Schools
If you’re a teacher, you want to inspire your students. You know the ways in which you can draw the best out of them.
But you may not be aware of the resources that are available to you in your local museum. Perhaps, although you work in this area, you don’t live here and so you don’t have a close familiarity with its history.
We would encourage you to have a conversation with us.
Case Study
That worked well for The Castle School when they were approached by the new Turnberries Community Centre in Thornbury. Turnberries asked whether Castle School students could produce a sculpture to be sited outside their entrance, something which would capture the spirit of the place.
As the site used to be the old Thornbury Market, the school’s Year 7 art teacher contacted the museum to find out more about the history of the market. We were able to give them information and provided the school with some amazing photographs of Thornbury Market dating back to when the market was on the High Street. This gave the school the idea of producing a sculpture related to the animals sold at the market.
The school students worked with a local sculptor. She had them sketching and making clay models of animals. A local brick company donated wet clay bricks. A local farmer provided a fork lift truck to move the bricks. The students worked with the sculptor to carve a family of sheep, the brick company fired the clay and the Community Centre were proud to display the sculpture. It was formally unveiled by the creator of Shaun the Sheep!
When the museum put on ‘To Market, To Market’, an exhibition about Thornbury as a market town, we were delighted to feature the students’ Sculpture Project.
Simpler collaborations
Of course, not all school projects are this wide in scope or collaborate across so many people and organisations.
Sometimes, all a teacher wants is some information and photographs about the local area during a particular period. Then that teacher can custom-make lesson plans and projects for use in school. We’ve worked in this way with some local primary schools, providing them with First World War materials.
Contact us if you’d like to have a conversation.
4 Chapel Street,
Thornbury,
Bristol BS35 2BJ
