Learning through Museums: A Partnership Project between Leeds Trinity University College & Leeds Museums and Galleries

Beverley Forrest

Leeds Trinity University College

Esther Amis-Hughes

Learning and Access Officer Leeds City Museum

Vicky Dean & Tom Connelly

Student project participants Picture copyright Dan Salter

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Background to the Project

Partnership between Leeds Museums and Galleries and Leeds Trinity University College Developed from earlier links with City Museum and The Schoolroom at Armley Mills where all students had undertaken visits as part of the history module Facilitated by a grant from MLA Council Resulted in 15 students (yr 3 of a 4 yr course) undertaking a placement within a museum setting.

Project aims:

• • • • Students will be better informed about how museums support pupils learning. Project students act as advocates within cohort. Result in greater confidence and knowledge for all students to plan museum visits while on placement or in post. Trainees to utilise knowledge gained on placement to produce resources for use by teachers. Resources to be available on mylearning website.

Museum educators learn new approaches to developing learning through their collections as a result of working with the trainees Strengthen our partnership - extend number of museums involved and begin to embed our work within modules, formalise the relationship.

Factors for a successful partnership:

• • • • • • • Fix dates early for any collaborative work/placements Appropriate matching of students and settings Concise clear documentation containing information related to expectations/outcomes Within any framework ensure sufficient flexibility for student personalisation Identified link people with clear roles Support provided for new mentors/museums Realisation that factors for a successful partnership on a school placement was the key to that for a museum

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Partnership beyond the project: Some issues to consider

How to ensure experience for all participating partners and students are consistent without opportunities for monitoring visits?

Who is responsible for this project within institution?- Need to go beyond the enthusiastic individual!

How can our ideals related to good practice fit within existing structures? Museum partners cannot be exclusive – how to share this resource?

Students engaged in this project work most committed – how to engage other students? How to ensure quality outcomes from students without this level of monitoring?

Benefits to the site

• Advice from ‘experts’ who are in the middle of the most up to date teacher training • Help delivering workshops – able to see different delivery techniques • SOTS students help with elements like differentiation in my workshop • Cracking projects, resources and workshops • Good partnership with provider Picture copyright Dan Salter

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Benefits to the sector

Generation of ‘museum friendly’ teachers Students often observe good and bad practice of supervising/ organising a school visit.

Students see the breadth of what we do, and can consider the importance of other education activities such as family learning and community work Students see the benefit of museums and other settings for children with different learning styles and needs Picture copyright Dan Salter

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Advice

Play to the students’ strengths, have a few projects in mind and but if possible only set a firm project after you have met the individual and ascertained what their interest area is and where their skills lie.

Give them as many opportunities as possible outside their project to experience different aspects of education in a museum setting.

Be prepared for paperwork - there may be more than for other placements due to the requirements of the ITT course Keep in touch afterwards, you might be able to help them when they come to plan their first every school trip, they might be able to help you when you need that new Key Stage 2 resource checking.

Picture copyright Dan Salter

•As the sessions at the School Room are well established and successful we wanted to look for something a bit different.

•There are more resources available than is obvious at first glance – huge range of undiscovered material.

Our own learning journey…

• Imaginations captured by the Log Books – so many things noted were so different to today, but we could also see the similarities between Victorian and modern school life.

• Finding reference to Miss K C Dean(e) •Used primary source material to research a real person – looking at the clues. •Used a range of sources, log books, census, teacher registration •Could aid children in understanding each name they read is a real person – surely that is what history is all about?