Key Stages 3-5: Museum Tours (In-Person)
Our Cast Gallery is set up chronologically – which makes it a great space to explore more than one thousand years of classical art history. Our casts are a unique resource to support the curriculum.
Age: 11-18
Curriculum links: Classical Civilisations, Ancient History, History
Maximum group size: 25 (minimum 10 for a visit led by us)
Session time: 45-60 minutes
Session type: museum-led or self-led
Recommended staff-student ratio: 1 adult : 10 secondary school students
No charges apply
Museum Tour
A tour of our plaster cast collection, whether led by our Education and Outreach Coordinator or by you, is specially designed not only to support the curriculum but also to stretch your students to think beyond it. We can plan our session to fit your timetable and you can also plan to spend some time exploring the Cast Gallery after the tour – it's up to you.
A 60 minute tour of the Museum takes in classical sculpture from the earliest experiments in sculpting the human form at the beginning of the Archaic period, through the Classical period, into the Hellenistic period and finishing with the Roman period. Tours can be tailored to the age range and prior knowledge of the group, supporting critical thinking and visual analysis skills through object-based learning commensurate with the Key Stage of your students and the requirements of their studies. Our tours are interactive, so your students will be active participants in their own learning.
Statues in the Cast Gallery
Our Cast Gallery houses plaster replicas of many of the masterpieces of Greek and Roman sculpture – including those studied in the GCSE and A-level Classical Civilisation specifications. Our tours aim not only to empower your students to think critically and confidently about ancient sculpture, but also to contextualise those statues within a bigger story about the development of classical sculpture and the Greek and Roman cultures which produced them.
You can also ask us to align the session with particular topics on the GCSE and A-level curricula, e.g. women or Greek religion.
Key Stage 4: OCR GCSE Classical Civilisation
- Temple of Zeus at Olympia: West pediment, East pediment, and three metopes
- Parthenon: frieze, pediment statuary, metopes, and reconstruction of the Athena Parthenos
- Prima Porta Augustus
- Temple of Athena Nike, south frieze with Greeks fighting Persians
- Trajan's column, scene with beheaded enemies
Key Stage 5: OCR A-level Classical Civilisation
A tour in the Cast Gallery is especially useful in supporting and enriching Component Group 2: Culture and the Arts.
- Prima Porta Augustus
- Temple of Athena Nike, south frieze with Greeks fighting Persians
- Temple of Apollo at Bassae, frieze of Greeks fighting amazons and centaurs
- Kleobis
- Peplos Kore
- Delphi Charioteer
- Artemision God
- Myron's Diskobolos
- Polykleitos' Doryphoros
- Eirene and Ploutos
- Hermes and Dionysos from Olympia
- Praxiteles' Aphrodite of Knidos
- Lysippos' Apoxyomenos
- Temple of Artemis at Corcyra, pediment with Medusa
- Temple of Aphaia at Aegina, pediment
- Temple of Zeus at Olympia, east and west pediments, and three metopes including the Cretan bull and the Garden of the Hesperides
- Parthenon, pediment sculpture, centaur metopes, and frieze
- Temple C at Selinus, two metopes incuding Herakles and the Kerkopes
- Siphnian Treasure, frieze
- Temple of Apollo at Bassae, frieze
- Erechtheion caryatids
How to Book
To make a booking, please use our online booking request form. Please note: we ask that school trips are booked at least a week in advance of your visit.
Our Education and Outreach Coordinator will be in touch to answer any questions or discuss your options in advance of your visit.
Further information
There must be a teacher or leader with a DBS certificate present during the session. Adequate supervision is important because it ensures the safety of both the students and the casts, and we ask that you split into groups based on the number of leaders you bring.
We want your school group to have fun on your visit to us, but we also have to make sure our collection is looked after. Groups who have to be repeatedly warned about behaviour may be asked to leave.
Our learning service is free
If you would like to make a donation to the Museum, we promise to spend your money on supporting and expanding our education programme and collections care. Any donation, however, is at your own discretion.
Highlights Pack
We have also produced a Highlights Pack designed to introduce A-level students to the collection and support their studies. The Pack contains 15 loose-leaf essays written by research specialists in the Faculty and can be purchased for £5 from the Museum.
Get in Touch
Tel. 01223 767044
Email museum@classics.cam.ac.uk
Before your visit
Please read our teacher's pack for more information about our museum and your visit