The remarkable story of the Tees Valley journeys through industry and innovation, creativity and design, war and exploration – around the world and into outer space. No wonder Tees Valley students are keen to celebrate their extraordinary heritage.
I worked with schools and museums across the Tees Valley, and the National Portrait Gallery in London, to create the Museum in your Classroom toolkit, a step-by-step, curriculum-linked guide for teachers to create a school exhibition with their class, using museum collections as inspiration. The guide follows five steps, each packed with ideas and resources for museum visits and classroom activities:
- Planning
- Researching your theme
- Creating the displays
- Bringing your exhibition to life
- Publicising and launching your exhibition
We discovered creating a school exhibition is not only a great way to explore history, but also an excellent opportunity for purposeful writing, and for developing students’ digital and creative skills. It also provides the perfect platform for students to gain Arts Award and for schools to gain Heritage School status.
AND students love the process and are so very (and rightly) proud of the outcomes!
The Museum in your Classroom toolkit is an extension of the Making a Mark in the Tees Valley learning resource.
“The final exhibition exceeded all our expectations. Everyone was blown away by how much information the children had taken in and were able to share – and wanted to share!”
Teacher, Middlesbrough
Anna Husband 