Museums and galleries in the North West are working in partnership with early years settings and family learning agencies to provides not only fantastic opportunities for developing inspiring programmes and resources for young children and families, but also real opportunities for staff and organisational development. The projects have been developing and testing models of partnership working which have produced a more powerful way of meeting the diverse needs of young children and families within our communities.
This year Renaissance North West brought its early years and family work together in one strand and has employed two coordinators to chair a North West Early Years & Family Learning Network which is made up of Hub museums and strategic partner venues. The coordinators are assisting network members to share and disseminate good practice, providing a training and development programme, increasing their confidence and strengthen partnership working, which in turn will develop organisational commitment and understanding of the importance of developing this audience.
The training and development programme which is being led by the priorities of the Network members also includes training opportunities for core staff in organisations across the North West and within partner organisations. It includes observational evaluation training, early years foundation stage and related frameworks training and a one day introductory course to family learning developed in partnership with NIACE.
The overall aims of the programme are:
- To Improve family friendly standards in strategic partner venues - working with the NIACE Learning Engagement typology developed from the EYFL work undertaken in the North West
- To develop delivery in museum and gallery family learning and early years provision
- Develop and share transferrable delivery techniques with hub and strategic partner venues
Impact of the work so far
Recognition of museums and galleries as partners for delivery of Early Years & Family Learning initiatives:
- Strategic input on steering groups for PPEL - parents as partners in early learning project funded by SureStart
- Early years outcomes duty strategy group
- Buddying project at Manchester City Council - partnerships to develop communication and develop joint practice
- Development of ‘Muse’ - under 5’s creative network in Manchester
- Close partnership with NIACE through development of Family Engagement Typology and training
Contact details
Elaine Bates Early Years and Family Learning Network Co-ordinator Renaissance North West (Early Years)
Elaine.bates@manchester.ac.uk
Debbie Walker Early Years and Family Learning Network Co-ordinator Renaissance North West (Family Learning)
dwalker14@btinternet.com
Publications
The following publications contain case studies including successful models of working (including contact details) practical guidance and are useful to share with partners, practioners and colleagues in related departments.
Manchester Museum Early Years and Publication information
Arts Council England Family Friendly Toolkit
This toolkit is very useful if you are developing a family learning strategy / work plan and includes an audit to assess how you support families, tools for getting started, and facts and figures about the family audience.
Discovering New Worlds
This a great guide for organisations who would like to use their family activities to encourage people to take their ‘first steps’ back in to learning It is particularly aimed at organisations that already work with, or would like to reach, parents and carers who would benefit most from taking up further learning. It includes planning steps, top tips and key contact information.
Early Years Collective Conversations at Manchester Museum on YouTube
Wilbraham Primary school
Wilbraham Primary school visited the museum in July and groups of children ( 4 -7 yrs) were filmed handling and talking about objects from Nature Discovery - a new gallery at Manchester Museum for young children and families (part of the Darwin festival).
Martenscroft nursery school and SureStart centre
These conversations were filmed at the end of a series of visits and show the children handling animals from the natural history collection and features a painting they did at the centre with an artist based on their visits to the natural history galleries and vivarium.
Gorton South SureStart children's centre
These clips show the children handling live animals from the vivarium with curator Andrew Gray