On Monday 20th May we took Year 6 pupils to visit The Natural History Museum’s famous Dippy the dinosaur as he visits Great North Museum: Hancock as part of his UK tour. Unveiled to the British public in 1905, Dippy was cast from the a specimen found in America. The full skeleton is 21.3 metres long, 4.3 metres wide and 4.25 metres high. When visiting the museum, pupils had time to explore the Dippy About exhibition, visit Dippy the dinosaur himself, took part in some fossil handling activities and explored the rest of the exhibitions.

This was a very special visit for pupils and staff to enjoy and we hope pupils felt inspired by the natural world.

Pupils shared their thoughts after the visit;

“Today, I learned that plants can be fossilised and that if we use too much energy, half of the North East could be covered in water. I liked Dippy because I could understand how big a real life dinosaur would have been.”

“I enjoyed seeing Dippy because he was so big! I learned that people who look at fossils learn a lot about that species. I would like to study fossils because they are interesting.”

“I enjoyed seeing Dippy as it was a once in a lifetime experience. The length of Dippy was amazing

and that was the actual size, as it was a fully casted model.