Guest blog: Natural History Museum - making museums fun for everyone

Published April 2025

In this guest blog, we hear from the Natural History Museum in Tring about the different ways they are making the museum a fun and inclusive experience for everyone. 

Here at the Natural History Museum at Tring (Hertfordshire) we are always striving to improve our offer for the SEND community. We have recently made huge steps towards our aim, and we now have a variety of free SEND provisions for our visitors, from toddlers to adults!

Explorer bags

As you enter the museum you can request loan of a free Explorer Bag, which are designed to help children with additional needs navigate the museum. These bags include fidget toys, a magnifying glass and an Explorer booklet which gives sensory information and highlights some key specimens around the museum, giving children a focus as they explore. We also now offer Tactile Bags for blind and partially sighted children, which contain a pack for each gallery with questions, tactile objects and even some real specimens! These are also available on request.

Our quiet sensory room set up for SENDsational mornings.

Tactile explorers and Tactile tours

Over the past year we have been developing a programme of free events for adults and for children with SEND. Our Tactile Explorers workshops are hands-on, pre-booked events for blind and partially sighted children and their families which offer the opportunity to get close up with real specimens, ask questions and discuss animals and their habitats away from the hustle and bustle of the main museum. Our Tactile Tours are for adults and their partners and carers and provide a tour of the galleries with audio descriptions and hands-on experiences with the museum’s specimens and architecture, aswell as some history provided by members of staff. Tactile Explorers and Tactile Tours are free and pre-bookable events which are advertised on our events website.

School workshops for SEND students

And finally, our curriculum-based Key Stage 1 (“Walter’s World Adventure”) and Key Stage 2 (“Habitats and Adaptation”) school workshops for SEND students are available to book via our tring-bookings@nhm.ac.uk email address. These multi-sensory workshops aim to introduce students to the museum and some of the specimens that we have, while discussing habitats and, for Key Stage 2, food chains and adaptation. 

Thanks to Joanna at the Natural History Museum for sharing this blog. Hopefully it has inspired you to make a visit to one of Hertfordshire's most interesting visitor attractions!

If you have any questions about the museum, you can contact them by emailing tring-bookings@nhm.ac.uk.