Education sessions for home educated children

Sessions for 2023-2024 are now available to book! Scroll down this page for details of the sessions, including topics, session dates, and the booking form.

Interested in our Seasonal Home Education Penguin Sessions?
click here to find out more

These sessions are aimed at families who home educate. If you are a teacher at a school, please see our school page for more details (click here). Sessions require pre-registration. Unregistered children will not be allowed to participate. Home education classes are designed to build on one another, and you can (if registered) attend all the age-appropriate sessions, or if you prefer, just register for one or two.

These sessions do not include entry to the zoo. There is no fee for the sessions, but participants must arrange entry separately either by paying standard entry fees (click here for prices), organising themselves with 15 people to qualify for our group rates (click here for group details), or using zoo passes (click here for details)(recommended if you plan on attending more than one session) to gain entry to the zoo.

2023-2024 Home Education Sessions

These are details about the upcoming Sept 2023-May 2024 Home Education Sessions.

Regular Session Topics 2023-2024

Sessions will run on three days each month (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday), the sessions offered are identical on each day. Each day will have sessions aimed at different age ranges – 5-7 year olds, 7-11 year olds, and 11-16 year olds. Please note, there are changes to times/days from previous years of Home Education sessions.

5-7 year old sessions take place on:
Monday 12:00-12:45 pmOR 1:00-1:45pm (Full, waitlist available); Tuesday 12:00-12:45pm (Full, waitlist available); Wednesday 1:00-1:45pm (Full, waitlist available)

7-11 year old sessions take place on:
Monday 2:00-2:45 pm (Full, waitlist available); Tuesday 1:00-1:45pm (Full, waitlist available) OR 2:00-2:45 (Full, waitlist available); Wednesday 2:00-2:45pm (Full, waitlist available)

11-16 year old sessions take place on:
Monday 3:00-4:00 pm; Tuesday 3:00-4:00 pm (Full, waitlist available); Wednesday 3:00-4:00 pm

Click below to download a PDF of all the session topics, and a description of what will be covered for each age group.

Session Dates for 2023-2024:

• September – Mon 4^th, Tues 5^th, & Wed 6^th 2023
• October – Mon 2^nd, Tues 3^rd, & Wed 4^th 2023
• November – Mon 6^th, Tues 7^th, & Wed 8^th 2023
• December – Mon 4^th, Tues 5^th, & Wed 6^th 2023
• January – Mon 8^th, Tues 9^th, & Wed 10^th 2024
• February – Mon 5^th, Tues 6^th, & Wed 7^th 2024
• March – Mon 4^th, Tues 5^th, & Wed 6^th 2024
• April – Mon 15^th, Tues 16^th, & Wed 17^th 2024
• May – Mon 13^th, Tues 14^th, & Wed 15^th 2024
  

2023-2024 Session Registration

To register for these sessions, please download and complete the following registration form. Completed registration forms should be emailed to education@colchesterzoo.org.

Home Education Penguin Sessions

A Christmas and Non-Christmas version will run in 2023, scroll down for more details.

Christmas Penguin Educational Experience

This session has very limited places which will be filled on a first come first served basis.

We are once again running our popular Christmas Penguin Educational Experience for Home Educated Children. Sessions will run on Mon 27^th (Full, waitlist available); , Tues 28^th (Full, waitlist available) and Wed 29^th  (Full, waitlist available) November 2023. On all dates, this session will take place from 13:00-14:00. This session is recommended for ages 5 to 9.

A festive elf will greet the group and need help learning all about penguins. Participants will work together with a magic book to find out more about these fascinating animals. The entire group thens get the chance to observe real penguins up close before Father Christmas arrives to see how much you’ve all learned about one of his favourite winter animals! At the end Father Christmas will give each child a cuddly toy penguin gift.

Due to the up close animal experience and the gift, there is a charge of £4 per child attending the session (this includes younger siblings attending). All children attending the session (including babies) must be registered, and every child over 1 year old must pay the £4 charge.

Infants under 1-year-old can attend without this charge, but if you would like them to receive a cuddly toy penguin from Father Christmas the £4 charge applies. There is no charge for accompaning adults to attend the session, due to space limitations this may be restricted to 1 adult per child.

Please be aware, this session will be identical to the Christmas Penguin Educational Experience that ran in previous years.

Please note, this session (as with all Home Education Sessions at Colchester Zoo) does not include entry to the zoo. Participants must arrange entry separately either by paying standard entry fees (click here for prices), organising themselves with 15 people to qualify for our group rates (click here for group details), or using zoo passes (click here for details). Please wait until after your space has been confirmed in your requested sessions before purchasing entry tickets.

