School Sessions for West Yorkshire History Centre

Since May I've been working with West Yorkshire Archives Services on sessions for their new building in Wakefield, the West Yorkshire History Centre, due to open early next year. It's been fascinating working in Archives again and I think we've got 4 really great sessions to get started with. The sessions are being piloted next week with local schools and I can't wait to find out how they go.

I was going back through work from my Hull History Centre days (for a presentation today on what to expect from working in schools in a new Archive building) and it's brought back so many memories. Looking through the comments from teachers and pupils, I realised what an impact looking at original documents had on pupils. It really is a unique experience, I hope lots of Wakefield schools take up the sessions and find out for themselves.

http://www.wyjsbig30.org.uk/west-yorkshire-archive-service/

 

M&S and Mylearning

The learning journeys I helped create for mylearning.org and M&S Company Archive on the 'Heart of the High Street' are live. There are lots of images, a timeline of the stores history and activity ideas for a Local History study on Bromley, Manchester, Exeter, Bishop Auckland,Barrow-in-Furness and Glasgow.

 Check them out at http://www.mylearning.org/the-mands-company-archive/heart-of-the-high-street/

Amazing to see how much the stores grew in such a short time, thanks in no small part to amazing team spirit it seems. Favourite story from the archives was the elderly man who returned a sixpence to a store assistant years after he stole some marbles as a teenager. Don't think it could've happened in any other shop.

West Yorkshire Archive Service

I'm delighted to be starting work with the West Yorkshire Archive Service on their new schools programme, watch this space for more details...

With 1 learning journey already live (Sheffield City Archives and the Autugraph Book) and 3 more on the way, work is progressing well with the Yorkshire Archive Learning Network Mylearning project. Its been great to get back in the searchroom and there is some fascinating archival material out there in Yorkshire about WW1 in Yorkshire. Look out for resources coming up from North Yorkshire County Record Office and the M&S Archive. Already there have been some great submissions from other Archives across Yorkshire. 

With help from Archive staff we've found some great suggestions for creatively interpreting archival collections and working towards the Arts Award. Take a look...

www.mylearning.org

Beginning Yorkshire Archives Learning Network and Mylearning First World War Resources

I have just started work on resources for mylearning.org, working with the Yorkshire Archives Learning Network and Cape UK (Arts Council bridge Organisation). Its been great to get back into working with Archives and archival material and an area of work I feel really passionate about; using archival material as a stimulus for creative work.

I'll be creating 3 learning journeys with mylearning and Archives across Yorkshire and in the process of my early research I've come across an amazing website;

http://picturesheffield.com/

Seeing original archival material is a unique experience but websites like this and of course mylearning are opening that world up to so many people who might not access archives in any other way. You could get lost in browsing though, , there is so much to see.

www.mylearning.org

www.capeuk.org

Scarborough Handling Boxes Completed

I've created 4 new Handling Boxes for Scarborough Museums Trust on the themes of Games, Sports, Entertainment and Transport. They were fun and challenging to produce, especially because I was asked in the brief to create boxes which were as interactive as possible but could be enjoyed while sitting down, as they would be used by people in hospice care. I included board games (such as Formula One - an example of which is held by the V&A) and quizzes from the 1960s and 80s (to see if any of the answers are different!). My personal favourite however was the Box Brownie, I could imagine Edwardian amateur photographers using that exact camera. What a world that opened up for people!

Remembering Scarborough

With the printed resources (copies are available from Scarborough Museums Trust) and the Artefact Investigation Suitcases all shipped off (to Whitby Museum and Pannett Art Gallery, Scarborough Museums, Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre and Beck Isle Museum), I took the Remember Scarborough Resources on tour in November. I visited Scalby School for their immersion day and with Esther Graham of Scarborough Museums Trust led 4 sessions to over 120 Year 8s using photographic, newspaper, film, map and propaganda posters as sources of evidence to determine what they could tell us about the bombardment and how reliable they were. We had a great time and the students were really engaged with plenty of questions for us to keep us on our toes.

I’ll be sad not to be making the trip up to Scarborough for a while (although I nearly took off in the wind on the footbridge a few weeks ago!), but Esther and I already thinking of ways we can work together in the future.