It's 9.30am on a dull winter morning at a busy inner-city London primary, but the atmosphere in the school hall is electric with excitement. The 29 children of Year Three are lined up, lunchboxes at the ready, literally buzzing at the prospect of their day at the Natural History Museum.
'Nathan's been looking forward to this all term,' one of the other mothers tells me. I know just what she means: Miranda, my eight-year-old, was up at dawn packing her sandwiches. When you spend the vast majority of your weekdays in the same space - your classroom - the chance of four hours somewhere else is a prize in itself, and that's before you've even discovered whether your destination is remotely interesting, fun or stimulating.
Parents - and even teachers - sometimes question the benefits of school outings. We know the kids love them, but do they really get anything from them? Anything, that is, beyond the excitement of something different, the fun of a coach trip, and the chance to eat their chocolate biscuits before their ham sandwiches?
Many of us have had children come home from a trip to some cultural hotspot only for them to be unable to provide anything beyond the haziest of memories about what they actually saw. 'But tell us about the museum, darling!' we say, when we've been regaled for the fifth time with the tale of how Sammy threw up on the coach.
But the good news is there's plenty of evidence that kids do gain a lot from outings. That's certainly what the government thinks: last November, it launched the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto at the Natural History Museum, a £2.7m package to put teaching outside schools at the heart of the curriculum.
The aim is to encourage schools to use the wealth of educational opportunities beyond their gates - including museums and galleries. Educational visits, said education and skills minister Alan Johnson when he launched the initiative, 'can bring learning to life by deepening young people's understanding of the environment, history and culture and improving their personal development'.
Part of what lay behind the manifesto was worries among teachers about the risks of taking children on outings; so issues around raising teacher confidence, and assuring them of their rights on outings, was addressed by the department for education at the same time as the initiative was launched.
But it wasn't just a need to bolster the importance of outward-bound, activity-type outings that made Johnson get up to the podium: another important factor was a growing body of evidence that points to how significant museum and gallery trips can be in forming a child's education.
Much of the evidence comes from the museum studies department at Leicester University, which has carried out two big surveys into the lasting benefits of museum visits for children. Its second study, What Did You Learn at the Museum Today?, was published in February last year. It found that, among 26,791 pupils questioned, the vast majority were not only enthusiastic about their school trips but, crucially, had often obtained higher levels for assignments following a museum visit.
At the same time, there was evidence that not only were teachers more keen than they'd been in the past to take their classes to museums, but that museums' dealings with school trips were very much on the increase - in the 69 mu-seums studied, contact with school-aged children was up by 40 per cent since the earlier study in 2003.
Jocelyn Dodd, the director of the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at Leicester's museum studies department, says what museums offer schoolchildren is a broadening of horizons in every direction. 'An example is the chance to meet different sorts of adults: going to a museum might bring children into contact with artists and scientists, who aren't people they'd encounter normally.'
The research from Leicester comes as no surprise to David Anderson, the director of learning and interpretation at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
He says what's special about going to a museum is that it's a 'real' experience, as opposed to an in-the-classroom experience, which is very much the norm for a schoolkid. 'There's also a lot of opportunity for social learning - even when children are doing a task like making a sketch, they're also scanning what's going on in the wider context - it's not an age-specific experience, as it is in a classroom, it's got much more breadth.'
What's more, says Anderson, there's evidence that children are more likely to have what's often described as a 'flow experience' in a museum or gallery: which means an experience that makes a deep impression and can be recalled even years afterwards. 'It might even be something that changes their life,' Anderson says. 'If you look at the kinds of things that shape children's life choices it's interesting how often they mention out of the classroom experiences as pivotal.'
He argues that given the evidence that museum visits can be extremely fertile territory for firing young minds and imaginations, institutions should do their very best to provide excellent experiences and educational programmes for the school groups that are visiting.
Honor Gay, the head of learning at the Natural History Museum, points out that in a science museum such as her one, there is even greater potential than in an arts-based museum to enhance the work children are doing at school.
'With science it's very hard to teach concepts and we are really trying to change the way we do that: there's more recognition that museums can play an important part,' says Gay. 'They're definitely a lot more than fun days out.'
For large national museums such as the Natural History Museum there are lots of opportunities to enhance learning programmes: the museum offers schools video conferences both before and after a visit, so pupils are able to prepare for, and debrief from, their experiences.
It also has extensive online facilities for teachers planning museum visits, and has put lots of effort and resources into providing educators to enliven and enthuse school visitors.
