AVAILABILITY 2024/25:
All our astrodome slots for year 5 (primary) students have been taken for the 24/25 academic year but we do have 2 slots for local secondary schools with year 8 students who want to work with us. Please email me with the postcode of your school and tell me you are interested in booking our astrodome and our workshop program for year 8s and I will get back to you asap.
NOTE: There are several other mobile planetarium across the South of England that offer school visits, please go onto the website, linked below, and type in your school postcode to find the planetaria that serve your area:
NOTES FOR TEACHERS:
If you have secured a booking with us – this means I have agreed a date with you and emailed you a booking form document and you have emailed it back to me then:
Teachers, please do not forget to timetable-in a break for us to have lunch. The astrodome demonstrating team are always extremely grateful when the school provides us with a free lunch 🙂
Please DO NOT leave us alone with the students- outside the dome or inside the dome. Please make sure there is always at least one teacher inside the dome with us.
The teacher inside the dome is responsible for behaviour management while we are inside the dome.
All teachers organising the visit can request a free teachers pack from us which we will bring along to the visit. Please tell me if you want one by emailing me.
Please note I (Sadie Jones) have a DBS (Criminal Record Check) but not all of the rest of my team do. However, members of the team have been fully trained and are aware that they should not be left alone with the students.
When you make a timetable for the day please rememember that we need at least 45mins to have a break/eat lunch!
We must reach at least 90 students in one visit from a minimum of 3 shows -Ideally, we want to reach, about 150 students in one day, from 5 shows!
NOTE: Our absolute limit for the day is 6 x 60 minute shows!
We no longer do 30 minute shows for Primary students because this isn’t enough time for them to see the show and ask questions. A 40 min session will allow each group to get at least 5 minutes outside the dome afterwards to ask us questions.
TERMS:
Only the Astronomy Public Engagement Leader is DBS checked, the other demonstrators with her might not be, however, none of us expect to be left alone. We insist on being supervised by teachers for the whole time we are at your school.
This year we are only working with a select group of primary and secondary schools so we bookings with us are limited, however if you have made a booking already then the following still applies:
We offer a MINIMUM of 3 x 45 minute shows and a MAXIMUM of 6 x 60 minute shows in one day!
Please note it takes at least 5 minutes at the start of each session to give our introductions and do the safety talk. We do this outside of the astrodome.
It takes at least 10 minutes to get the students in and out of the dome.
Asssuming the show is 45 minutes, this means we have at least 25 mins inside the dome learning about the physics of the stars and planets etc. And at least 10 minutes for questions!
In a single visit we must see at least 90 students, from a minimum of 3 x 45 minute shows. Ideally we would like to see at least 150 students in one day and do 5 shows!
NOTE:We do not do shows for Reception and Year 1 classes.