With major changes to the national curriculum due to commence this September, BMG’s Learning Team have been working hard to make sure our offer to schools is as relevant, inspiring and vibrant as ever.
As well as revising our existing offer we have added the brand new, child centred workshop, the Art & Science of Noticing. The facilitated session which is led by children’s curiosity will focus on how children respond and react to our collections and buildings at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford Industrial Museum and Cliffe Castle Museum. The workshop can be used to support work with the 2014 national curriculum and is applicable for KS1,2 & 3 pupils. It is also adaptable for early year’s family groups, KS4/5 students and adults.
Successful trial sessions with various local schools including Thornbury, Hollingwood and Nessfield took place over the autumn term. For Thornbury Primary School’s session at Bradford Industrial Museum, the primary focus was on our fabulous transport gallery. Pupils made sketches and took their own notes about how favourite objects made them feel, and were encouraged to ask questions to find out more and share ideas between themselves. Back at school the pupils did further research to help them devise guided tours of the Industrial Museum incorporating their favourite objects. They then returned to deliver these tours to their parents.
The trials for the Art & Science of Noticing also provided a great chance for our own staff and colleagues to show off their own personal collection favourites. Collections Manager Gavin Edwards explained his passion for our polished stone axes and how emotive these objects are for him because of the physical connection they give us to the people who once used them. Noticing the shape, colour and texture of the axes, Gavin could see the settled way of farming life in those times. He imagined what they could create and achieve with the axe and also how upset they might be if one was lost or broken.
For more details about the Art & Science of Noticing and all our other workshops and services, please see the Learning page of this website.
