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.

PHoto of room laid out with sensory toys 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.

Visit the Tring Natural History Museum website

Name	Type	How we use it	How long we use the information for
ASP.Net_Sessions	Required functionality	An automatic cookie set by our software.	Just for the time you are on our website.
ServerID	Required functionality	An automatic cookie set by our software.	Just for the time you are on our website.
_ga	Required functionality	To track the effectiveness of our website using Google Analytics.	2 years
saved-pages	Performance and feature	To save the pages that you visit by clicking the heart at the top of the page.	1 month
geoPostcode	Performance and feature	This stores your postcode (or partial postcode) when we ask you for your location.	Just for the time you are on our website or 30 days (you choose this).
geoCoordinates	Performance and feature	This stores your location as a pair of latitude / longitude coordinates.	Just for the time you are on our website or 30 days (you choose this).
reckonerName-history	Performance and feature	This keeps a history of all answers submitted to the ready reckoner.	This is set in the control for each ready reckoner. If you haven't interacted with the ready reckoner for the set amount of days, the cookies are deleted.
reckonerName-content	Performance and feature	This keeps a history of what content cards are clicked on when using the ready reckoner.	This is set in the control for each ready reckoner. If you haven't interacted with the ready reckoner for the set amount of days, the cookies are deleted.
SQ_SYSTEM_SESSION	Required functionality	This used to track user sessions on forms hosted on eservices.hertfordshire.gov.uk	Just for the time you are on our website.

Service name	Purpose	More information
Google analytics (_utma/b/c/z)	These are used to compile reports for us on how people use this site. Cookies of the same names are also used for the same purpose by other websites such as Building Futures, Countryside Management Service and Hertfordshire LIS.	Visit the Google Analytics website for more information about the cookies they use. You can prevent data from being collected and used by Google Analytics by installing Google's Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Google Translation - googtrans	This cookie is used to remember which language to translate each page into if you have chosen to do so.	It expires at the end of your browser session.
Bing	We use a Bing cookie to track the success of our marketing campaigns and make them more efficient.	Visit Bing to find out more about their cookies.
Google	We use a Google cookie to track the success of our marketing campaigns and make them more efficient.	Visit Google to find out more about their cookies.
Facebook	We have a number of presences on Facebook, which we may link to. Facebook may set some of its own cookies if you follow these links.	Visit Facebook to find out more about their cookies.
Twitter	We have a number of presences and feeds on Twitter, which you may wish to follow or read from this website. Twitter may set some of its own cookies.	Visit Twitter to find out more about their cookies.
YouTube	We have a YouTube channel, which we may link to. YouTube may set some of its own cookies if you follow those links.	Visit YouTube to find out more about their cookies.
Netloan	This ASP.NET_Sessionid cookie is essential for the Netloan secure online payments website to work, and is set when you arrive to the site. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser.
HotJar	This session cookie is set to let Hotjar know whether that visitor is included in the sample which is used to generate funnels.	Visit HotJar to find out more about their cookies.
Siteimprove	These cookies are set to help us report on how people are using the site so we can improve it.	Visit Siteimprove to learn more about their cookies.

Early years (ages 0 - 5 years)

Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP)

Courses and activities in Hertfordshire

Get support with education

Money

Preparing for adulthood

Services for children and young people (ages 0 - 25)

Services for parents, carers and families

Feedback and what to do if you're not happy

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

Explorer bags

Tactile explorers and Tactile tours

School workshops for SEND students

Cookies

Why do we use cookies?

How do I change my cookie settings?

Cookies we use

Third party cookies