On 22nd July the Early Years Network got together for their regular meeting (and a delicious cream tea!) this time hosted by Kayleigh Edun, Learning Officer at Greenwich Heritage Centre.
Part of Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust, Greenwich Heritage Centre is the museum and archive for the Royal Borough of Greenwich. Audiences can learn about the local history of the borough through a changing programme of exhibitions, events and independent research using the archives and local studies library. As well as a school’s programme, family activities exploring the museum and archive collections through craft, storytelling and activities are held regularly on the weekend and school holidays.
The theme of the meeting was to discuss ‘integrating under 5s into regular family programming’ and the Greenwich Heritage Centre was a great place to begin this discussion as they don’t currently run an early year’s specific programme. We began with a tour of the centre which led into a discussion about visitor numbers, which the Heritage Centre is keen to increase. We talked about issues surrounding visibility and how most family programmes seem to gain visibility through word of mouth. We shared our own experiences and recommendations when it comes to increasing visibility, including marketing using mobile apps such as ‘hoop’ or social media so that visitors can shout about their experiences or partnering with other local museums to create a passport or trail to encourage families to a range of sites. We also discussed the value of approaching school teachers to promote for you by running a “what to do in the summer” fair or hosting your own ‘family festival’. As a group we felt there was real value in engaging with potential visitors directly and making that connection face to face.
Kayleigh then introduced us to the family programme at the Greenwich Heritage Centre and gave us a preview of the summer holiday programme, which revolved around local industries and factories – including creating a motorbike board game!
These activities were aimed at children aged 4 and upwards but younger siblings were welcome to join in too. Kayleigh highlighted the importance of making sure the craft activities are flexible and that there are always extra resources available for the young children. A step-by-step guide with pictures (see left image) is provided to support children and adults during the activities which frees up time for the staff to be supporting and interacting instead. The centre has also introduced ‘I Spy’ trail sheets (see right image) for families to encourage them to explore the galleries as well as participating in the crafts, as they take place in a separate learning space.
We discussed ways to ensure that under 5s are included in family activities, including: running crafts and story sessions alongside each other, giving older children a role or ‘helper stickers’ to allow them more responsibility, providing a wide range of differentiated or open-ended activities & including sensory aspects such as messy play or sound boxes.
We ended the meeting sharing our experiences of developing a dedicated early years programme and in particular the challenges faced in selecting the right timings for sessions, especially as families with under 5s are often following a specific routine. The importance of longevity was highlighted and that sticking to timings is key to making families feel safe and secure. Evaluation in the early stages and throughout the development of any programme was a hot topic towards the end of the meeting and we shared our own thoughts on good ways of evaluating, such as giving adults an iPad to complete evaluation but at the same time do a group evaluation with the children.
early years network 