How to book:

Please email education@colchesterzoo.org to registered. In the email, you must include:

• Your child(ren)’s name
• Child(ren)’s age
• Parent/guardian Full Name
• Which session you’d like to attend (Mon 27th, Tues 28th or Wed 29th Nov)*

*if your first choice date is already sold out, we will book you onto another session if available; if you would prefer to be put onto a wait list for your first choice rather than an alternative session, please indicate this in your email.

Bookings will be processed in the order received via email.

Special Penguin Educational Experience (non-Christmas)

This session has very limited places which will be filled on a first come first served basis.

We are once again running our Special Penguin Educational for Home Educated Children, on Monday 13^th of November 2023 (Full, waitlist available) . This session will take place from 13:00-14:00. This session is recommended for ages 5 to 9.

As a group, lead by an educator, children will learn all about penguins and their amazing adaptations, including swimming, catching fish, and where they live. The group will then be joined by a Colchester Zoo penguin keeper who will bring out one of their penguin friends for the entire group to see up close. The zoo keeper will help reinforce all the learning points about penguin adaptations.

As a memento of their learning, each registered child will receive a cuddly toy penguin.

Due to the up close animal experience and the penguin toy, there is a charge of £4 per child attending the session (this includes younger siblings attending). All children attending the session (including babies) must be registered, and every child over 1 year old must pay the £4 charge.

Infants under 1-year-old can attend without this charge, but if you would like them to receive a cuddly toy penguin the £4 charge applies. There is no charge for accompaning adults to attend the session, due to space limitations this may be restricted to 1 adult per child.

Please be aware, this session will be identical to the Special Penguin Educaitonal Experience that ran last year.

Please note, this session (as with all Home Education Sessions at Colchester Zoo) does not include entry to the zoo. Participants must arrange entry separately either by paying standard entry fees (click here for prices), organising themselves with 15 people to qualify for our group rates (click here for group details), or using zoo passes (click here for details). Please wait until after your space has been confirmed in your requested sessions before purchasing entry tickets.

How to book:

Please email education@colchesterzoo.org to registered. In the email, you must include:

• Your child(ren)’s name
• Child(ren)’s age
• Parent/guardian Full Name

*if the Monday 13th November session becomes fully booked, we will automatically put you on a waitlist, and if there is enough interest we may open additional session slots.

Bookings will be processed in the order received via email.

Home Education Session Terms & Conditions:

Unexpected Circumstances: Sessions sessions are offered in good faith on the assumption that Colchester Zoo will be open and visitors will be allowed to attend sessions. Please be aware, that due to potential unforeseen circumstances (e.g. government restrictions, severe weather events, etc.) there may be unexpected changes to sessions dates and/or topics. Additionally, due to situations outside of Colchester Zoos’ control, as a last resort, sessions may be cancelled. We will endeavour to avoid this wherever possible, and strive to keep registrants updated if this occurs.

Age to Attend Sessions: The sessions are divided into different age groups because this lets us tailor the session to include terminology and activities which are better suited to different age ranges. However, the ages we provide are just guidelines of where we will be targeting the information/activities, not firm requirements. To ensure the smooth running of the session, and for the benefit of all participants, we request younger/older children do not attend if they would be disruptive to the rest of the group.

Adult Supervision: All children attending sessions must be accompanied by an adult.

Minimum Class Size: Colchester Zoo reserves the right to cancel a class, no less than 4 days prior to the first class of the month, if registration is under five participants. In this event, you will be notified via the email you provided when you registered. You will also be given the option to attend the other date the same session is offered (e.g. if the Monday session is cancelled you would be offered a space in the Wednesday class if you so wish).

Maximum Class Size: Classes have a maximum of 25 participants. If a class is full, you will be put on a waiting list and contacted if there are any cancellations. Being on the wait list does not guarantee you will be able to attend the session.

Unattended Sessions: If you are unable to attend a session, please inform Colchester Zoo via email (education@colchesterzoo.org) as soon as possible. This will allow them to contact someone on the waiting list to let them attend. If you repeatedly do not attend sessions you are registered for, without letting the zoo know, you may be removed from future sessions.

Please note – Home Education sessions are free of charge. However, Registration for sessions does not include entry to the zoo. Participants must arrange entry to the zoo separately; either paying entrance price, organising themselves independently into a group of 15 (to qualify for group rates), or using zoo passes (gold cards) (see above for further details).