Bringing Upper Egypt's classes and students into its museums.

The Upper Egypt Learning Trust exists for one purpose: to get the region's schoolchildren and students into its museums, with structure, affordability and a genuine learning purpose. We run school-visit programmes linked to the curriculum and student passes priced for young pockets, with free resources for teachers and a bursary fund for schools that cannot pay — because a museum that the next generation never enters is a museum slowly forgetting why it exists, and a child who never enters one is poorer for it.

For schools For students

A class of students on a guided museum visit in Upper Egypt

What we do

Two programmes, one purpose.

We run two distinct programmes, one for schools and one for individual students, both built around the same conviction: that access to museums should not depend on a family's means, and that a museum visit should teach something rather than simply fill an afternoon. Here is what each offers.

School visits

Structured, curriculum-linked museum visits for whole classes — booked, guided and resourced so a teacher can bring thirty students with confidence rather than chaos. Priced so no school is shut out.

School programme →

The student pass

A low-cost annual pass for students that opens the partner museums all year, so a young person curious about their own heritage can keep going back without counting the cost each time.

Student pass →

Teacher resources

Free materials that help a teacher turn a visit into real learning — pre-visit lessons, in-gallery activities, follow-up work, all linked to what the museums actually hold and to the curriculum.

Resources →

How a school visit works

From a teacher's enquiry to thirty students learning.

We have made booking a class visit as simple as we can, because a teacher's time is scarce and the barriers to taking a class out are already high. Four steps.

1 · The teacher enquires

A teacher tells us the year group, the subject, the rough dates and numbers. There is no cost to ask and no commitment — we would rather help you plan than push a booking.

2 · We match a museum & plan

We suggest the partner museum and the visit plan that fits the curriculum topic, and send the free pre-visit resources so the class arrives prepared rather than cold.

3 · The visit, guided

On the day, a guide who works with school groups leads the visit at the right level for the age, with in-gallery activities that keep thirty students engaged, not herded.

4 · Follow-up in class

The teacher takes away follow-up materials to carry the learning back into the classroom, so the visit is a lesson with a beginning, middle and end, not a day out that fades by morning.

Why a trust

Founded to fix a real gap in Upper Egypt.

The Upper Egypt Learning Trust was founded in Qena in 2018 by educators and museum people who kept seeing the same problem: the region is dense with extraordinary museums and ancient sites, and yet the local schoolchildren who live among them often never set foot inside, because school budgets are thin, transport is hard, and no one had made it simple. Meanwhile the museums longed for the young local audiences they rarely saw. The trust exists to bridge that gap — to make a class visit affordable and easy for the school, and to give individual students a way in that does not depend on a family's spare money.

We are a learning trust, not a commercial operator and not the museums themselves. Our subscriptions and modest fees are pooled to keep school visits cheap, the student pass low, and the teacher resources free. The full story is on the about page, the programmes are detailed on the how it works page, and the museums we work with are on the partner museums page.

The Learning Trust team preparing resources in the Qena office

Quick answers

What teachers and students ask first.

Is this an official school or museum body?

No, and we never claim to be. We are an independent learning trust that works with schools and museums; we are not a government body, not a school, and not the museums themselves, and we say so plainly on every page. Our role is to connect young learners with the museums affordably.

How affordable is it really?

School visits are priced at a level designed so that even a school with a thin budget can bring a class, and the student pass costs a fraction of repeated entry fees. The full prices are on the pricing page, with no hidden charges and a bursary for any school that genuinely cannot pay.

Which museums can we visit?

The partner museums across the Qena region and wider Upper Egypt, listed in full on the partner museums page before you commit to anything at all. We never make a school or a student guess what their visit or pass covers.

Are the resources really free?

Yes. The teacher resources — pre-visit lessons, in-gallery activities, follow-up work — are free to any teacher, member or not, because getting good learning into classrooms is the whole point. See the resources page.

What if our school cannot afford even the small fee?

Then it pays nothing. Our donation-funded bursary scheme waives the school-visit fee entirely for schools that genuinely cannot afford it, quietly and without a mountain of paperwork. No class is ever turned away over money — that would defeat the entire purpose of the trust. Just tell us in confidence when you enquire.

Can an individual student join without a school?

Yes. The student pass is for individual young people, joined by a student or, for a minor, a parent — no school booking required. It opens the partner museums all year and brings the holiday programmes too, for the price of a couple of separate visits.

Get started

Bring your class, or open the museums for yourself.

Schools enquire free; students join for a year for the price of a couple of visits.

Enquire for a school Get a student pass