The Flixton Experience

Suffolk Cultural Champions: Case Study

knowledge skills inspiration creativity fun: find out more...

 

Other project partners: Ringsfield Primary School, Brampton Primary School, Bungay Middle School, MLA East of England

Aim: The project was aimed at developing the museum’s schools programme by piloting more structured sessions closely connected to the National Curriculum. Staff from both the museum and the pilot schools worked together to find creative ways of interpreting the collections for this age group.

(Learning about American bomber squadrons)

Description: The result of this partnership is an education package incorporating two loan boxes and a guided visit to the museum. The children prepare for their visit in class by using the loan boxes which contain a mixture of artefacts and a ‘Memories’ folder collected by NASAM volunteers. Some of the stories are particularly designed to appeal to this age group: one of them recalls a boyhood memory in Norwich when Woolworths was bombed and sweets were scattered across the street! The author of this story is one of the people the children have the chance to talk to on their visit to the museum. The visit itself is carefully organised around a series of volunteer-led activities:

Four Study Areas
 
Home Front
Sit in an original Anderson shelter removed from a garden in Norwich.  Explore life for children during WW2
 
Link Trainer
Training cockpits, some used by WW2 pilots.  All children have a 'flight' during their visit to the museum
 
446 Bomb Group
The children study a WW2 rear gunner, 'tail end Charlie'.  Selected Ed Chu who was stationed at Seething and who is still alive and in contact.  Children can read his story at school and on a visit to the museum they get to see a tail end gunners position.
 
Valetta Aircraft / Sea Prince
While on their visit to the museum the children visit the rare Valetta aircraft and talk about life as a child during WW2 and evacuees.
Children get the opportunity to sit in the Sea Prince aircraft and 'bomb' a submarine.
 
Also
While visiting the museum students can explore survival methods and see kits used in WW2.
Learn about Morse Code and its means of communications

The visit was trialled over three weeks, and involved three schools and a total of 126 children. More volunteers got involved each week as they discovered what was happening.

The children said: "It’s really fun and you learn a lot of stuff"

"It’s excellent…hard but excellent" ..."This is well cool!"

Legacy: The success of the pilot means the programme is being launched more widely from April 2008 onwards to become a core part of NASAM’s educational offer.

About the partners: NASAM is recognised as East Anglia's Aviation Heritage Centre. Maintained and run by volunteers, with one paid staff member, the museum constitutes an impressive collection of aircraft and equipment. It also houses the Royal Observer Corps Museum, the 446th (H) Bomb Group Museum, the RAF Bomber Command Museum and the Air Sea Rescue and Coastal Command Museum.

All the primary schools taking part are local to the museum. Funding came from the MLA East of England Learning Links programme.

For further information about this project contact:

Pam Veale

T: 01508 532646

E: pamveale@btinternet.com

                                          

 

[Home] [About us] [Our Aircraft] [Events] [Archaeology] [Bomber Command] [The Airfield] [The Adair Family] [Decoy Sites] [446 Bomb Group] [R.O.C.] [Joe Kennedy.] [Air Sea Rescue] [Link Trainers] [News] [Shop] [Places to visit] [Cub Scout Resources] [Education]