Engaging & tangible.
Developing & delivering tailored school sessions.
‘My aims are embedded in everything I do….’
My aim when working with organisations is to build on the huge potential of heritage resources to provide real and powerful learning experiences for young people, within the parameters of sustaining those same resources for future generations.
I aim to create imaginative, engaging and active ways in which young people can explore objects and buildings from the past or the environment around them and to enhance the experiences offered within the Curriculum for Excellence.
What outcomes do I seek to create?
When planning a new education session I envision the end result….stimulating experiences where young people are full of chat, enquiry and curiosity.
I plan for the sessions to be opportunities for young people to relate their school learning to real objects and real events from the past, to deepen their understanding of a topic. I want them to be able to apply and develop life long skills such as problem solving, and critical thinking, in different and novel ways.
For teachers I make sure that I can provide them with a session that meets their planned experiences and outcomes, provide opportunities for cross-curricular learning and provide them with an opportunity to see their class at work in a different environment, interacting with different people.
Knowledge & expertise
My Toolkit
There are a range of activities that I can offer. Any of these I can incorporate in to sessions. These include:
Designing specifically for Under 5s - this includes face to face and digital delivery.
Developing heritage resources for use in developing literacy and numeracy skills - story creation, language development, discussion, problem solving, measuring and information handling.
Using heritage to support creative learning - encouraging imagination, play and curiosity.
Object handling sessions using real or replica objects from museum collections.
Skills based learning - investigating primary sources - including archaeology, oral history, objects and documents.
My Approach
Investigating and exploring the past in museums and heritage spaces can provide unique opportunities for children to further their knowledge, understanding and empathy for a past historical period. Along with subject specific knowledge interaction with heritage resources and specialists can provide opportunities to practice and consolidate key skills such as:
Literacy and numeracy
Problem-solving and critical thinking
Creativity and curiosity
Discussion and independent learning
Relevance and applying learning to real life situations
All of these elements I try to incorporate when developing sessions.
Past project.
Developing learning opportunities at Perth Museum and Art Gallery
Perth Museum and Art Gallery
Between 2017-2019 I spent two years working with Perth Museum and Art Gallery on their school’s programme. The aim was to encourage schools to engage with both temporary exhibitions as well as the permanent collection of which there are around 500,000 pieces covering everything from natural history to fine art.
Creating
Over the course of the two years I developed a suite of workshops for primary schools. These balanced teachers needs to fulfil curriculum requirements and their topic choices, with the scope of the collections.
Popular topics included The Egyptians, The Romans, Victorians, 20th Century technologies, Natural History, Dinosaurs and WWII. In developing these sessions I used many of the techniques outlined in ‘My Toolkit’ to encourage hands-on, active learning.
As well as an ongoing programme of workshops I also developed bespoke one off projects for secondary schools which took advantage of temporary exhibitions from National Museums or Galleries.
Outcomes
Schools workshops, which I delivered in the museum with the help of volunteers, were always very well received and fully booked throughout the year. In evaluations the sessions received very positive feedback from both teachers and pupils.
Another highlight of my time at Perth Museum was in delivering truly unique experiences for young people through the project work we achieved in partnership with National Museums and Galleries. For example, in a project to bring the ‘Monarch of the Glen’ painting to Perth Art Gallery I worked with staff from Breadalbane Academy and the National Galleries of Scotland to ensure the painting itself made a physical stopover at the high school on its way from Inverness to Perth. This enabled all the high school students the unique experience of the seeing the actual painting for themselves, when many of them had not visited an art gallery ever before.
