Museums in the Thames Valley Fly the Flag for Family Friendly Days Out
Museums are not about shhhh! and don't touch! says Tourism South East (TSE) as a new initiative is launched this month, which sees 29 museums in the Thames Valley region join forces in a scheme which aims to provide an instantly-recognisable guarantee of quality family friendly facilities. With a lively programme of family friendly events at Thames Valley Museums (TVM) this summer, TSE knows just the place for great days-out destinations.
From Animal Magic at the Ashmolean, a Swinging Sixties Family Day at the Museum of Oxford and a photographic competition run by West Berkshire Museum in Newbury; to a Vikings Fun Day at Henley's River & Rowing Museum and a Gardening Fair at Wycombe Museum; or the chance to be a 'driver for a fiver' at Didcot Railway Centre - the TVM Family Friendly Campaign promises a veritable treasure-chest of activities to suit all ages and interests.
Recent research by TSE reveals that for parents, entertainment, education and value for money are all key drivers when planning a day out with the family. Launching the TVM Family Friendly initiative, Karen Roebuck of TSE explains: "In supporting this campaign, we are keen to sound a clarion call for museums in the Thames Valley as family friendly visitor attractions. But in today's society families come in all shapes and sizes and encompass a huge range of family units that extend across generations and friendship groups. A day-out is all about choices and museums need to meet often quite diverse expectations if they are to attract families to their doors in the first place and more even importantly, give them reasons to return."
But being a designated 'family friendly' museum is not just about putting on activities for children - it is about capturing the imaginations of visitors of all ages and promoting interaction between the generations. The ways in which the museums are striving to become more family friendly not only concentrate on improving the purely physical features of the museum buildings and facilities, they also include the overall way in which the museum staff respond to the needs of visiting family groups - and together these make for a satisfying visitor experience.
Accessibility, approachability and inclusivity are important watchwords for participating museums, whose objective is to make the visitor experience as effortless as possible, so that families can concentrate on simply enjoying their day-out with minimum fuss. From clear information and easy orientation, to providing somewhere to sit down to take the weight off their feet for some rest or reflection - the focus must be 100% on the needs of the visitor.
So from the car park to the curator and the café - these Thames Valley museums have pledged their support for what they call their 'family friendly promise' - a set of foundation principles to ensure that staff are welcoming and adaptable and always ready to help. With many museums also having cafés and gift shops - quality and value for money are vital - which is especially important when it comes to deciding how best to spend your precious pocket money!
The Family Friendly Promise:
Thames Valley Family Friendly Museums will...
Ensure your family is welcomed and made to feel at home throughout your visit
Provide interesting and fun things to do, see, listen and explore to make your visit special
Offer appropriate good value food and affordable gifts that children will want to treasure, where cafés and shops are available
As part of the initiative, museums want to actively engage families and help them to plan and get the most out of their visit. This can be as simple as pointing out areas of the museum or individual exhibits that may appeal to certain age groups, or may involve the production of a special activity sheet or museum trail. The TVM Family Friendly Campaign has also devised some top tips to make a museum visit a hit with all the family:
Tips for enjoying your family visit:
Explore
A visit to a museum gives you an opportunity to explore - you can find millions of objects varying from fossils to Formula One.
Take Time
You don't have to see everything in one visit - you can always go back again and find something different to do. Many offer free entry, value family passes and free re-admission tickets.
Look
Have a look around and familiarise yourself. Take a quick look at all the objects, and then maybe choose just one or two to focus on. You might look for the biggest, smallest, heaviest or oldest objects. Think of what they are made of, or who might have used the objects. A museum can be a place of wonder and magic.
Imagine
Let your imagination run riot. What would it be like to be a Roman soldier? Perhaps you'd rather record your dream in a dream bottle?
Talk
Museums don't have to be silent places. Talk about what you see during your visit. What is your favourite moment or object? Does anything surprise you? Does anything scare you? Staff always enjoy answering questions like these!
Create
Feel free to bring pencils and paper to the museum to do some drawing. You might like to draw your favourite object or create your own story
Have Fun!
Above all, have fun in museums and enjoy your visits!
The TVM Family Friendly Campaign is supported by TSE as the regional tourist board in South East England - a partnership between private enterprise, local government and the regional development agency (SEEDA). The campaign is also supported through funding from Renaissance in the Regions - the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's (MLA) groundbreaking programme to transform England's regional museums and galleries.