Teachers have definitely noticed the difference: Catherine Brown, who teaches at the Holy Ghost Primary School in Balham in south London, has seen a huge change in the two decades she has been taking children to museums. 'In the early days I'd have to prepare my own teaching materials, but now there are invariably worksheets, and museum education staff are always helpful.'
She has learned to find museums that provide the right kind of experience for her pupils, and then goes back the following year. She recently took a Year Four class to Brooklands, the aviation and motor sport museum in Surrey.
'What really made it for the children were the people who were there to talk about the exhibits,' Brown says. 'Many of them had been alive at the time of second world war, and we've been studying that in school, so it was really fascinating for the children to get a chance to hear history at first hand.'
And Brown has seen lots of evidence that children retain what they learn in museums, and can put it to good use many months after. She says: 'I took my class to the Science Museum in the autumn, and we spent some time learning about forces. Then the other day, half way through the spring term, we had a question about forces in class and one of the pupils said to me: "I remember how that works - we learned about it at the museum…" It's great to know that
museum visits make such an impact.'
Others point out that teachers as well as children are more enthused about the subjects they learn about in museums. This leads to further benefits for the kids.
'There's a strong motivational factor for teachers,' says John Reeve, the deputy chairman of the Group for Education in Museums. 'It's not about learning lots of new facts, it's about making sense of what you already partly know, and most importantly it's about reconnecting with a subject: and that can happen as much for teachers as for children.'
So what's the future for the learning outside the classroom initiative?
Some museum professionals worry that, although the government's heart seems to be in the right place, there isn't yet enough funding, and that in the years ahead, what funding there is may dry up.
Some would like to see museums being a bit more adventurous when it comes to the content and exhibits that school groups are steered towards.
The national curriculum has clearly helped museums to tailor their programmes more effectively for school visits, but there is a move towards museums skiing off-piste when it comes to the materials they produce. This could broaden children's outlook beyond the narrow confines of the national curriculum.
And even more people would like new thinking on how to make it easier for secondary school teachers to bring groups into museums - especially given the government's commitment to expanding vocational qualifications for 14-16 year olds. Primary schoolchildren are a museum's comfort zone: teenagers are the real challenge.
Joanna Moorhead is a journalist and author specialising in parenting and family matters
Museums Association event: Family Learning, 16 April 2007, London. For more information visit www.museumsassociation.org
'Nathan's been looking forward to this all term,' one of the other mothers tells me. I know just what she means: Miranda, my eight-year-old, was up at dawn packing her sandwiches. When you spend the vast majority of your weekdays in the same space - your classroom - the chance of four hours somewhere else is a prize in itself, and that's before you've even discovered whether your destination is remotely interesting, fun or stimulating.
Parents - and even teachers - sometimes question the benefits of school outings. We know the kids love them, but do they really get anything from them? Anything, that is, beyond the excitement of something different, the fun of a coach trip, and the chance to eat their chocolate biscuits before their ham sandwiches?
Many of us have had children come home from a trip to some cultural hotspot only for them to be unable to provide anything beyond the haziest of memories about what they actually saw. 'But tell us about the museum, darling!' we say, when we've been regaled for the fifth time with the tale of how Sammy threw up on the coach.
But the good news is there's plenty of evidence that kids do gain a lot from outings. That's certainly what the government thinks: last November, it launched the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto at the Natural History Museum, a £2.7m package to put teaching outside schools at the heart of the curriculum.
The aim is to encourage schools to use the wealth of educational opportunities beyond their gates - including museums and galleries. Educational visits, said education and skills minister Alan Johnson when he launched the initiative, 'can bring learning to life by deepening young people's understanding of the environment, history and culture and improving their personal development'.
Part of what lay behind the manifesto was worries among teachers about the risks of taking children on outings; so issues around raising teacher confidence, and assuring them of their rights on outings, was addressed by the department for education at the same time as the initiative was launched.
But it wasn't just a need to bolster the importance of outward-bound, activity-type outings that made Johnson get up to the podium: another important factor was a growing body of evidence that points to how significant museum and gallery trips can be in forming a child's education.
Much of the evidence comes from the museum studies department at Leicester University, which has carried out two big surveys into the lasting benefits of museum visits for children. Its second study, What Did You Learn at the Museum Today?, was published in February last year. It found that, among 26,791 pupils questioned, the vast majority were not only enthusiastic about their school trips but, crucially, had often obtained higher levels for assignments following a museum visit.
