We attend the 'Connect with the Countryside' day at the South of England Show Ground in July and this is a special event for school children aged 10/11 years. It is where they often make their first connections with us. We welcome the interest of young people in the work that we do and wish to promote their understanding of the Countryside. Children are welcome to explore our website. We hope to inspire their connections with the countryside long into the future.

Museum’s Medieval cottage from Hangleton gets furnished!

The Museum’s Interpretation department have been working hard researching the lifestyles of the people living in Hangleton during the Medieval period. The building now shows how a family might have used the building as a domestic space. The picture below shows a straw mattress being made by a Museum interpreter. This mattress is now stored inside the building, and would’ve been rolled out at night time for people to sleep on!

This building is now a great place to explore for those visits focussed on Medieval life.

Schools Ruby Anniversary Garden Competition

As part of our 40th anniversary celebrations throughout 2010, the Museum is running a Ruby Garden Competition open to all primary and SEN school in West Sussex.  For further information please call The Schools Services Department on 01243 811459

The Schools Services department has re-introduced hands-on farming activities within our Tudor farming workshops! Students now have the opportunity to use a flail and winnowing basket so, they can fully appreciate traditional farming techniques.

In December we welcomed 12, year 3 and 4 students from Appleford School in Wiltshire. The students enjoyed playing Tudor games and learning about Tudor textiles. The photos show students threshing wheat in our Tudor farming workshop, and thoroughly enjoying themselves!

“Thank you for an excellent day – the children are buzzing and we have enjoyed working with all the photos we took, amazed at how much we did.”

Helen Booth
Year 3 and 4 teacher, Appleford School.

The second Annual Transformational Learning Conference will be held at the Museum on Thursday July 1st 2010.

 Details

How well did the day develop your pupils’ knowledge and understanding?

The pupils learnt an enormous amount, and really felt as though they had experienced life as a Tudor. Many want to take their parents there.

Did you take part in any of our workshops and how would you rate your pupils enjoyment of the activities?

Tudor workshops – all excellent. Pupils commented on all of them afterwards and I liked the “new form” farming workshop as pupils were active!

What aspect of the day do you think was most beneficial to your pupils?

Completing the workshops – not something I could do in the classroom. I also think staying the extra hour (until 3.30pm) enabled us to sketch some Tudor buildings, and visit the Mill.

Shottermill Junior School.
Penny Goddin Year 5 teacher
 

How well did the day develop your pupils’ knowledge and understanding?

Excellent, the day complemented our schoolwork perfectly.

Did you take part in any of our workshops and how would you rate your pupils enjoyment of the activities?

10/10 – School, cooking, farming and chores – Victorians

Any other comments?

Thank you! We have recommended our Year 4’s look into coming.

Donhead School
Bernadette Crossley Year teacher

Which aspect of the day do you think was most beneficial to your pupils?

The workshops – excellent. Being able to enter the houses and investigate structure.

Any other comments?

It is a fantastic Museum with a great deal to offer all ages.

Bellenden School
Mary Kelly Deputy Head

Did you take part in any of our workshops and how would you rate your pupils enjoyment of the activities?

4 workshops – all children learned lots and enjoyed.

Any other comments?

Thank you for an excellent day – the children are buzzing and we have enjoyed working with all the photos we took, amazed at how much we did.

Appleford School
Helen Booth Year 3 & 4 teacher
 

From September 2009 every child that visits the Museum with a school group will be presented with this voucher. The voucher allows a free return visit at any time - a great opportunity for children to show their families what they got up to on their school trip!

Pupils from Singleton C.E. Primary School had the opportunity to explore the Museum’s woodland last term, working alongside the Sussex Wildlife Team. Part of the day involved pupils making name necklaces out of wood and hunting for woodland material to add to their very creative and stylish headbands! The day finished off with a well deserved hot chocolate by the campfire

The Weald & Downland Museum hosted a successful "behind the barriers" visit from Arundel CE Primary school on the 8th of July. This tour was hosted by Museum Carpenter in Residence, Joe Thompson as part of his Creative Partnership with Arundel School. The project is based around the concept of teaching mathematics to Year 3 children using the outdoor environment as a teaching resource. The children helped to provide information for a mini maths trail to assist interpretation in the Jerwood Gridshell Space. They then were introduced to a range of historic machinery that used human, animal and water as the motive power. They were able to interact with some of the Museum exhibits such as the Catherington Tread wheel and the Chaff cutter attached to the Stables from Watersfield. They were also given a guided tour around the Watermill. There was also time for an impromptu Maypole Dance, "the Barbers Pole" led by Alan Wood, one of the Museum's volunteers. Then after lunch it was back to the Jerwood Gridshell Space for a demonstration of carpenters tools and techniques. All in all an action packed day that provided the children with new information that reinforced their classroom education in an inspiring environment.

