Highlights and initiatives

More than three quarters of East Midlands schools already participate in museum learning activities. Formal learning is a great opportunity for museums to engage with pupils and teachers and demonstrate the breadth of information, inspiration and enthusiasm they can offer to deliver the curriculum and help pupils enjoy and achieve.

Learning activity is broken down into a range of areas to encourage schools to benefit from museum education in the classroom, outside the classroom and online. An advocacy campaign has been designed to encourage heads of Children’s Services and others to recognise the role museums can play in providing creative and effective learning opportunities. A regional advocacy group led the development of the strategy, production and distribution of an advocacy document and a series of 25 case studies demonstrating the excellence and breadth of museums’ learning resources (see the Why use museums page on the Learn with Museums website).

Learning online
The Learn with Museums website, which provides curriculum linked resources and information for teachers and students, has expanded with 25 resources (from nine); monthly visitors increased from 493 to 4,534 and 25 case studies sharing good practice examples of museums and archives working with schools to provide learning activities.

• Six training sessions developed museum staff’s skills and abilities to contribute to the Learn with Museums website and cater for the requirements from schools for e-learning opportunities.
• Five e-learning grants enabled innovative educational museum projects to develop, including video conferencing, mobile learning and interactives designed with user generated content.
• An e-learning task group is now driving e-learning initiatives and developing new areas of work.

Learning inside the classroom
Renaissance East Midlands recognises that museums’ input into learning doesn’t just happen in the museum but outreach, loans boxes and online resources also deliver creativity and learning into school. This area of work has:

• Created five posts to provide improved museums services to schools.
• Developed partnerships with 25 organisations including Sure Start, Extended Services, and children’s centres.
• Used consultation with 30 teachers to improve teaching and learning associated with loans boxes.
• Launched three new loans services: Access Artefacts in Nottingham, Art Loans in Lincolnshire and Northampton Loans in Northampton – accessed by 20,000 students in a year.
• Learning networks for independent museums have been established in association with the Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire county museum forums, supported by museum development officers and learning development staff across the region.

Learning outside the classroom
Renaissance East Midlands has supported museum learning opportunities delivered on site. The milestone of one million school students visiting East Midlands’ museums since Renaissance East Midlands was established (2002) was reached in 2007. Also:

• More than 100 new curriculum linked teaching and learning packages have been developed, including visit resources, workshops and active learning sessions.
• Twenty new staff are supporting improved museums learning services including learning officers, learning and access officers and learning support officers.
• Partnerships with more than 50 organisations including universities, the Institute of Structural Engineers, Creative Partnerships, children’s centres, libraries and archives are helping to deliver improved learning services for children.
• All Renaissance partner services are continuing to effectively use teachers’ panels to inform the development of new activities and initiatives.
• Continuous Professional Development (CPD) sessions have been delivered to 250 teachers and student teachers.
• Consultations with 211 teachers and 692 pupils confirmed that Renaissance East Midlands’ work wasn’t going unnoticed and guided the development of Renaissance East Midlands’ learning work.
• More than 540 schools have taken the opportunity of a ‘free museum visit’ using a £150 grant to cover the costs of entrance and transport and discover how the region’s museums are delivering excellent education on site.

Cultural and Creative Ambassadors
This project is a partnership between Renaissance East Midlands, Leicester City Council and Creative Partnerships and launched in April 2007. It is a pilot project for Leicester and Leicestershire, facilitating links between cultural and creative organisations and city and county schools. For more information visit the Cultural and Creative Ambassadors page.