Education at the Museum
The Museum has established itself as a provider of award winning education and
training.
Schools
The Museum welcomes over 23,000 children in school
parties each year, providing a wide-ranging service including hands-on workshops for all
key stages of the National Curriculum and covering most subjects. In
2001 a major grant from Barclays Bank enabled the
museum to develop programmes for children with special educational
needs. In June 2006 a new website,
www.openairclassroom.org.uk , was launched specifically for teachers
planning visits to the Museum. It presents the resources available at the
Museum for cross curricular learning visits. It is graphically based and
highly interactive.
Continuing Education
The Museum is committed to excellence in its wide ranging continuing
education programmes. It has established a reputation as a provider of specialist education in
historic building conservation, delivering courses for professionals such as architects,
surveyors and craftsmen. We run courses in traditional country skills, such as
working with heavy horses and coppice management. The interesting variety of recreational arts,
craft and cookery courses reflects the activities and
the artefacts of the Museum.
[Details]
The Museum runs an extensive programme of building conservation courses
suitable for CPD and CVE, both in its own right and with two major partners - Bournemouth
University, delivering the timber modules for its MSc in Timber Building Conservation and English
Heritage and neighbouring West Dean College delivering a series of Building Conservation
Masterclasses.
[Details]
The Museum has twice won the Sandford Award for Education
and the Society of the Interpretation of Britain (SIBH) 'Interpret Britain Award' for the Museum's lifelong learning programmes.
LEARNING STRATEGY
Introduction
Learning has always been at the heart of our Museum. In
1968 Roy Armstrong's original draft statement of the Museum's purpose
included: "To establish an Open Air Museum of buildings displayed and made
available to the public for educational purposes" and "To seek the
collaboration of the Universities, Local Authorities and other educational
bodies within the area in order to establish the Museum as a centre for
the furtherance of local studies and in particular of the social and
economic history of the area".
Strategy
1. Learning and interpretation are indivisible. All
learning will be linked to agreed interpretive schemes.
2. All learning and interpretation will be based on the
Museum's resources - its collections and site, and associated objects and
processes:
