation policy

If you need to cancel or change your booking, you can do this by logging into the Eventbrite account you used to make your booking.

Our cancellation policy states: If you accept this visit but are unable to attend, please cancel your visit via Eventbrite by logging into your account and cancelling your booked ticket. We ask that where possible, you do this within 7 working days of the visit to free up the slot for another school. 

Please note: if you cancel your visit with less than 24 hours’ notice of the booked slot, you will be charged £50.