Services changes, bookings and enquiries
You may be aware that for many years RAMM has run a series of hands-on, immersive learning sessions for schools. These have run either at our Queen Street site or, for the last four years during major redevelopment to the RAMM building, out in schools. The themes we have covered are Romans, Ancient Egypt, World War 2 and Small World. Since 2008 we have also run Tudor Life and Great Fire of London sessions at St Nicholas Priory.
However, we have had to face reductions in external funding (via central Government) that enabled RAMM to employ schools service staff. This means it is sadly very clear to us that it will be no longer possible for us to continue to run this service on the ongoing, on-demand basis that has operated for the past several years.
RAMM is part of Exeter City Council, which is a district council. District councils have no statutory responsibility for the provision of education. Therefore, from now on, all RAMM services to schools must be run in a way that covers all costs, and not on the highly subsidized basis that has been the case up until now. We are therefore currently investigating new business models for keeping RAMM’s stunning new galleries and collections accessible to Devon and Exeter’s school children.
We hope to share the results of these investigations and a new way forward with you in due course. So please check this webpage for updates.
Bookings for September 2011 onwards
All school visits MUST be booked in advance. Even if you are a small group, we still need to know who is coming, and when, because we run many, varied events and sometimes we have gallery closures or large corporate events. We do have a limit on the number of school children we can host in one day.
We can now only accept bookings more than five weeks before the date of the visit, because we are usually fully booked on that timescale, and, at present, we do not have staff able to respond to booking enquiries on a daily basis. The earlier you can book, the better. We would advise at least a term in advance where possible. PLEASE NOTE: We will not be able respond to any booking enquiries between April 16th and 25th, June 20th to July3rd and September 27th to October 17th. If you wish to book a visit in the autumn term, PLEASE book it May, June or July to avoid disappointment.
To book, please email Kate Osborne, Learning & Skills Officer at kate.osborne@exeter.gov.uk
For enquiries about Early Years and family learning services please ring either Philippa Wood on 01392 665780 or email philippa.wood@exeter.gov.uk or Neil Heasman 01392 665954 or email neil.heasman@exeter.gov.uk (Wednesdays to Fridays ONLY).