Year 3 students from Daneshill School enjoying a Bees and Candles workshop in our Medieval house from North Cray. The children were fascinated to learn about bees, honey and wax production from beekeeper Emma O'Driscoll. As can be seen in one of the photos children also had the opportunity to make their own candles to take back to school!

The schools services team were delighted to welcome back Year 4 students from Parish Church CE Junior School last month, the school has visited the Museum for the past 5 years! The visit feedback from the teaching staff was extremely positive.

           How well did the day develop your pupils' knowledge and understanding?

                 "Excellent - an extension on our Tudor topic seeing homes/lifestyles."

           How well did the day meet your expectations?

                 "Fantastic as always."

         Any other comments?

                 "Such a rich rewarding experience as always enjoyed by staff and pupils."

When the school visits next year the students will participate in a Tudor games workshop so they can gain more insight into how children lived in the Tudor period.

This month, another regular visited the Museum - Valley End CE Infant School. The Year 2 students enjoyed a Victorian School experience and also spent part of their day learning about building construction and materials. The school have been visiting the Museum, once a year, for the past 10 years! The school's Headteacher made the following comment in their visit evaluation:

"We have been coming for many years and know we will be received well, and know our children will learn lots, and enjoy the day - an excellent service, thank you."

The schools services team really appreciate this feedback and enjoy sharing it with the wider Museum team.

15/06/09

The Museum's Schools Service is one of the first organisations in the country to be awarded the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge, recognising it as a provider of high quality, safely managed educational experiences for young people. The Quality Badge is a brand new scheme, combining for the first time learning and safety into one easily recognisable badge for all organisations providing learning outside experiences.  News Release

See how year 5 students from St. Richard's Catholic Primary School made use of Museum resources to support their project on life in Victorian times. Details

If your school is interested in using our resources in a similar way please do get in touch, we would be happy to help!   Email or telephone 01243 811459  

Following further research into the social history of the Bayleaf House, Dr Danae Tankard has added the following titles to the background information contained in the Listings section of the website.

• Explanation of a probate inventory
• Transcription of an actual probate inventory
• Who lived in Bayleaf in the 16th century
• What is a yeoman
• Servants
• The sixteenth century house
• Poverty and poor relief in the sixteenth century.

Monochrome line drawings of 10 of the museum's exhibits are now downloadable for printing and colouring by students.  See also Listings

New background information added to the Whittakers Cottages history page.  Details

Join us for a free visit and see what the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum can do for your school. This Teachers' Preview event will be the ideal way to see our workshop materials and view our facilities. Come and see how we can provide a fun, challenging and educational experience for your students. Not just history - we can provide full cross-curricular programmes, maths, science, drama and more!

Free entry also applies for two additional family members/friends for each teacher that visits. Tea, coffee and cake will be provided in the Museum’s education room (map ref. 32) where the Schools Services Team will be on hand to answer any question you may have. It is important that you phone/email in advance to let us know if you would like to come, we will then provide you with further information about the day.

We look forward to seeing you!

Contact us on 01243 811459 or email

One of our KS1 workshops has had a make over! This hands-on workshop is extremely popular with younger school children, allowing them to explore aspects of building construction (timber framing, room use etc). The workshop consists of six trolleys, each containing different materials with the following aims:

•  To distinguish between raw materials and finished building materials used for houses.
•  To recognise the materials used in a building. To recognise the differences between materials used in old and modern houses.
•  To recognise the different ways that brick walls can be built.
•  To sequence the way in which timber can be changed.
•  To identify the different uses of rooms in an old house. To recognise the differences between the past and today.
•  To discuss and suggest reasons how and why buildings are located on a farm.

Each trolley has illustrations, for example, of Museum buildings, which support the learning aims of the workshop. During term times we run this workshop several times each week and as you can probably imagine the materials take quite a battering! So we were delighted when one of our Museum volunteers, Brenda Longman, agreed to take on the task of painting new illustrations to support the hands-on material. Brenda is a trained illustrator and spent 22 years as a Graphic Designer, so she was well qualified to take on this job! I am very grateful to Brenda for all the hard work she has put in to this project. Brenda used watercolour as her medium, successfully highlighting the building materials and structures. I am hoping to make these illustrations available on the Schools Service website, so that teachers can use them as a resource either whilst on site or back in the classroom!
 

Short histories have been added to each of the houses featured in the History section.  These follow extensive research by Dr Danae Tankard.

The treasure hunts have been updated and two trails, developed by university students on placement, have been added.  Trails are very popular with our schools groups, take a look!  Details

Fittleworth First School's Oak Class performing their dance at the Creativity Conference 2008, which took place at Museum on Thursday, 26th June. The dance was inspired by their reading of Jack and the Beanstalk and their thoughts about Giants. The Schools Services department was delighted to see a school using the Museum site in such a creative way!

News Releases that are more than one year old are kept in the News Archive

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