Aurora Days are specially designed sessions for groups with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities. You don’t have to be from a SEND school in order to access these sessions – if you feel your students' needs suit these sessions, you’re welcome to attend.
While you are of course welcome to visit at any time with SEND groups, Aurora Days are dedicated slots where you can be the only group in the planetarium during your visit, and the numbers of school groups on site is much more limited. This means that we can adjust content to suit your needs, dedicate more time to you answering your space questions and making your visit as enjoyable and easy as possible.
Aurora Days for the 2023-24 academic year will run on:
- Thursday 16th November
- Tuesday 5th December
- Tuesday 6th February
- Tuesday 26th March
- Thursday 9th May
- Tuesday 11th June
- Tuesday 16th July
We ask that you book a maximum of around 10 students into an Aurora Day slot, to ensure that we adjust our content to suit individual needs, and to ensure that the site isn’t too crowded for groups that need a quieter environment. On the day you visit, there will be up to 3 other Aurora Day groups on site, but you don’t share space with them during the day.
We are continuing to develop our Aurora Day programme and have a SEND forum to help inform the programme. If you would like to help us develop this programme, please take a look at our website for more details, we would love to have you with us.
How does the day run?
Aurora Days are made up of the following components: a planetarium show, a self-guided activity, a lunch room slot and a workshop. You can choose whether to have just a Planetarium show, a workshop or a full day!
Planetarium Show - Starry Skies
Planetarium shows take place in the Peter Harrison Planetarium and are delivered live by Royal Observatory astronomers. On Aurora Days we have:
Starry Skies
This show takes the audience on a tour of some of the most beautiful aspects of Space. It is presented live by one of our astronomers and runs at a much calmer pace than many of our other school shows.
As you’re the only group in the planetarium on Aurora days, you can enjoy the planetarium in whatever way suits you best. If students want to make noise, or take a break during the show, that’s fine!
The lighting levels used are higher for this show so the planetarium never becomes pitch black and the music and narration is kept to a minimum. If your students have any questions about space our astronomer will be there to answer them.
Other planetarium shows are available, including 'Audio Universe' from January 2024, which is a planetarium show designed specially for students with Visual Impairments. Speak to our team before your visit, and they can advise about alternative offers.
Workshop - Searching the Solar System
Our interactive workshop takes place in one our learning spaces and is designed to encourage active learning and hands-on scientific enquiry.
Searching the Solar System
In this workshop we explore the different planets in the solar system, and then focus on the similarities and differences between Earth and Mars using multi-sensory practical activities to get students to learn more about some of their closest neighbours in space.
There are a number of different activities that can be done as part of this workshop, which means we can tailor this workshop to suit your needs.
Self-guided activity
In between your show and your workshop, we have time and space for your students to do a self-guided activity with your teaching staff. We provide the activity; your students provide the enthusiasm! The nature of the activity will depend on the needs of your students – our most common one involves ‘Packing for Mars’.
How to book
Selected a date and ready to book? Great! Please fill in the form linked below, with as much information as you can so we can tailor our sessions to your group:
Each Aurora Day has up to four slots available, starting at 10:30. A typical schedule looks like this:
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 10:15 | Arrival |
| 10:30 - 11:15 | Starry Skies Planetarium show |
| 11:30 - 12:00 | Self-guided activity |
| 12:00 - 12:30 | Lunch |
| 12:45 - 13:30 | Searching the Solar System workshop |
If you would like to visit on a mainstream schools day, please read the information on our on-site sessions page and fill in the form linked.
If you’re unsure which to choose, you can get in touch with a member of our team on ROGEducation@rmg.co.uk
We also have a series of guides to the Observatory available to download which may help you plan your visit:
Your Questions Answered
- We have a quiet space available, and students can take breaks whenever they need to.
- You can bring as many staff members as needed to appropriately support your students.
- You can book students of any age (KS1 – KS5) into our Aurora Day slots.
- As the workshop and planetarium show are delivered live, we can alter the content to suit your students' needs.
- We have accessible parking and our learning spaces and planetarium are accessible to wheelchair users. Not all of our site is accessible unfortunately, more information is available on our Access page
- The nearest changing places facility is in the National Maritime Museum.
- We have tactile resources available for students who are visually impaired.
- Hearing loops are fitted at all information desks and in the planetarium.
- We are happy to work with teachers or interpreters if your students use BSL or Makaton. A breakdown of our content can be provided in advance on request.