Schools and colleges

Museum learning for everyone

Enrich your students’ learning by taking part in The Museum of English Rural Life’s award-winning programme for schools, colleges and learners. We warmly invite you to experience, learn from and get excited by our unique collections and our beautiful garden, and join us in exploring the countryside, its legacy, its people and its relevance to our lives today. 

We deliver our learning sessions in a range of welcoming and engaging museum settings. Our fabulous urban garden at The MERL provides an idyllic outdoor classroom for students of all age groups to support climate education, sensory engagement and promote health and wellbeing. We match this indoors with our specially designed studio space and engaging galleries. Many of our sessions are offered virtually and online. 

Watch our video to find out more about the magic of The MERL.

Indoors and outdoors, The MERL offers those of all ages and abilities opportunities to learn about the past and – as crucially – to think about and plan for the future. There are lessons from the past and lessons for what is to come, and The MERL experience goes far beyond what might initially be expected from a museum of rural life. A broad range of subjects comes to life in the learning programmes.

The Sandford Award.

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