A new education project is bringing Jersey students face-to-face with the Island’s past thanks to a series of travelling artefact boxes being loaned to schools.
The boxes are part of Jersey Heritage’s ‘Museums in Schools’ project, which aims to take objects and artefacts out of a museum environment and into the classroom. It originally started in late 2018 with four boxes, but the full roll-out was interrupted by the pandemic.
The project has resumed this year and 11 more boxes have been created, which include a range of fascinating historical objects related to the Jersey curriculum.
The boxes are based on the themes of toys, food, cameras, health, schooling, communication, the Stone Age, Tudors and Victorians.
The clear display cases enable students to see what’s inside and include a mix of original objects and replicas. Items include a Tudor bonnet, a large radio, and a cannonball.
Saul Turvey, Education Officer at Jersey Heritage, said: ‘We’ve thoroughly enjoyed curating the items for the new boxes, which we think will inspire and delight students.
‘Reading about a period in history starts the learning process but seeing objects from a particular period of time right in front of them can really engage schoolchildren in history and the stories it has to tell.’
The Jersey Heritage team will take the boxes into schools and explain the contents to teachers before leaving the boxes for pupils to view and discuss during their lessons.
‘The boxes are available to both primary and secondary schools and can remain in a school for as long as the pupils need them for the theme they are studying. We’ve also been busy creating additional online resources, which complement the boxes and will aid students with their learning.’
The online resources include short films that are also available for general use on the Jersey Heritage Education YouTube channel.
For more information, visit www.jerseyheritage.org/about-us/news/history-boxed-up-for-the-classroom/
