Rights and Responsibilities at Kettering Museum

What did we do?

Kettering Museum was keen develop its links with secondary schools through the project. It built on exhibition work relating to the 200th commemoration of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The project created loans boxes, foxusing on William Knibb and fitting the citizenship curriculum. At Key Stage 3, slavery is not a discrete National Curriculum topic, so it was important the resources had cross curricular application to extend their usage.

The loans boxes are mainly object based and include historic and contemporary artefacts. Teachers’ notes and lesson suggestions, with guidance on the use of the objects, are integral to the boxes.

The boxes have two distinct parts, the historical aspect uses replica artefacts to stimulate thought and debate about historical slavery issues and includes items such as shackles, an auctioneer's hammer and replica slave tags. The modern section focuses on contemporary issues of human rights and child labour and contains contemporary items such as a Nike Air trainer, a mobile phone, chocolate and sugar. The items help to stimulate debate about current issues in contemporary society, particularly around questions of modern child labour.  Objects are supported and contextualised with information cards providing extracts from contemporary and historical sources.

Kettering Museum worked with a small teachers’ panel to develop the boxes and got advice from the Northamptonshire Black History Association. The boxes were piloted with local secondary schools and were well received, meeting the requirements for the citizenship curriculum. The project has also stimulated interest from primary schools wishing to use the resource for history project work.

Kettering Museum created two identical boxes, one to be used by schools, who book the use of the box for a period of time at a small charge, and hte other is used by the museum for outreach work linked to its touring exhibition on the same theme. 

The use and development of the boxes and the outreach programme is a long term programme of activity for the museum, which the Learn with Museum programme was able to kick start.

Learning outcomes

• The project developed learning resources for schools linked to the citizenship curriculum,
• The museum gained improved links with secondary schools,
• The museum developed its outreach programme,
• Museum staff increased their skills and knowledge in creating loans boxes for learning.