Learning Programme
The Museums Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network provides a learning programme for the whole of the Network while its museums are in preparation, and for the schools, teachers and families of the sites at which the museums will open. The seven programmes below begin between 21 September 2026 and May 2027; all are provided without charge.
- 7
- Programmes of the Office beginning between 21 September 2026 and May 2027
- 8
- Loan boxes of handling objects available to schools from 21 September 2026
- 6
- Conservation traineeships of twelve months beginning on 18 January 2027
- 26
- Public lectures in the first year of the fortnightly series
The programmes. Each programme is described below with the date on which it begins.
- Loan boxes for schools
- Boxes of handling objects, each on a single theme and accompanied by notes for teachers, lent for three weeks without charge and delivered and collected by the Office.
- From 21 September 2026
- Taught sessions at Network sites
- Sessions delivered by the education staff of the Office at the premises of member organisations, each built on objects from the collections and lasting about an hour.
- From 5 October 2026
- Teacher preparation days
- A day with the collections for teachers preparing work on the subjects the museums will cover: what the collections hold, how they may be used in the classroom, and what the loan boxes contain.
- Monthly from 12 October 2026
- Public lecture series
- A fortnightly lecture on the collections and the work of the Office, given by the Office's staff and by guest speakers. Lectures are free and open to all; places are limited by the capacity of the room.
- Fortnightly from 24 September 2026
- Family sessions
- Sessions of handling, trails and making for families with children, held on the first Saturday morning of each month at each museum from the day it opens.
- From the opening of each museum, from 3 May 2027
- Conservation traineeships
- Six traineeships of twelve months in the conservation studios at Westbrook, in the care of objects, works on paper and natural sciences material. The traineeships will be advertised in the Newsroom in October 2026.
- From 18 January 2027
- Volunteer programme
- Volunteers work alongside the staff of the National Study Centre in repacking and documenting the reserve collections and in receiving readers in the study rooms.
- From 18 January 2027
Loan boxes. Eight boxes of handling objects are available from 21 September 2026. The objects in them are robust: they are meant to be held, and each box carries notes on what the objects are and what may be done with them.
| Loan box | Drawn from | Contents | Suitable for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Founding the Network | Founding collection of the Network | Documents, seals and instruments of the establishment | Upper primary and secondary |
| Instruments of the Survey | Maritime and survey | Sextants, compasses and survey notebooks | Upper primary and secondary |
| Charts and Compasses | Maritime and survey | Working charts, tide tables and hand-held instruments | Upper primary |
| Machines and Models | Industry and engineering | Working models, hand tools and technical drawings | Upper primary and lower secondary |
| The Working Day | Social and working life | Clothing, tools, trade signs and recorded testimony | Primary |
| Rocks and Fossils | Natural sciences | Geological samples, minerals and fossils | All ages |
| Fur, Feather and Shell | Natural sciences | Study skins, shells and nests | Upper primary |
| Printed and Patterned | Art; library and archive | Printing blocks, plates and printed sheets | Secondary |
Borrowing a box. The steps below describe a loan from request to return. Boxes may be borrowed by the schools of member organisations, and by other bodies on the agreement of the Office.
Step 1: Request a box
A school writes to the Office naming the box wanted and the three weeks in which it is needed. Requests should reach the Office at least three weeks before the first date wanted.
Step 2: Confirmation
The Office confirms the booking by email, normally within five working days, and sends the notes that accompany the box.
Step 3: Delivery and the classroom
Boxes are delivered to the premises of the member organisation by the Office's carriers and are packed in the trays in which they travel. A teacher must be present whenever the box is open, and the objects are handled over a cleared table.
Step 4: Collection and return
At the end of the three weeks the box is repacked, collected by the carriers and returned to the store. Its condition is checked on return, and the school is told if it may borrow again at once.
The public lecture series is held fortnightly on Thursdays from 24 September 2026; each lecture is announced in the Newsroom the week before it is given. Sessions for families and schools accompany the Office travelling exhibitions listed on the Exhibitions page, and the arrangements for visiting the museums from their opening are on the Visiting page. Bookings for boxes, sessions and lectures, and all other enquiries, may be sent to contact@museums.gov.vin.