School groups visiting the Museum of Byzantine Culture may arrange to take part in the following educational programmes:
- Aspects of everyday life in the Early Christian period
- The world of Byzantine manuscripts
- Byzantine manuscripts
- Exploring the history of a manuscript (drama workshop)
- Byzantium after Byzantium
- Discovering the past
- Let's play at excavating
- Byzantine castles
- Getting to know Byzantine icons

The programmes are addressed to infants, first-, fifth-, and sixth-year juniors, and first- and second-year high-school students.

The aim of the programmes is to help the children to approach the exhibits in a different way and participate actively in their visit by observing the objects and extracting their own information about their history and purpose, thus enjoying a special and interesting experience.


More specifically, the programmes aim to introduce children to Byzantine culture, to link the past with the present through an experiential approach to the objects and the space, and to develop the children's skills and abilities. All this is achieved in various ways, the methods including dialectic, based on constant dialogue with the students, demonstration, involving supplementary material (transparencies, maquettes, representations of objects), research, based on worksheets, the experiential approach, dramatisation through play, and creative expression in workshops. A visit to the museum thus becomes an enjoyable experience and also serves as a basis for a variety of classroom activities.

For infants and first-year juniors especially, the basic premise underlying the programmes is that the museum can be an arena for meaningful experience, in the sense that it appeals to all the senses, encourages experimentation and play, and offers incentives for exploring the environment. In this way it spurs creative learning and contributes to the well-rounded and substantial development of children of this age.

"Teachers' files"

As part of the process of informing and training teachers in museum education, the museum has designed a number of 'teachers' files', with the help of which educators can themselves prepare and conduct an enjoyable and constructive class visit to the museum.

The "Early Christian city and dwelling" and "Aspects of everyday life in the Early Christian period" files, re-published with a grant from the A. G. Leventis Foundation, are for primary- and secondary-school children. "Getting to know Byzantine icons" and "Let's play at excavating" target preschoolers.

Each file contains information about the subject, suggestions for how to use the file, activities for before and after a visit to the museum, and worksheets for the children to fill in.

The museum has also printed informational booklets addressed to teachers about educational programmes and museum education, as also a detailed description of the 'Byzantium after Byzantium' and 'Discovering the past' programmes. The publication was co-funded by the European Union, 3rd Community Support Framework, Operational Programme 'Culture'