Aerospace Bristol Celebrates Record Number of School Visits & Aims to Fly Even Higher!

Aerospace Bristol is celebrating its most successful school year to date, with over 13,000 students visiting between September 2023 and July 2024. The museum saw school visits rise by nearly 40% last academic year, but the home of Concorde is aiming to reach new heights in the next 12 months.

 Amy Seadon, Head of Collections, Learning and Interpretation, said:  “We know how important school trips are, you never forget that one really engaging visit that sparked a lifelong interest in a subject. Our goal is to spark an interest in STEM, so it’s exciting to see the museum reach more and more schools each year.”

 The museum’s award-winning learning programme features thought-provoking, enquiry-based workshops tailored to every educational level, from Early Year Foundation Stage to A-level. The most popular workshops include ‘Blast off Rockets’, ‘Journey into Space’ and ‘Concorde Investigators’.

 During their visits, students can also take part in guided tours and explore a century of aviation history through inspiring and educational stories, and step aboard the last Concorde ever to fly.

 Aerospace Bristol owes a large part of this success to funding from South Gloucestershire Council, to help welcome more students. This enabled the museum to provide free coach travel to schools that might not have been able to visit otherwise. 

 The funding has also allowed the Learning team to expand, and focus on enhancing their schools offer further. Charlie Clark has joined as the new Learning Manager, bringing with her a wealth of experience in museum learning programmes, most recently from Silverstone Museum.  

 Charlie Clark said: “We're excited to kick off what promises to be an even bigger year, building on everything we achieved last year. With our coach travel bursary still available to schools in South Gloucestershire and a larger team in place, we’re ready for a busy year and can’t wait to get started.”

 More information about school visits is available at aerospacebristol.org/schools