Booking & prices
How it works
We take bookings for school and education groups up to a year in advance.
We offer our full education programme including workshops and shows Tuesday to Friday in term-time. Education group visits to our exhibition spaces can also be booked on Saturdays and Sundays.
Our term-time dates correspond with the Bristol school holidays.
You can book to explore our exhibition floors on their own or choose to add additional activities from our wide range of curriculum linked workshops, shows and Planetarium shows.
How to book
As each school group is different with specific requirements, we don’t take bookings online.
The first step is to contact us via the email below outlining your requirements. It’s very helpful if you can include the topic(s) you’re interested in, year group, numbers of students, as well as preferred dates and times in your email.
We’ll come back to you with available dates, suggestions on workshops and shows, and guidance on how to structure your day with us.
Once you’ve settled on a date and itinerary, this will form a provisional booking with us. We’ll send you a copy of the schedule for the day along with a quote for the visit.
You'll need to confirm your booking within 7 days of receiving this provisional booking email. Please include the billing address if different from the school address.
If you are a school or other education establishment, you'll need to provide a PO number no later than 30 days before your booked visit. We will then invoice you after the visit.
If you are not from a school or education establishment, payment can be made in advance via BACS transfer or credit card. We are not able to accept cheques.
We recommend booking as far ahead as you can to ensure you get your preferred dates and times. We do sometimes have last minute slots available, so it’s always worth dropping us a line.
Prices (2024/25)
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Package deal
Admission, workshop or show and Planetarium - £12.65 per student
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Bristol schools discount
As part of our commitment to young people in our city, we are trialing the following discount for state run schools within BS1 -BS16 postcodes that have a percentage of 22% or higher for pupils eligible for free school meals.
General admission 50% reduction, from £7.70 to £3.85 per student. Please contact us for further information.
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Full price list
Admission prices
General term-time admission: £7.70 per student (all ages)
Holiday and weekend admission: £8.50 per student (all ages)
Accompanying adults (free)
Nursery and EYFS greater than 1 Adult to every 6 children, suggested 1 Adult to every 3 children
KS1: Years 1 to 2 1 Adult to every 6 children
KS2: Years 3 1 Adult to every 6 children
KS2: Years 4-6 1 Adult to every 10-15 children
KS3-KS5: Years 7 to 13 1 Adult to every 15-20 children
Lab based workshops 1 Adult to every 8 children for KS2 & KS3, or 2 adults for KS4+
Additional accompanying adults: £7.70
All 1 to 1 assistants: Free
Additional activities
Add a Planetarium show: £3.85 per student
Add a workshop: £4.40 per student
Add a science show: £3.30 per student
Packages
Theme days: £14.00 per student
A Question of Taste: £18.00 per student
Contact us
Email the team at education@wethecurious.org or call us on 0117 915 7777 (Monday-Friday 9am to 3.30pm).
Our terms and conditions
We want you to have a wonderful visit and we’ll do everything we can to make sure things run smoothly.
We are a charity, so in some circumstances we need to recover costs from adjustments and cancellations. These are detailed below.
Booking
We will send you a provisional booking email with your school’s schedule for the day, price per pupil and a quote for the visit including VAT.
We ask that you confirm your booking within 7 days of receiving this provisional booking email. Please include the billing address if different from the school address. If you are a school or other education establishment, you'll need to provide a PO number and confirm your final numbers, no later than 30 days before your booked visit. We will then invoice you after the visit.
We reserve the right to cancel your booking if we do not receive confirmation within 7 days.
Payment
If you are a UK based formal education establishment (nursery, primary or secondary school, tertiary, and higher education), and make a booking more than 30 days in advance, you have the option to pay via invoice. This will be issued after your visit and is payable within 30 days.
If you make a booking less than 30 days in advance or are not a formal education establishment, then payment will need to be made by credit/debit card or by BACS within 7 days of confirming your booking.
Unfortunately, we are not able to accept payment by cheque.
