Education at the Wandsworth Museum
The Wandsworth Museum has new Permanent and Temporary Galleries and a newly refurbished Learning Centre. The Learning Centre is a self-contained space, with two classrooms, and spaces to exhibit pupils’ work. School groups are able to book visits to the new galleries and workshops as part of the museum education programme.
“It was very real for them – we cannot provide anything like this in the classroom.”
Year 4 Teacher
Throughout the academic year school programming will take place in the museum galleries and classrooms. There is also the opportunity for the museum to come and visit you in your school. If you have not yet seen the Full Programme 2012/13 please get in contact.
The museum is also working with a variety of other partners on projects focusing on transition and migration, citizenship and community cohesion.
If you are interested in making an educational booking to the museum’s educational services please fill out
our Booking Form and send it to us via email bookings@wandsworthmuseum.co.uk or call the education team on 0208 870 6060.
A list of our current in-house and outreach education programmes is below:
Primary Stages
Toys FS & KS1
Object Handling
This session, incorporating both history and science, allows your pupils to enjoy a range of toys in small groups. It encourages children to think about the lives of people in Wandsworth today and the lives of people in the past, including older people in their own family. The session is designed to develop your pupil’s knowledge of old and new and reinforces the message that toys often reflect the technology of the time but can be created from almost anything.
Curriculum Content: Forces and Movement, Toys from the past, recycled toys and toys from other countries.
Duration: 1 hour
Village Inventors KS1 & KS2
Map Investigation, Story Telling and Town-making
This session blends local history and geography with art to form a session based around map skills. Your pupils will investigate large child friendly maps of the local area spanning 250 years listen to true stories from the past and go on to create their own map of the future.
Curriculum Links: Geography, History and Local Studies, Art and Design,
Duration: 1.5 hours
Bags of Time KS2
( Roman / Tudor / Victorian / World War II )
Object Handling and Replica Costume
In small groups, your pupils will explore life in the past by discovering a piece of luggage lost in Wandsworth. They will rely on their investigation skills to decide which Wandsworth resident has lost their luggage and use supporting sources to develop their character and the wider context of their life.
Curriculum Links: History: Chronological Understanding, Interpretation, Enquiry
Breadth of study: Local History Study, Roman Britain, Tudor Britain, Victorian Britain, World War Two
Duration: 1.5 hours
Mapping the Centuries KS2
Story Telling and Map Investigation
This session blends local history and mapping skills as your pupils will investigate large floor maps from 1760, 1880 and the present day. They will use a grid referencing system to discover some of the major features of our area and populate the map with stories of weird and wonderful things that have happened here.
Curriculum Content: Geography, History and Local Studies
Duration: 1.5 hours
Secondary Stages
Bags of Time: Mystery KS2-3
Object Handling and Replica Costume
Your pupils will explore life in various periods of Wandsworth’s past. They will share a piece of luggage lost in Wandsworth in small groups and must rely on their investigation skills to discover who and when the luggage was lost. With the help of supporting sources they will develop their character and their understanding of the context of their life.
Curriculum Links: History: Chronological Understanding,
Interpretation, Enquiry, Organisation and Communication.
Local History Study, Roman Britain, Victorian Britain, WW2.
Duration: 2 hours
Future Archaeology KS3 & KS4
Object Handling and News Reporting
This session introduces the discipline of archaeology as a process of historical interpretation. Your pupils will have to use their interpretative skills to make conclusions about real archaeological finds before working in groups with more recently excavated artefacts. Groups will have to interpret these objects and their uses to report as archaeologists from 10,000 years in the future.
Curriculum Links: History: Interpretation, Enquiry.
AQA Archaeology Archaeological skills and methods.
Duration: 1.5 hours
Bags of time: Wandsworth Settlers KS3
Object Handling and Replica Costume
From pre-history onwards, settlers from around the globe have arrived in Wandsworth and made it their home. Your pupils will explore our local history by discovering a piece of luggage lost by a Wandsworth resident, someone who arrived and settled here in the past. Objects and supporting sources will be used to help investigate the push and pull factors that lead to this decision and as a group we will examine the importance of immigration and cultural diversity in the shaping of the Wandsworth we know today.
Curriculum Links: History: Chronological Understanding, Interpretation, Enquiry, Organisation and Communication. Local History Study, Citizenship.
Duration: 1.5 hours
This interactive drama and mock trial features an actor playing the role of Charlotte Despard, a militant Suffragette campaigner who lived in Wandsworth in the early 20th century. Charlotte tells of her experience of the changing status of women as well as her reasons for wanting the vote. Later imprisoned for her Suffragette activities, the performance dramatises the events leading up to her arrest. Students will get the opportunity to question her before they re-enact her trial, taking on the roles of witnesses, barristers, judge and jury in our courtroom space. The trial is made real to students by use of archival material from Charlotte’s suffrage campaign. This drama performance and mock trial highlight how the legal system operates, the importance of voting and how both men and women campaigned to be allowed play an active part in democratic and electoral processes.
Sessions are priced at £3 plus VAT per pupil. If you are interested in booking a session please fill out our Booking Form and send it via e-mail to bookings@wandsworthmuseum.co.uk or contact the Education team on 0208 8706060.