Laura Williams, Regional Museum Development Manager for MLA South East says: "The TVM Family Friendly Campaign is just the sort of initiative Renaissance is designed to support, opening up museums to wider audiences and improving what they have to offer."
For further information, images or to arrange a media visit to any of the Thames Valley Family Friendly museums, please contact Ruth Harman or Jane Bevan at Isis PR on 01844 212 005
Ends
Notes to Editors:
For more information about family friendly events and activities at museums in the Thames Valley, visit their web site at www.thamesvalleymuseums.org.uk, or see individual museum websites below
Participating museums in the Thames Valley:
Abingdon Museum - www.abingdon.gov.uk
Amersham Museum - http://www.amersham.org.uk/museum
Banbury Museum www.cherwell-dc.gov.uk/banburymuseum
Buckinghamshire County Museum - www.buckscc.gov.uk/museum
Chesham Museum - www.cheshammuseum.org.uk
Cogges Manor Farm Museum - www.cogges.org
Cowper & Newton Museum - www.cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk
Didcot Railway Centre - www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk
Eton College, Museum of Eton Life - www.etoncollege.com
Hook Norton Village Museum - www.hooky.co.uk
Kelmscott Manor - www.kelmscottmanor.co.uk
Milton Keynes Museum - www.mkmuseum.org.uk
Museum of English Rural Life - www.merl.org.uk
Museum of Oxford - www.oxford.gov.uk/museums
Museum of Reading - www.readingmuseum.org.uk
National Trust, Hughenden Manor - http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-hughendenmanor/
Oxford Bus Museum Trust Ltd - www.oxfordbusmuseum.org.uk
Oxfordshire Museum - www.oxfordshire.gov.uk
Oxford Castle Unlocked - www.oxfordcastle.com
Oxford University Museums - http://www.museums.ox.ac.uk
Ashmolean Museum - www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk
Museum of Natural History - www.oum.ox.ac.uk
Museum of the History of Science - www.mhs.ox.ac.uk
Pitt Rivers Museum - www.prm.ox.ac.uk
River & Rowing Museum Foundation - www.rrm.co.uk
Roald Dahl Museum & Literature Centre - www.roalddahlmuseum.org
Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers Museum - www.rememuseum.org.uk
Slough Museum - www.sloughmuseum.co.uk
South Hill Park - www.southhillpark.org.uk
Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology - www.reading.ac.uk/ure
Vale and Downland Museum - www.wantage.com/museum
West Berkshire Museum (Heritage Service) - www.westberkshiremuseum.org.uk
Wycombe Museum - www.wycombe.gov.uk/museum
The TVM Family Friendly initiative is funded by the South East Hub of Museums as part of Renaissance in the Regions, and by TSE, to:
Run a campaign focused of the family market
Develop a quality-assured brand of family friendly activity
Train staff to provide family friendly activities
Communicate the family friendly offer through integrated print and website publicity
Build collaborative marketing throughout museums across the Thames Valley
For more information, visit their website at http://www.museumse.org.uk/cms/web/sehub
Tourism South East (TSE) is the new regional Tourist Board responsible for tourism in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex.
TSE is the largest tourist board in the UK outside London and is the driving force for innovation and growth in tourism - representing over 2,000 members from all sectors of an worth an estimated £10 billion and providing more than 225,000 jobs to the economy of the South East England.
Recent research by TSE in 2005 involving 6,000 interviews in over 60 locations investigated the motivations for families taking short breaks; what they enjoyed doing in their leisure time and the types of accommodation they prefer. Education, entertainment and value for money are key factors when planning days out for the family, with heritage attractions and a preference for self-catering accommodation being high on the list of priorities.
Results of this research study have shaped Tourism South East's domestic marketing plan for 2006 and TSE is working with a number of regional partners, on their first domestic campaign of the year: Family Fun.
The TVM Family Friendly initiative is part of the TSE Family Fun Campaign to promote attractions that are suitable for family days out. The South East of England has thousands of adventures within a two hour radius of London that won't break the bank, including:
o Cycling
o Family friendly beaches
o Water sports
o Maritime history
o Extensive shopping opportunities
o Theme parks
o Animal attractions
o Family friendly heritage centres
o Children's literary connections
For more information about what to do and where to go this summer visit the Tourism South East web site at: http://www.visitsoutheastengland.com/familyfun