School visits
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED (Updated 28th November 2018)
1. How much will it cost?
No charge is made for visits, but as a charity in these days of high diesel fuel prices, we are unable to travel long distances from our base. We will never refuse the offer of a donation to our funds.......
2. When can the visit be arranged?
We can only arrange a visit between the months of March to October inclusive.
It is easier to arrange morning visits. Typically we can arrive at a school around 10.00 am and stay as long as you need us. Please give as much notice as you can, so that a team can assembled to man the bus which is going to visit you.
3. Can we go for a ride?
If your school grounds are big enough we can drive around inside. It is worth noting that, due to their age, none of our buses are fitted with seatbelts.
4. Who will be bringing the bus?
At least two museum volunteers will be present. The volunteers who conduct the lesson will be DBS checked (formerly CRB), and will bring their DBS certificate for you to examine or photocopy.
5. How long will it take?
Normally each group will spend about 30 -40 minutes learning about the bus. It is easier with groups of less than 30 children.
6. What age group would benefit?
Our talks are different depending upon the class Year. We find that the most benefit is for Years 3 to 6 but Reception children should enjoy themselves too. It is probably not very beneficial to children in year 7 and above.
7. What about children with disabilities?
None of our buses are wheelchair accessible, due to their age. If any of your group has a disability, please talk to us beforehand so that we can make any arrangements that may be necessary.
8. Photography
Schools are more than welcome to photograph the buses.
9. Risk assessment
We recommend that the lesson is risk-assessed beforehand. In particular attention should be paid to keeping the area free of other children when the bus is moving, and ensuring that your school is insured for such lessons on the premises.
To arrange a visit, please use our contact us page
Several local schools have recently invited us to bring a bus and show the children what public transport was like before they were born. If you are a teacher of Keystage 2 children and think we may be able to help bring one of your lessons to life, this may just interest you. Please be aware that this offer is only available between the months of March to October inclusive
We can bring a bus into your school grounds (subject to access conditions) and give the children a tour of the vehicle, both inside and out, with a short talk about the bus and its history.
The bus that we will bring will be one of the two pictured below. We have worksheets available for them for years 3 and 6. These are provided in MS Word format so you can customise them to suit your class. You can download samples of the worksheets (in PDF format) below.
The Year 3 sheet is a single sheet whilst the Year 6 one contains two pages which should be printed back-to-back. Before we visit you, we will let you know which bus we are bringing along.
HEALEY INFANTS
We took our 1950 Albion Valiant to this school.
Museum volunteer Andrew Beever shows the children round the bus while the teachers take turns at playing in the driving seat!
ST JOHN'S INFANTS
(Dewsbury Moor)
Class teachers Miss Roberts and Mr Hamlet seemed to be having more fun than the children when we visited.
Here are some memories of previous visits:
Click HERE to download the Year 6 PDF worksheet for "Ethel", the green bus (410kb)
Click HERE to download the Year 6 PDF worksheet for TWY8, the blue bus (540kb)