At the same time, there was evidence that not only were teachers more keen than they'd been in the past to take their classes to museums, but that museums' dealings with school trips were very much on the increase - in the 69 mu-seums studied, contact with school-aged children was up by 40 per cent since the earlier study in 2003.
Jocelyn Dodd, the director of the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at Leicester's museum studies department, says what museums offer schoolchildren is a broadening of horizons in every direction. 'An example is the chance to meet different sorts of adults: going to a museum might bring children into contact with artists and scientists, who aren't people they'd encounter normally.'
The research from Leicester comes as no surprise to David Anderson, the director of learning and interpretation at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
He says what's special about going to a museum is that it's a 'real' experience, as opposed to an in-the-classroom experience, which is very much the norm for a schoolkid. 'There's also a lot of opportunity for social learning - even when children are doing a task like making a sketch, they're also scanning what's going on in the wider context - it's not an age-specific experience, as it is in a classroom, it's got much more breadth.'
What's more, says Anderson, there's evidence that children are more likely to have what's often described as a 'flow experience' in a museum or gallery: which means an experience that makes a deep impression and can be recalled even years afterwards. 'It might even be something that changes their life,' Anderson says. 'If you look at the kinds of things that shape children's life choices it's interesting how often they mention out of the classroom experiences as pivotal.'
He argues that given the evidence that museum visits can be extremely fertile territory for firing young minds and imaginations, institutions should do their very best to provide excellent experiences and educational programmes for the school groups that are visiting.
Honor Gay, the head of learning at the Natural History Museum, points out that in a science museum such as her one, there is even greater potential than in an arts-based museum to enhance the work children are doing at school.
'With science it's very hard to teach concepts and we are really trying to change the way we do that: there's more recognition that museums can play an important part,' says Gay. 'They're definitely a lot more than fun days out.'
For large national museums such as the Natural History Museum there are lots of opportunities to enhance learning programmes: the museum offers schools video conferences both before and after a visit, so pupils are able to prepare for, and debrief from, their experiences.
It also has extensive online facilities for teachers planning museum visits, and has put lots of effort and resources into providing educators to enliven and enthuse school visitors.
Teachers have definitely noticed the difference: Catherine Brown, who teaches at the Holy Ghost Primary School in Balham in south London, has seen a huge change in the two decades she has been taking children to museums. 'In the early days I'd have to prepare my own teaching materials, but now there are invariably worksheets, and museum education staff are always helpful.'
She has learned to find museums that provide the right kind of experience for her pupils, and then goes back the following year. She recently took a Year Four class to Brooklands, the aviation and motor sport museum in Surrey.
'What really made it for the children were the people who were there to talk about the exhibits,' Brown says. 'Many of them had been alive at the time of second world war, and we've been studying that in school, so it was really fascinating for the children to get a chance to hear history at first hand.'
And Brown has seen lots of evidence that children retain what they learn in museums, and can put it to good use many months after. She says: 'I took my class to the Science Museum in the autumn, and we spent some time learning about forces. Then the other day, half way through the spring term, we had a question about forces in class and one of the pupils said to me: "I remember how that works - we learned about it at the museum…" It's great to know that
museum visits make such an impact.'
Others point out that teachers as well as children are more enthused about the subjects they learn about in museums. This leads to further benefits for the kids.
'There's a strong motivational factor for teachers,' says John Reeve, the deputy chairman of the Group for Education in Museums. 'It's not about learning lots of new facts, it's about making sense of what you already partly know, and most importantly it's about reconnecting with a subject: and that can happen as much for teachers as for children.'
So what's the future for the learning outside the classroom initiative?
Some museum professionals worry that, although the government's heart seems to be in the right place, there isn't yet enough funding, and that in the years ahead, what funding there is may dry up.
Some would like to see museums being a bit more adventurous when it comes to the content and exhibits that school groups are steered towards.
The national curriculum has clearly helped museums to tailor their programmes more effectively for school visits, but there is a move towards museums skiing off-piste when it comes to the materials they produce. This could broaden children's outlook beyond the narrow confines of the national curriculum.
And even more people would like new thinking on how to make it easier for secondary school teachers to bring groups into museums - especially given the government's commitment to expanding vocational qualifications for 14-16 year olds. Primary schoolchildren are a museum's comfort zone: teenagers are the real challenge.
Joanna Moorhead is a journalist and author specialising in parenting and family matters
Museums Association event: Family Learning, 16 April 2007, London. For more information visit www.museumsassociation.org