Using Small Grants Funding to Develop Museum Resources for Schools and Communities

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1 Using Small Grants Funding to Develop Museum Resources for Schools and Communities Case Studies from Participating Museums in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire

2 Renaissance in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire The Small Grants Scheme is a demonstration of the way in which Renaissance East of England has supported learning programmes for museums in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. The scheme is a consolidation of the work that the Learning Development Officer has been doing since being appointed in April The Learning Development Officer was appointed to work with museums across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, without a dedicated learning officer, to develop their offer to local schools. Areas of work have included marketing to schools, planning a successful school visit, connecting collections to the National Curriculum and developing partnerships with local schools and teachers. This support has boosted the confidence of non-specialist staff in engaging with school children. In addition, a successful partnership with the Hertfordshire Museums Learning Officer has been developed. This has led to county-wide partnership projects to create museum resources and deliver training opportunities for museum staff. The partnership has also resulted in levering in additional funding through the MLA Strategic Commissioning strands. This funding has enabled museums in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire to develop resources in partnership with local schools. Thanks so much. We have really enjoyed it - and feel like we have done it "properly" - all laminated photo labels on items etc!!! Thanks for your continued support! Feedback from Gill Jackson, Woburn Heritage Centre Museum Acknowledgements The case studies have been compiled and written by Judith Carruthers, Museums and Heritage Learning Consultant. The images and quotes which accompany each case study have been provided by the participating museums 2

3 Contents Introduction Page 4 Developing Resources for Schools Ashwell Village Museum Developed a Resource Box on the Theme of Growing First Garden City Heritage Museum, Letchworth Developed Resources to Support Pupils with Special Educational Needs Stotfold Watermill Developed a Resource Box on the Milling Process The Museum of Technology, Hemel Hempstead Developed Resources to Support Pupils with Special Educational Needs Ware Museum Developed a Resource Box on Victorian Ware Woburn Heritage Centre Museum Developed a Resource Box on World War Two Developing Resources for Communities Bishop s Stortford Museum Developed an Image Road Show Hertford Museum Developed a Handling Box for Adults with Learning Difficulties Mill Green Museum and Mill Set Up a Pottery Research Group Next Steps

4 Introduction "It is difficult for schools to get hold of genuine, authentic artefacts from the past, meaning that they often rely on photographs instead. However, nothing can substitute the experience of physically exploring real artefacts, as this promotes constructive discussion and provides much more memorable, meaningful learning. Teacher after piloting resources for The Museum of Technology During Luton Culture developed and successfully delivered its first regional Small Grants Scheme. This was funded by Renaissance East of England. This booklet captures the learning from museums who received funding during the first year of the scheme. This includes museums who are accredited or working towards accreditation and includes volunteer museums, independent and local authority museums. The scheme enabled museums to develop resources in partnership with schools and communities. Grants of up to 500 were awarded to successful museums to help them consolidate existing resources or develop new ones. Throughout the application and delivery stage museums were provided with continuous advice, encouragement and support from the Learning Development Officer at Luton Culture. The aims of the scheme were: To enable museums to develop a schools or community resource and ensure sustainability for their programmes To develop the skills and confidence of museum staff to apply for funding To demonstrate partnership work between museums and schools and museums and communities To enable museums to consolidate and build upon their existing schools or community provision To demonstrate effective use of the SHARE (support, help and advice from Renaissance East of England) scheme by using SHARE advisers in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. 4

5 There were two strands to the scheme. Museums could either apply for funding to develop a resource for schools e.g. resource boxes, website materials and teacher activity packs or they could develop a resource for the community e.g. reminiscence boxes, family activities or accessible resources. The case studies in this booklet demonstrate how a small amount of funding has enabled museums to achieve long term benefits by creating a lasting resource for their local school or community. It also illustrates the importance of partnership, with museums, schools and community groups working together to ensure the end result meets local needs. The museum staff have embraced learning about strategies for children with special needs and have bought many resources to aid teaching when the children visit the museum. The activities offered at the museum have been carefully planned to provide the children with a fun and engaging experience, enabling them to gain an understanding about life during WWII and to learn more about the role of the museum. Teacher after piloting resources for First Garden City Heritage Museum 5

