Educational Visit FAQs

The car parks outside the zoo are owned by Cornwall Council and incur the following charges:
• 1st April – 31st October £1.70 per hour or £10.40 for 24 hours
• 1st November – 31st March – No charge

Please park minibuses (15 seats or more) and coaches in the bus bays at the front of the zoo.

If payment is required, your school will normally be invoiced by email after your visit – please confirm the email address to be used for invoice and provide a purchase order number if it will be required. Alternatively, payment can be made by card or cash on arrival. Newquay Zoo is VAT exempt.

We will only charge you for the number of pupils you bring on the day so it is no problem if your numbers have increased or decreased on the day.

Any children who hold a zoo membership will not be required to pay. Passes, or good quality copies, will need to be shown on arrival.

If you arrive before 11:00am, a member of our education team will try to meet you, check and pass on important information, and lead your group into the zoo for a short welcome.

This 5-minute welcome contains important information and instructions, but also includes fun zoo ‘gossip’. This sets pupils up for the day: we set a challenge that will link to our later meeting at an enclosure.

We have several storage units on site you may use to store your bags. These are allocated on the day.

In addition to picnic areas around the zoo, you are welcome to use the Bird Hide to eat your lunch in. Times are allocated on the day and may be shared with other groups: none of these facilities are bookable in advance. Reception staff will provide you with a code for the lock on the day.

We try to meet and talk to as many groups as possible during their visit. Please use the following links to see what we can offer your group:
Primary and EYFS
Secondary

We want to encourage pupils to take in the animals and plants around them. Therefore we have moved away from offering worksheets. Alternatively, during your arrival briefing in the morning, our Engagement Officer will set your pupils challenges for the day that encourage them to use their observation skills.

To complement your visit we have a number of resources available to use before or after your day.

There are two sets of toilets on site. The largest are next to the main entrance and include a ‘Changing Places’ accessible toilet with hoist system. There are a further smaller set of toilets near to our meerkats.

On arrival, please let us know if you would like to visit the shop. We ask students to visit in small, accompanied groups to ease congestion.

If you need to contact us for any reason, on the day or in advance of your visit, the best phone number is: 01803 697569.

 

If this number is engaged, please try 01803 697510 or 01637 873342 (main zoo number).

Please see our access statement. There is a ‘Changing Places’ accessible toilet with hoist system next to the entrance.

Home educators are able to take advantage of our reduced education rates. Please visit our home education page for more details.

We are currently unable to support work experience in the majority of departments due to our health and safety policies. Please visit our work experience webpage for more details.