Amendments to bookings
If you need to add adults or children to your booking after you have confirmed your booking, please let us know at least 7 working days in advance of your visit as some workshops and shows have a capacity cap.
If you are paying by credit card, we will require immediate payment at the time of adjustment for adding additional numbers.
Please note we are not able to issue refunds or adjustments to numbers within 30 days of the confirmed date of your visit, this includes non-attendance on the day.
Changing of dates
If you need to amend the date of your visit, please notify us 30 days in advance of your booking and we will do our best to find a suitable alternative date. If this is not possible, or you have contacted us within 30 days of your visit, our cancellation policy will be applied (see below).
Changing activities or Planetarium shows
Please notify us 30 days in advance of your booking if you wish to make amendments to your activities or remove any activities.
We will always try to find alternative activities for your visit, but these are subject to availability.
If we are not able to offer an alternative activity, the original booking will remain in place.
We are unable to amend activities within 30 days of your visit.
If you have prepaid for your visit, a £25 admin charge will be applied for amendments to your booking.
Cancelling your booking
Bookings cancelled in advance of 30 days of your visit will not incur a charge unless you have pre-paid, at which point they will be charged a £25 admin charge.
Bookings cancelled less than 30 days and up to 7 days in advance of your booking will be charged at 50% of the booking value. This includes all booked activities (admission, workshops, theme days, shows and Planetarium bookings).
Bookings cancelled less than 7 days in advance of your booking will be non-refundable and you will be liable for 100% of the cost.
We The Curious is not responsible for cancellation of coaches or reduced numbers able to attend the booking.
Cancellation of booking due to venue closure
In instances of unforeseen closure of the venue such as adverse weather conditions, we will contact you to arrange an alternative time and date for your visit.
If we cannot arrange an alternative date, we will issue a refund of the amount paid for the booking (minus any discounts that were applied) back to you.
Cancellation of booked activities.
In the event of your prebooked activity or Planetarium show having to be cancelled on the day of your visit, we will try to supply an alternative workshop or suitable activity or the next available show.
If this is not possible, we will refund the booked activity (minus any discounts that were applied).
Late arrival
If your group is running late, please contact the bookings team as soon as possible, and let them know your new estimated arrival time.
While we will do all we can to accommodate school groups who are delayed due to transport, it is not always possible to reschedule workshops and Planetarium shows for groups who arrive late. Schools will remain liable for the cost if they miss a charged-for activity.
Adult child ratio
School bookings must be correctly supervised by teacher/ teaching assistant at the following ratios
Stage Adult to child ratio
Nursery and EYFS greater than 1 Adult to every 6 children, suggested 1 Adult to every 3 children
KS1: Years 1 to 2 1 Adult to every 6 children
KS2: Years 3 1 Adult to every 6 children
KS2: Years 4-6 1 Adult to every 10-15 children
KS3-KS5: Years 7 to 13 1 Adult to every 15-20 children
Lab based workshops 1 Adult to every 8 children for KS2 & KS3, or 2 adults for KS4+
Discounts and promotions
Unless specified, discounts and promotions cannot be used in conjunction with education bookings. This includes adult, junior and group memberships, the benefits of which are excluded from educational bookings to the centre.
Personal belongings
We request that you do not bring school bags to the venue, during your visit we ask that your pupils only bring their lunch boxes, water bottles and coats (see Lunches). All coats will be stored in a secure area on your arrival and will be available on departure.
Teachers planning visits
All teachers are entitled to a free planning visit upon making and confirming a booking with us. This includes up to 4 tickets, that you can use during this visit for either your colleagues or partner and children.
Teacher planning visits are pre-booked only (please book at least 2 working days in advance) and are subject to availability. We apologise but we are not able to accommodate walk up visits.
To book your visit please email education.bookings@wethecurious.org with your school email address and the details of the booking reference number.
We will then check availability for you, if we are able to book your visit, we will then send a confirmation email to your school email address.
If you do not have a school email address, we will send the confirmation email to your school reception.
All teachers attending a teacher planning visit will receive a follow up email from us as part of your visit to ask for feedback.