ESOL group tours and workshops
All tours and workshops are led by experienced language teachers and materials have been designed to meet appropriate language needs.
Core ESOL group tours
General introductory tour
Learners are introduced to the history, purpose and collection of the British Museum. This is followed by a tour including the Great Court, Enlightenment Gallery, Egyptian and the Assyrian Sculpture Galleries.
The learners are then taken into specific rooms for gallery-based activities which are designed to practice language and grammar elements through further learning about a particular historical or cultural context. The worksheet activities cover Africa, Asia or the Islamic world. Suitable for Literacy learners.
Citizenship – Making of the UK
Learners are introduced to the settlement and development of the British Isles from prehistory to the Tudor period.
The guided tour looks at the migrations to Britain of peoples such as the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings and the Norman French, and the impact of this migration on the development of technology, English language and culture.
The origins of writing
Explore the history of ancient Mesopotamia with this hands-on workshop. Learners will look at the motivations for recording information which led to the development of writing in the Middle East and explore artefacts from the world’s first library – the Library of Nineveh.
Learners will discover the origins of writing through the British Museum’s permanent collections and practise writing the ancient script of cuneiform – the world’s earliest known writing system. Suitable for Literacy learners.
Development of writing and scripts
This tour looks at the development of writing and different writing systems across the centuries and different cultures.
Learners are encouraged to think about why and where different scripts developed, the different writing materials that have been used and what has motivated us to write through history, as well as how scripts and writing continue to change and develop. The tour is followed by a set of written activities appropriate for the learners’ Entry level. Suitable for Entry 2 and above and for Literacy learners.
Word in Islamic art
This practical workshop explores the power of the word in Islamic art and architecture. Learners will look at the Islamic collections and discover how and why words have been used for artistic expression in Islamic art. Using their studies of the objects, learners will create their own tile to take away. Suitable for Literacy learners.
Nebamun: life and afterlife
This workshop looks at the tomb paintings of Nebamun from ancient Egypt and considers the objects and things that Ancient Egyptians valued in life and the afterlife. Learners will develop vocabulary to describe everyday life and beliefs through the objects in the galleries.
What makes us human? 40,000 years of human artistic endeavour
This hands-on workshop explores the earliest examples of art in the collection, exploring the human desire to communicate and make art as a way of understanding ourselves and our place in the world. Through looking at the prehistoric collections of the British Museum, learners are encouraged to make connections with our ancestors and to explore the question ‘what makes us human?’.
Booking and enquiries
Tours are free, 20 places per tour.
Tours are at 11.00–12.30 and 13.30–15.00.
Please book at least 3 weeks in advance.