Educational Visit

The Oceanarium welcomes school groups of all ages, abilities and sizes, all year round and is the perfect all weather venue for educational visits.

With 12 spectacular naturally themed environments set across two floors, your class will engage in a global journey through the waters of the world. 

With a huge variety of incredible wildlife representing the vast biodiversity on Earth, there are 1000’s of amazing creatures waiting to be encountered! From otters to penguins, turtles to jellyfish and fascinating sharks and stingrays, the habitats, adaptations and importance of these awe inspiring creatures are here to be discovered.

Please see our package options below 

Silver (Self-Guided)

This is our basic package. You may decide to take your class around the aquarium yourself. We have a free ‘Self Guided Visit Pack’ available (upon request) which includes key information, including an Oceanarium map,  Fascinating Facts and Frequently Asked Questions, to help you guide your group and get the most from your visit. 

Gold (1 Hours Guided Tour)

To compliment your visit, you can choose to have a guided tour led by one of our marine experts. The tour lasts one hour and can be adapted to age, ability and topic being studied. Maximum of 20 children per tour.

Upgrade your visit to a PLUS package for an additional £1 per child.

Our PLUS package includes optional use of our lunchroom facilities and a 30-minute interactive session if wanted. 

To see a full list of session topics, please see our School Session Topics page here.

Download our School Resource Pack here.

Please Note: Our undercover lunch area included in our Silver PLUS and Gold PLUS packages are restricted to 20 children for 30 minutes, and larger groups will need to be staggered accordingly. This area can only be booked from 12:30pm. 

Please note: Once booked, you will receive a confirmation email. You will need to print off the confirmation letter attached and bring it with you on the day of your visit. A pre-invoice agreement will also be attached. This must be fully completed and sent back to us as soon as possible to confirm your place.

Please ensure that you arrive at least 10 minutes prior to the time(s) stated in your confirmation letter. This is to guarantee that arrival does not coincide with any other groups. Please call 01202 311993 ext. 208 if expected arrival is likely to be more than 15 minutes late. Please note that if you have booked a Gold, Silver PLUS or Gold PLUS package, late arrival may result in tour/session times being changed or cancelled.

We offer the following free teacher ratios:         

Child Pre School (3-5 yrs) - Free teacher ratio 1:3

Child Primary School (5-11 yrs) - Free teacher ratio: 1:5    

Child Secondary School (12-15 yrs) - Free teacher ratio: 1:10    

For additional teacher’s and adults including teaching assistants, parent helpers etc, we charge a reduced entry price at £11.99 (standard adult entry price £13.99). We also offer a free carer should any of the children require extra support. 

How to book

To receive the special educational rates, school groups must pre-book a minimum of 2 weeks prior to the visit date. We recommended booking as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

Large groups will be divided into more manageable numbers with a maximum of 20 children per group, with staggered entry into the Oceanarium.

To book or to find out more about our award winning educational visits, please call 01202 311993 ext 208 or email info@oceanarium.co.uk

If looking to book a group visit at the weekend or during school holidays we have a maximum 20-person policy in place and can only accommodate self-guided bookings from 3:00pm during these times. This is to ensure health and safety during our busiest periods.

Award winning – Best Educational Day Out

We are proud to announce that we have been awarded as the Best Educational Day Out in the South West for 2019. This year over 25,000 genuine families voted for their favourite attractions which made it very competitive and exciting.

It is rewarding to know that families and schools are pleased with the educational experience delivered by the Ocenarium and highly trained staff, and more importantly, that we are engaging with them in areas of conservation, education and influencing environmentally friendly behaviour in future generations. 

Terms & Conditions

• To make your group’s visit as enjoyable as possible please ensure that you keep to your allocated arrival time(s) tour time(s) as stated above. This is to guarantee that arrival does not coincide with any other groups and to ensure that a guide will still be available. Please call 01202 311993 ext. 208 if expected arrival is likely to be more than 15 minutes late.
• Due to Health & Safety requirements, pupils are not permitted to wait for their admission within the building before entry.  If your group has been broken down into smaller groups, please only bring one group into the admissions area at a time, at their allocated intervals. Thank you for your co-operation in this matter.
• Groups are the sole responsibility of the accompanying teachers/leaders/adults throughout their visit and the group must be accompanied by them, at the relevant child/student to adult ratio, at all times. Admission will be refused if these requirements are not met. Any visitors of the group found misbehaving in a way that is disruptive and/or inconsiderate to other visitors will be asked to leave immediately without any refund
• Lunch room cannot be booked between 11.45am and 12.30pm due to our Penguin Feed taking place within the area during this time.
• If you need to cancel your booking, please provide us with as much notice as possible (at least 48 hours).
• We accept both payment by invoice or payment by card/cash on arrival. You will need to let us know how you wish to pay upon booking. 

Testimonials

Preschool

“I wanted to send you a quick email to thank you for a brilliant trip yesterday. We were greeted by friendly staff on entrance who booked us in no trouble and provided us with maps to the Oceanarium.  They were amazing and friendly, great customer services.

Emily gave us out interactive session and this was just brilliant! The shark bone and turtle shell was all the children talked about on their way round and all they have spoken about today.  Emily was friendly and spoke to the children in a lovely tone and really engaged the children when talking to them.

The Offshore café was wonderful, the team were amazing and very helpful and the food was lovely.  We had a lovely lunch and am glad we did the hot meals for the children.

Please tell all the staff that Littleworld Day Nursery thank them for all their hard work and everything was just brilliant.  I’m really pleased I booked the Oceanarium for the trip and would recommend it to anyone and will definitely come back again in years to come.

Thank you so much for an amazing day.”

Littleworld Day Nursery, visited June 2016

Primary School

“My class had a lovely visit to the Bournemouth Oceanarium yesterday. Your staff were very friendly and helpful and the talk for the children was fantastic - the staff member who took it really got the children involved and even learnt their names.

We all had a really successful field-trip and the children learnt so much.”

Braishfield Primary School, visited February 2017