Inspired by the extensive Beamish collection, particularly the photographic archives, a researcher will put together a series of images and resources relating to your area’s local history and share these live with the children in the classroom.

Pre-recordings will also be offered linked to your local history. All resources can be kept by the school afterwards.

• Season: All year round

Guidelines for Teachers

Preparing for the Zoom activity: It is strongly recommended that supervising staff should test the connection between the museum and classroom before the session. Contact Simon Woolley, Head of Learning, email simonwoolley@beamish.org.uk to make arrangements for this (details below). The Beamish presenter only needs to be able to hear the children in order to make the activity work.

Practicalities:

• Use of an effective microphone has been beneficial but not essential to the success of the Zoom activity, otherwise children can come up to the laptop to ask a question or make a suggestion as to what to do, or the chat facility can be used.
• Some of the resources can be shared with the children beforehand so that they will be able to reflect and ask pertinent questions during the presentation.
• The presenter will be able to visit a part of the museum in The 1900s Town area where connection is good, particularly the Co-op and the garage. Pre-recorded parts of The 1900s Pit Village will be included in the presentation so children will be able to identify aspects of their local history particularly linked to coal mining.
• There may be localised school rules that the presenter may not be aware of regarding online activities for the children, it is important that these are discussed beforehand so everybody is clear about how the session will be delivered.

Outline of the activity:

The presenter (in period costume) will start the session outside the bank on The 1900s Town street at the museum. They will set the scene for your local history story and start the process of helping the children to understand their locality, moving chronologically through the museum’s resources.

The presenter will then illustrate the major events in your area using various resources to support the learning. A couple of activities will be carried out during the session but these will be very short and straightforward.

The presenter will use pre-recorded clips and students will have the opportunity to reflect and ask questions right through the presentation.

All resources will be made available to the teacher after the activity so they will be able to revisit images and resources later.

Objectives of the activity:

• To understand how life has changed over time in the area of the school, understand their Local History
• To understand what forces and events affected the major changes in the area around the school
• To understand how national and international events affected the lives of people who lived locally.

Ideas for pre and post visit:

• Pre: Prior to the experience, students could research their own locality, particularly discussing the project with others in the family. Some of the images and resources could be shared with the children beforehand giving the opportunity for students to ask pertinent questions relating to the subject matter during the presentation.
• Post: Possible follow-up activities could be:
  • Create your own local history leaflet about the Local History using the shared resources.
  • Create your own museum of artefacts in the classroom illustrating your own history.

Presenter and teacher communication before the live online experience is crucial to the success of this activity.