Case Studies:

• Yorkshire Museum
• Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Downloads

Yorkshire Museum Planning Letter [38.5kb]

Yorkshire Museum - Matching Objectives to QTT Standards [39.0kb]

Yorkshire Museum - Activity Sheet [44.5kb]

Yorkshire Museum - Roman Boxes [24.0kb]

Yorkshire Museum - Roman Activity Sheets [481.5kb]

Autumn 2004

Introduction

Linda, a student from York St Johns College, took a placement with the Yorkshire Museum as part of a ten-week teaching practice in a primary school. Linda chose to use the placement as part of a unit of work about the Romans and include a school visit to the museum. Janine, a member of staff at the museum, managed the placement and acted as Linda's mentor.

Planning

When Janine and Linda met for the first time to discuss the placement minutes were taken. Indeed they thought that keeping a record of each meeting was a good idea. Next they each set out and shared their expectations for the placement. Finally they matched their joint aims and objectives for the placement against the QTT Standards and thought about how they could be achieved using a generic assessment form. See the resultant document - Yorkshire Museum - Matching Objectives to QTT Standards [39.0kb].

Museum's Objectives:

• To offer an exciting and stimulating school visit, and develop a positive relationship with both school and pupils.
• To gain an insight into current educational practice within the Primary classroom, through discussions with teaching staff and participation in training sessions.
• To develop Roman activities for use in the Roman Galleries, increasing access to the Roman collections.
• To discuss other proposed education initiatives at the Yorkshire Museum.

Student's Objectives:

• To provide a class visit which excites, stimulates and adds to the curriculum in a way not possible solely through school based learning.
• To integrate the visit providing learning opportunities in school before and after the visit to maximise visit effectiveness.
• To understand better the workings of the Museum, so facilitating effective use in the future. To forge links and relationships which could be maintained later in my teaching career.
• To collaborate in the development of 'Roman learning experience', to benefit my own visit and that of others.
• To develop my own knowledge base, with a focus on Roman Britain.

Both mentor and trainee met frequently and email was used to communicate in between.

"The success of the placement was determined by good communication. Janine and I communicated frequently both orally and through e-mail."

The partner school were also very supportive and allowed Linda time to plan her visit and attend meeting with her museum based mentor. Janine met with teachers from the school at the beginning of Linda's placement and went into the school before the visit. Janine also attended the class assembly which followed the visit.

Placement

One of the challenges of the placement was the desire to bring almost 100 pupils to the museum on the day - making perfectly good sense for the school but under normal circumstances impossible for the museum.

Therefore an important aspect of the placement was for Linda and Janine to work together to devise three separate sessions for the children so that they could be split into manageable numbers. See the activity sheet: Yorkshire Museum - Activity Sheet [44.5kb].

Linda had the opportunity to devise a new set of activities around a temporary exhibition and Janine collaborated with Linda on a new session on the Romans. Together they planned a trail looking at contemporary art. The museum used the placement as an opportunity to develop with the trainee teacher a new Roman handling box scheme - see the following documents: Yorkshire Museum - Roman Boxes [24.0kb], and Yorkshire Museum - Roman Activity Sheets [481.5kb].

Outcomes

At the end of the placement their evaluation shows that the museum benefited from gaining a greater understanding of teaching in the classroom and the value of testing resources and piloting with teachers.

"We also held a teacher's preview a week after the visit, launching the new Roman resources. It was good for me to say we had developed them with a school and piloted them with three classes."

It's also made them think about new ways of marketing themselves to teachers.

"We are also looking at the way we will market a new education programme - we may consider attending school assemblies in the new education programme. Going to the assembly gave me feedback on the success of the visit, and hearing parents and adults talk amongst themselves gave me an insight into the way pupils viewed the visit. It was also a good way of marketing the education programme - lots of the adults had never been to the museum, and said it looked like a good visit."

The trainee is now more confident about using museums and appreciated that the placement and the visit enriched learning.

"Organising such a complex trip in such a supportive and enthusiastic setting might encourage me to organise out of school learning in the future. I am still very enthusiastic about the placement. I have learnt about how the education service in the museums works, and how to organise a major outing. The experience for the children was of a much better quality than anything I could have put together outside the placement."