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Front of house essentials training: Welcoming families with additional needs

Front of house essentials training: Welcoming families with additional needs

Highlights

  • On-Demand workshop

  • 1 hour 30 minutes

  • All levels

Description

2025 research by Baker Richards for ALVA found that 41% of families visiting attractions, such as museums include a child with special educational needs. A 2019 study from Ecclesiastical surveyed families with additional needs about their experiences of visiting museums, castles and heritage sites. 42% of parents whose children had additional needs reported staff or visitors were unfriendly or made them feel uncomfortable.

This course will ensure your museum avoids becoming part of this statistic, offering ideas for fun and accessible interactions with families with additional needs.

The course has five sessions. Each session includes several short films, which together take approximately ten minutes to watch. There are also homework activities to help support your learning. You will need approximately one or two hours to complete the course. It does not need to be completed in one sitting. You can access the course as many times as you wish.

Who should take part?

This course is aimed at front facing staff and volunteers, including managers at museums, galleries and heritage sites who are interested in making their organisations more welcoming to SEND families.

Kids in Museums is delivering this course in partnership with Sam Bowen. Sam is a museum, gallery and heritage consultant specialising in inclusion of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). Sam’s work is founded on 25 years of museum professional experience alongside lived experience of being a SEND parent.

The course is supported by funding from Arts Council England and the Welsh Government.

Multibuy Discounts

When purchasing multiple tickets for this course, a multibuy discount will automatically apply at the checkout.

Save 5% when purchasing 5-9 tickets.

Save 10% when purchasing 10-19 tickets.

If you wish to purchase 20+ tickets, please contact getintouch@kidsinmuseums.org.uk

workshop Content

6 sections•26 lessons
Introduction1 lessons
  1. 1Course introduction and instructions
Session One: Learn why family visitors with additional needs are an important part of your audience7 lessons
  1. 1Section one: Introduction and background information
  2. 2Section two: Law and legislation
  3. 3Section three: Key statistics
  4. 4Section four: Inclusion and impact
  5. 5Section five: Why families with additional needs visit museums
  6. 6Section six: The ‘Purple Pound’
  7. 7Section seven: Summary and homework
Session Two: Gain an understanding of the key concerns families with additional needs have about visiting museums4 lessons
  1. 1Section one: Introduction families with additional needs and museum visits
  2. 2Section two: Barriers in museums
  3. 3Section three: Welcoming families with additional needs
  4. 4Section four: Summary and homework
Session Three: Build an understanding of how to support families with additional needs at your site5 lessons
  1. 1Section one: Introduction to sensory processing difficulties
  2. 2Section two: What are meltdowns?
  3. 3Section three: Supporting families when a meltdown happens
  4. 4Section four: Supporting children with sensory processing difficulties
  5. 5Section five: Summary and homework
Session Four: Find out how to engage confidently with families with additional needs5 lessons
  1. 1Section one: Introduction to infantilisation and how to avoid it
  2. 2Section two: Inclusive playful interactions
  3. 3Section three: Taking playful interactions further
  4. 4Section four: A warm welcome and a good goodbye
  5. 5Section five: Summary and homework
Session Five (optional): Think about changes you can make in your museum to improve provision for families with additional needs4 lessons
  1. 1Section one: Introduction to starting change in your museum
  2. 2Section two: Becoming a champion for families with additional needs in your museum
  3. 3Section three: Embedding this work
  4. 4Section four: End of course quiz

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