Transforming Tattershall

What did we do?

The first steps involved meeting the local school, Clinton Primary, and establishing what it needed. The partnership involved students and staff from the outset and it worked incredibly well. To find out community needs, a questionnaire was sent to local residents, other schools, the parish council and community groups. The questionnaire was compiled by students during their ICT lesson and asked respondents what they liked and disliked about the Castle and what their priorities were for possible development. The response to the questionnaire was excellent with two thirds returned - a positive indication of the importance local people placed on the castle.

Having analysed the data, museum staff took the most popular five answers into school and students made a series of models reflecting the top five development priorities identified.

An activity day, ‘Save our Castle’, was organised with Clinton Primary School, with students representing local groups engaging in role play and debating issues.  This event resulted in photographs, later blown up and laminated, developed as resources for the debating and reporting elements of the session, and which could be used with other primary schools and visiting groups. These and other resources link to the citizenship elements of the curriculum but are applicable in a wider cross curricula focus, including art, design and technology and literacy. 

Classroom work associated with the learning activities led to a display of students' work at Tattershall Castle.  A scheme of free tickets was offered though the participating pupils, resulting in over 50 per cent of parents attending the event day.

Work with the secondary school was successful in encouraging relationships between primary students and older students.  Several activities were organised, including work with the questionnaire which was introduced to year seven pupils by year six pupils; Year groups 10 and 11 came on a visit to the Castle and students from the primary school questioned them directly about their preferences.

Work with the U3A group will be a longer term development project. Initial steps were made in developing links with the local primary school; primary students interviewed members of the group to discover their opinions on the Castle and what they need would need for a visit.

The project has increased community involvement and interest in Tattershall Castle. Prior to the project, a number of local schools had never visited Tattershall Castle.

Plans for the future include continuing the work with local schools and groups. The impact of projects can be hard to measure or quantify but the local primary, Clinton Park Community Primary School, has been deeply affected by the project: in September 2007 they changed the name from Clinton Primary School to ‘Tattershall Primary School’ due to the project.

Learning outcomes

• An excellent relationship has developed with the local primary school, which is ongoing, 
• The local community has become involved,
• Cross curricular learning resources have been developed with a citizenship focus,
• New users from the village have visited the Castle,
• Tattershall Castle will be able to offer a much wider learning package than before.