Old and New in Newbold Verdon

What did we do?

Staff from Leicestershire Heritage Services worked with teachers from Newbold Verdon Primary School's Autism Unit to develop a range of classroom-based activities and to arrange a museum visit for students with autism aged between 8 and 11 years.

Through contacts with the Autism Outreach Team in Children and Young People’s services at the County Council, a reciprocal placement was arranged for Brian Kennedy, Andrea Bridge and Kath Perry from Leicestershire’s Heritage Services with staff at Newbold Verdon Primary School.  The Heritage Services team all had teaching experience but no knowledge or experience of working with students with special educational needs (SEN).  Previous research on the use of museums by SEN schools had shown that the expectations of schools could be very low and that museums had a lot of work to do to engage with such schools.

Building a partnership
As well as wanting to develop a lasting partnership with the school and to provide creative and relevant learning resources, Andrea, Kath and Brian also needed to build their own confidence in this new area of work.

One of the most important elements of the placement, and the one which had the biggest impact on staff understanding, was visiting the school. It was crucial to see first hand how the school operated and how teaching was organised in the classroom, this particularly helped to build a relationship between staff and students that culminated in the museum visit. In total Andrea, Kath and Brian led four sessions in the classroom before the school visited Donington Le Heath Manor House. Although this was incredibly time consuming, everyone involved recognised the benefits and the fact that the time spent was a significant part of the project's success.

Developing classroom activities and resources
Learning Links enabled teaching staff to spend time with Heritage Services staff at the Heritage Services' object loans centre selecting artefacts and developing specific resources and activities to deliver in the classroom. All the activities produced were very practical and hands on: using a system of ‘surprise’ bags each session focused on a different theme and 'Old and New' involved students contrasting simple everyday objects with historic artefacts. This activity proved successful as students could relate to the items and access the experience in a variety of different ways, including sensory and motor levels.

Visiting the museum
The preparation for the museum visit, including watching a DVD of the museum to increase familiarity with the site, paid dividends as everyone felt relaxed and at ease. Andrea, Kath and Brian understood the different learning and understanding levels of the students and felt confident in delivering sessions to them. The students, having met the staff in school recognised them as familiar and felt at ease, something that was hugely beneficial for the teachers.

What were the outcomes?

Kath, Andrea and Brian developed new skills and knowledge of SEN and a much greater appreciation of how skilled SEN teachers are. The project enabled Leicestershire Heritage Services to extend its work with other SEN groups and set itself a five year target for delivering to SEN schools. Children's and Young People's Services at Leicestershire County Council has also recognised the impact of the work and how it can contribute to achieving targets.

In addition staff from Heritage Services gained:

• Increased confidence in delivering to SEN groups,
• Knowledge and experience of working with a SEN school, including an appreciation and understanding of the complexities of the SEN school environment,
• Knowledge and understanding of the P Scales assessment for SEN students,
• A catalyst to enable them to strategically build up their relevance to the children and young people’s agendas at Leicestershire County Council.

Students gained:

• Experience of new places to visit,
• The chance to encounter unknown situations and different environments in a safe way,
• The opportunity to work with different people,
• Skills in exploration,
• Inspiration and motivation,
• The chance to handle and experience historical artefacts,
• The opportunity to access the whole experience each in a different way and at a level tailored to them as individuals.

Teachers gained:

• Confidence to work with museums on this and future projects,
• An opportunity to stand back and observe their own class,
• An appreciation of the museum visit as a unique experience,
• Knowledge and understanding of the resources available through Leicestershire Heritage Services,
• New skills to deliver history to SEN students,
• A feeling that both sides were equally exchanging knowledge and resources.