School Visits

Silver (self-guided)

Price per child (off peak / peak): £6.49 / £7.49

What's included: Visit to Oceanarium self-guided.

Silver PLUS (self-guided plus extras)

Price per child (off peak/peak): £7.49 / £8.49

What's included: Visit to Oceanarium (self-guided), plus use of our undercover lunch room and an optional 30-minute interactive session.

Gold (guided tour)

Price per child (off peak/peak): £7.99 / £8.99

What's included: 1 hour guided tour led by one of our animal experts tailored to age/curriculum level.

Gold Plus (guided tour plus extras)

Price per child (off peak/peak): £8.99 / £9.99

What's included: 1 hour guided tour led by one of our animal experts tailored to age/curriculum level. Plus use of our undercover lunch room and an optional 30 minute interactive session.

Peak months: May - July

Off-peak months: August - April.

We offer the following free adult ratios:

Pre School (3-5 yrs):  1:3
Primary School (5-11 yrs): 1:5
Secondary School (12-15 yrs): 1:10    

For additional adults, we charge a discounted entry price of £11.99
We also offer a free carer should any of the children require extra support (proof is required.)

School session topics are only available with our Silver PLUS and Gold PLUS packages. Please refer to our Educational Visit page here for full details.  

We also do higher education sessions, targeted at colleges and universities. Please refer to our Colleges and Universities page here for full details

Sensing the World - EYFS

Discover the incredible sights, sounds, colours and textures of the animal kingdom!

Habitat Helpers! – KS1 and KS2.

Take a journey into some of the wonderfully varied habitats from around the world, from our incredible oceans to arid deserts, and identify animals which are adapted to live there!

Curious Classification – KS1 and KS2.

Explore the differences between mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish, discovering the unique characteristics which allow us to group different animals.

Amazing Adaptations! – KS2.

Discover some of the incredible habitats from around the world whilst identifying how animals are adapted for survival in different conditions. We will discuss these amazing adaptations, which over time may lead to evolution.

Food for Thought… – KS1 & KS2.

Explore the different diets of carnivores, herbivores and omnivores and some of the amazing adaptations of how animals find their food in the wild.

Considering Conservation – KS3, KS4, Further Education, Higher Education.

Investigate the importance of the existence of different species and the essential roles of zoos and aquariums in conserving our natural world.

Bespoke Further & Higher Education Sessions.

Also available remotely (please enquire).

To receive the discounted school rates, they must be pre-booked a minimum of 2 weeks prior to the term-time visit date. We recommend booking as early as possible to avoid disappointment.

Large groups will be divided into more manageable numbers with a maximum of 20 children per group, with staggered entry into the Oceanarium.

To book or to find out more about our award-winning educational visits, please call 01202 311993 ext 208 or email info@oceanarium.co.uk

Once booked, you will receive a confirmation email, which you will need to show on arrival.  A pre-invoice agreement will also be attached and must be fully completed and sent back to us as soon as possible to confirm your place.

• 3 for 2 offer only applies to primary & secondary schools and must have a group of at least 10 students.
• 3 for 2 offer is only valid on bookings and visits made by Wednesday 30 April 2025. You must visit by this date for offer to be redeemed. 
• Schools must book at least 2 weeks  in advance to receive these discounted rates.  Please note the bookings co-ordinator works office hours.
• If you need to cancel your booking, please provide us with as much notice as  possible (at least 48 hours).
• To make your school’s visit more manageable, we suggest keeping groups to a maximum of 20 , with staggered entry into the Oceanarium of at least 20 minutes and keeping to your allotted arrival times.  
• To ease crowding in our admissions area, please wait outside for all you school to arrive and enter through admissions at the allocated time.
• Schools must be supervised at all times by the accompanying teachers/adults at the relevant child/teacher ratio.  Any visitor found to be constantly disruptive or inconsiderate to other visitors will be asked to leave.
• The under cover lunch area for PLUS option visits is only available after 12.30pm due to Penguin Feed taking place in the area before  this time.
• We accept payment by invoice or payment by card/cash on arrival. This will be agreed during the booking process.

Best Educational Day Out 2019

We are proud that we won the Best Educational Day Out in the South West for 2019. Over 25,000 genuine families voted for their favourite attractions, which made it very competitive and exciting.
It is rewarding to know that families and schools are pleased with the educational experience delivered by the Ocenarium and highly trained staff, and more importantly, that we are engaging with them in areas of conservation, education and influencing environmentally friendly behaviour in future generations. 

Silver in Education - DMB Tourism Awards 2024

The Silver Education Award honours the Oceanarium’s dedication to providing engaging, impactful educational programmes that inspire visitors and aspiring conservationists with a deeper understanding of marine life and knowledge of the importance of ocean conservation and biodiversity. 

Testimonials

Preschool

“I wanted to send you a quick email to thank you for a brilliant trip yesterday. We were greeted by friendly staff on entrance who booked us in no trouble and provided us with maps to the Oceanarium.  They were amazing and friendly, great customer services.

Emily gave us out interactive session and this was just brilliant! The shark bone and turtle shell was all the children talked about on their way round and all they have spoken about today.  Emily was friendly and spoke to the children in a lovely tone and really engaged the children when talking to them.

The Offshore café was wonderful, the team were amazing and very helpful and the food was lovely.  We had a lovely lunch and am glad we did the hot meals for the children.

Please tell all the staff that Littleworld Day Nursery thank them for all their hard work and everything was just brilliant.  I’m really pleased I booked the Oceanarium for the trip and would recommend it to anyone and will definitely come back again in years to come.

Thank you so much for an amazing day.”

Littleworld Day Nursery

Primary School

“My class had a lovely visit to the Bournemouth Oceanarium yesterday. Your staff were very friendly and helpful and the talk for the children was fantastic - the staff member who took it really got the children involved and even learnt their names.

We all had a really successful field-trip and the children learnt so much.”

Braishfield Primary School