Hi Megan

 

The real difficulty for secondaries is getting out of the classroom.  With this in mind we offer outreach visits to schools, taking objects with us and giving classroom-based workshops.  Since we started doing this we’ve seen our secondary engagement leap from almost nothing to them making up nearly half of our schools engagement. 

 

Of course it’s more time and resource intensive than it would be if they came to us, but it also means that we can do multiple workshops at the same school in one day, so we get higher numbers then we would otherwise, making it worth it. Once a school has a workshop with us and sees that we offer something of high quality they have us back year after year.

 

My top tips would be to find out teachers’ needs, make sure what you offer fits into a gap in the curriculum, be as flexible as you can and build up a good relationship with teachers. 

 

Good luck!

 

Matt

 

 

--

Matt Sheard

Learning & Access Curator

 

Museum Collections

University of St Andrews

 

[t]: 01334 46 1699

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From: List for discussion of issues in museum education in the UK. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Liz Egan
Sent: 07 December 2017 08:29
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Secondary Schools

 

Hi Megan,

 

We are quite unique in that secondary schools make up around 50% of our total schools audience. We are lucky that we attract these numbers due to the GCSE History curriculum having a focus on medicine across all four major exam boards however we do also attract people from subjects other than history.

 

I’d say the key things with secondary school engagement is making sure you are offering them something that they cannot do back in school, something that will justify them taking large groups out of school and something that specifically links to a subject, an exam specification or a curriculum.

We also offer flexible after-school visits which often appeal to schools who just can justify year groups missing a whole day of teaching.

 

When you know what you want to offer, my best advice is to speak to teachers. Find their Facebook groups/social media sites and listen to what they are saying about the challenges they are facing. This then gives you a foundation to build on. For example with history- we know through these conversations that some teachers have 2 hours per fortnight to teach GCSE students and find this very challenging so we immediately put into place extra teaching resources etc to help with this. Once you know what the problems are, you can start formulating the solutions!

 

Hope that helps

 

Liz

 

 

Liz Egan

Learning Manager

 

Thackray Medical Museum

Beckett Street

Leeds

LS9 7LN

Direct Line: 0113 2056522

Education Line: 0113 2444343 ext 3

 

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From: List for discussion of issues in museum education in the UK. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Megan Dowsett
Sent: 06 December 2017 19:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Secondary Schools

 

Hey GEM Folk!

 

I was wondering what your experience is of engaging secondary schools?  I mean, we all know they're notoriously difficult to draw in, but what's the reality?  I've looked around a number of Museum websites, and they do mostly seem to have an offer for secondary schools, yet I am wondering whether there is much take up of these sessions?

 

I am asking because I am writing some secondary sessions for Brixton Windmill, and want to be realistic about the consequent level of engagement the Windmill will receive from secondary schools (having found it very difficult to engage anyone at the research stage!).

 

Thanks!

 

Megan

 

​

Megan Dowsett

Creative Learning Consultant

 

Phone: 07906 651 185

Email: megan@norrisandtheflamingo.co.uk

Web: norrisandtheflamingo.co.uk

 

Please note: I have limited availability due to childcare

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