6 Ashwell Village Museum Developed a Resource Box on the Theme of Growing Ashwell Village Museum worked with a museum learning consultant to develop a hands-on resource box which supported the theme of Growing. This complemented a project that they were already working on with Northfields Primary School. The resource supported their displays on agriculture and the straw plaiting industry. The museum was also able to resource it primarily from their own collections. An important feature of this project is that the resource has been developed for use by different audiences, not just schools. It can be used either at the museum or in schools. Up to now, we have had no resources at the museum for schools, but this grant enabled us to deliver an idea that had been on the back-burner for a long time and finally create some hands-on resources to complement our displays. Peter Greener, Curator 6

7 First Garden City Heritage Museum Developed Resources to Support Pupils with Special Educational Needs First Garden City Heritage Museum developed resources to support a learning session on World War Two. The resources were initially for pupils with special educational needs but was then adapted for mainstream Key Stage Two pupils. The resources were developed in partnership with Woolgrove School (a primary special school for children with moderate learning difficulties), with whom the museum was already working. Before this project, the museum relied heavily on paper-based materials for school groups. However, the partnership developed with Woolgrove School has substantially changed the museum s learning provision. It has made museum staff re-evaluate their services to ensure that they are producing a multisensory hands-on learning experience for schools. It s been important spending time with Sharon (teacher from Woolgrove School) as she was unaware before the project of how much the museum could offer schools, and for us, with no teaching background, it s given us a much greater understanding of what we need to be good educational facilitators. Lucy Sercombe, Museum Assistant 7

8 Stotfold Watermill Developed a Resource Box on the Milling Process Stotfold Watermill created their first resource box containing artefacts and ephemera relating to the historic and current processes involved in milling. The resource box is now available for use in school. However, it will also be used on site to enhance school visits to the mill. The resources were trialled by pupils at Lonsdale School and St Mary s Lower School and proved to be popular with both pupils and teachers. As a result of this project, the mill has developed a new relationship with St Marys Lower School who now want to work further with Stotfold Watermill to integrate the mill into their curriculum. Quite simply the grant provided the finance and impetus to create the resource box. We are now able to take the mill out to people and hopefully encourage them to visit. Pat Clarey, Education Team Leader 8

9 The Museum of Technology Developed a Resource Box on Old and New Technology In response to a request by Woolgrove School, (a primary special school for children with moderate learning difficulties) the museum created a resource box containing old and new technology which could be loaned to schools. This project built on the work that the museum had done previously, developing a resource box on World War Two. Working in partnership with the school was particularly useful for identifying artefacts to source. For example, the school noticed that their pupils found it hard to directly compare a 1950s telephone with a modern one, so 1970s telephones were also included. The museum has also uploaded a significant number of images and video clips on to the E2BN website to support teachers access their resources. 500 is a lot of money for a small independent museum. It enabled us to do something we could only dream about doing years ago. Rosie Hourihane, Curator 9

10 Ware Museum Developed a Resource Box on Victorian Ware Ware Museum worked with a museum learning consultant to develop a schools resource box focussing on Victorian Ware. The resource box included census data, town maps, photographs and artefacts relating to the town. These resources had already been collected by museum staff but the grant provided the opportunity to get help from a museum learning consultant to make the resources accessible and relevant to schools. The resource was piloted with three year 5/6 classes at Christ Church Primary School. The museum received very positive comments from the teachers and pupils. In response to feedback, further artefacts relating to school life were added to the resource box. This grant gave me an opportunity to discuss the museum s resources with educational professionals which is helpful as I am not a trained teacher. The resource box will make the museum s collections more accessible to schools as they will have support materials in the box that will enable them to use the box by themselves without relying on support from me. John Wing, Volunteer School Liaison Officer 10

11 Woburn Heritage Centre Museum Developed a Resource Box on World War Two Building on their experience of creating two schools loan boxes, volunteers at the museum created a World War Two resource box which could be loaned to schools. Their knowledge of local school curricula and strong evidence of the impact of World War Two on their local environment helped in the development of the resource. Nine local schools were contacted to ask what type of artefacts and resources would be useful. Four schools responded, including one school that had never previously used the museum. The resource was successfully trialled with Woburn Lower School. The museum is now planning to collaborate with the school again to research the history of the local war memorial. For one of the museum volunteers, it was the first time she had applied for grant funding. Despite being apprehensive, she found the experience straightforward and it has given her the confidence to apply for future funding. The grant has enabled us to put together something of which we feel very proud. We have learnt what makes a good resource box. We have been able to fund the purchase of significant artefacts and present them in a pleasing way. Gill Jackson, Trustee 11

12 Bishop s Stortford Museum Developed an Image Road Show Bishop s Stortford Museum developed an image road show to take out into their local community. The museum used the funding to help identify old photographs in their collection and to engage with local residents. The road show consisted of a portable display stand on which museum staff were able to put a changing collection of images. It also contained a digital file of images that can be viewed on computer screens in different community venues. In this pilot, museum staff and volunteers held an event at the library in the centre of town and invited people to help identify photographs. Over fifty people attended the event. It acted as a reminiscence session as visitors talked about the memories that were triggered by the photographs. It was a real godsend to receive this grant as funding for small community projects is increasingly hard to find... We just needed money to kick-start a project and this grant provided that. It enabled us to run a pilot and develop a model of engagement with the local community that we can use in other venues. Sarah Turner, Curator 12

13 Hertford Museum Developed a Handling Box for Adults with Learning Difficulties Hertford Museum worked with a group of adults who had learning disabilities as part of their consultation for the redevelopment of their museum. The group were regular visitors to the museum and were asked for their views on what they wanted in the new museum. The group wanted artefacts to handle and dressing up clothes. This was interesting as it challenged the general assumption that it is only children who want dressing up clothes. The grant gave the museum an opportunity to produce four handling boxes for groups to use in the museum. The boxes, chosen by the group, were based on different themes. These included transport, shops, schooldays and law and order. As well as artefacts and photographs, simple dressing up items such as hats and butcher s aprons were included in the handling boxes. Our current learning service really targets school children so this project has helped us to work beyond the scope of this. Helen Gurney, Curator 13

14 Mill Green Museum and Mill Set up a Pottery Research Group The museum used the funding to set up a pottery research group following Harlow Museum s model. The aim of the group is to work through the museum s pottery collection which has been under utilised. The information gathered will be an invaluable resource to allow visitors, researchers and museum staff to use the ceramic collections more effectively. The group has attracted members through word-of-mouth, local newsletters and posters. It has also enabled the museum to forge closer links with Welwyn Archaeology Society. The local Young Archaeology group will get involved in this real archaeology through washing the pottery that will be identified. A further stage will be to involve wider members of the community by including the pottery research group in the museum s summer holiday activities at Welwyn Roman Baths. The project has made it possible for us to start reassessing our pottery collection which has been fairly neglected and enable our local archaeology groups to get involved with the museum in a new way by doing real archaeology that makes a difference to us. Sarah Adamson, Museum Education Officer 14

15 Next steps The Small Grants Scheme has been well received by museums in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. Luton Culture has evaluated the development and delivery of the scheme to test whether it was an effective way of developing sustainable and useful learning resources for museums. As a result of the enthusiastic feedback from participating museums, and the high quality of the projects delivered, the decision was made to run a further round of the scheme in The focus of the grants will continue to be to support museums to develop sustainable resources, which bring local people into direct contact with their local museum. [The] templates [provided] for paperwork (evaluation forms, check lists etc.) are invaluable. Rosie Hourihane, The Museum of Technology [The grant scheme] allowed us to work together to bring our archive photographs into the community. Sarah Turner, Bishop s Stortford Museum The newly formed pottery research group is made up of local people with an interest in archaeology, so it is enabling us to forge closer links with the local community. Sarah Adamson, Mill Green Museum and Mill Project co-ordinated by Fatima Choudhury, Learning Development Officer, Luton Culture. Project supported by Karen Grünzweil, Audience Development Co-ordinator and Laura Lewis, Audience Development Officer, Luton Culture 2010 Luton Culture 15

16 For further information about the Small Grants Scheme or any of these projects please contact: Fatima Choudhury, Learning Development Officer, Luton Culture Phone: Website: For more information on Renaissance East of England please contact: Esther Morgan, Communications Officer, Renaissance East of England Phone: For more information about the SHARE scheme please contact: Simon Floyd, Training and Workforce Development Officer, Renaissance East of England Phone: Website: