Dear Bulb Buddies,

This is one of my favourite times of year! Schools across the UK will be getting outside to plant their bulbs as part of the Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation. Each participating school was sent a crocus and a daffodil bulb for every pupil in the enlisted class to plant on 21 October (or the closest date possible). This means that some schools will be planting this week and others will plant next week. I look forward to sharing their fantastic photos with you. We run a Planting Day Photo Competition every year, so check in on this Bulb Blog again to see the winning images and follow @Professor_Plant on Twitter to see all of the fantastic photos shared!

We have many fun and engaging resources on the website. Some are specific to the investigation but others can be adapted for all schools. Resources developed to support this stage of the investigation can be found here:

Step 1: Preparing for planting day (early October)

Step 2: Planting day

Step 3: Optional hands-on weather and gardening themed activities

This will also be the second year that we run the Bulbcast competition. This is a fun and creative task that participating classes can undertake alongside the investigation. Our budding scientists are asked to plan, record and edit a short video exploring their favourite parts of the investigation. Resources to support this task can be found here, and the winners will be announced towards the end of the academic year. I can't wait to see what this years creative minds produce. I wonder how many schools will mention or show footage of planting day in their entries?

All participating schools were sent a new resource this year, a cheerful calendar that has been especially designed to help the class document their weather and flower data. This includes key dates for the investigation and a proposed structure for organising the data collection. Teachers can choose to split their class into five groups, who each take turns to document and upload the weather data. The hope is that this will help to give ownership of the investigation to the children.  As a result, we may very well see references to the different groups in the comments I'll share from schools over the course of the investigation. 

I look forward to sharing regular updates on the investigation with you. I hope you are celebrating Planting Day with me, as schools across the UK join together to plant over 18,000 bulbs in this collective action for nature. Go Bulb Buddies!

Professor Plant

The Summer holiday period saw the launch of the new sensory toy boxes at National Museum Cardiff. There are 5 boxes which are inspired by our collections and galleries. The boxes were developed to engage younger visitors and enhance their museum visit through multi sensory play. The boxes are located in five of our galleries and correspond with the objects on display such as woodland wildlife, sealife, dinosaurs and historical and contemporary art.

The boxes include a varied selection of toys and books which are accessible for children of all ages and needs. In museum spaces where collections on display cannot be handled, sensory resources allow children to learn through play and can spark intergenerational conversations about our collections.  

Visitors to the museum are encouraged to find all 5 boxes and share any feedback and photographs with us on X at @Amgueddfa_Learn.

The new academic year is well underway. Professor Plant and his happy helpers have packed and distributed 175 resource packs to schools across the UK. 

These packs contain everything that schools need to participate in this year's investigation:

- A pot and bulbs for each participating child

- A rain gauge and a thermometer to record weather data

- A calendar to keep track of weather and flower data

- Vouchers to purchase peat free compost

- The Term Planner outlining key dates for the project

- A biodegradable pot to compare different materials

- Mystery bulbs to learn about different plants 

On 21 October (or the closest date possible) schools are tasked with planting their Tenby daffodils and whitewell crocus bulbs. This is the first action for nature that participating schools will take as part of the project.  Please follow this blog and @Professor_Plant on X/ Twitter to see the images that are shared as we celebrate this mass planting.  @Professor_Plant will also share regular updates  from schools over the academic year and will celebrate with them when their plants start flowering!

The first resources needed by participating schools are: 

- Spring Bulbs for Schools: Teacher's guide 

- Step 1: Preparing for planting day

- Step 2: Planting day

All schools can follow the project and can use worksheets that are available on the website. 

I look forward to sharing with you all the fantastic work that our Super Scientists undertake as part of this project.

Professor Plant

When it came to writing this article, my thought space had been taken to the theme of journeys; the unknown ground between a beginning and an ending. My journey as a young producer for Bloedd’s latest project, an LGBTQIA+ oral histories exhibition, has been a nearly yearlong one. What began as conversation in a shared space containing mutual interests and passions, defined the nucleus of my work here. The beginnings of this time had been an unpacking of what we felt as a collective was important to represent for an upcoming exhibition. We knew from the jump that we wanted to represent voices that may often go unheard; those whose experience may not be recounted upon by the mainstream perception of what it means to live an LGBTQIA+ life. 

Moving away from the typical portrait of queerness being a thrown brick in protest, that while important, we are more than our fight for freedoms; our stories can be found in the everyday, in the places we visit, the jobs we keep, the people we love and share our lives with. The given name of this exhibition, Ours to Tell, came only after we had completed our collection of stories, the self-described journey we undertook over several months of visits and interviews, holding dialogue with well over fifty years of experience. But what is in a name? Ours to Tell is a reclamation. It’s our way of saying “here is a story, told by a firsthand account of the storyteller”. It’s our way of saying “these words are cut from a book hidden away in the attic of my mind. I’ve ventured into the attic, and I’m dusting it off for you.” It’s our way of saying “this is where I come from”. 

While the journey of this project has been underpinned by a great deal of planning and preparation, what you can’t prepare for is what you might uncover in someone else’s story. You commit to the routine of presenting a series of questions, from you to the storyteller, with only a table between you. It comes as a surprise the level of detail, which is excavated by the storyteller, they are like a hoarder being handed a stepladder, invited to dig up their stowed away possessions from the attic. Your questions are prompts: “when did you first see your identity reflected in someone else?”, “what does a safe space look like to you?”, the list goes on. The exciting part is that you don’t know what’s coming next, and you are there, alongside the storyteller, who guides you through a journey which may well bring up a familiarity or nostalgia for the listener. During these times when I’ve had the great pleasure to listen to these stories, I can confidently say that I have felt every kind of emotion in response. I laughed. I have cried. I have been moved. I have been taken on a journey.

Enabling the participants of this project to confidently speak about their experiences has proved an undeniable joy, though I cannot understate how this project has affected those coordinating its launch. Fellow young producer Joss Copeman, like me had been drawn to this exciting opportunity, Copeman’s “personal work is largely centred around queer narratives and themes of identity and the self.” The journey which unfolded from Ours to Tell has been greatly beneficial, as it pertains to young LGBTQIA+ creatives and makers, taking inspiration from unheard voices, now affected and transformed by echoes of their experience. This is a feeling I know will resonate with the audience, and I can only hope it will stir others in future, to share what might be put away, gathering dust in the attic. 

I’d like to conclude with a quote that shook me like a cat in a tree, “Art is not just for oneself, not just a marker of one’s own understanding. It is also a map for those who follow after us.”

Written by Ivy Kelly, Amgueddfa Cymru Producer (Bloedd).

Bloedd is the platform for youth engagement at Amgueddfa Cymru.

Theatr na n'Óg have had a passion for telling stories for 40 years and have collaborated with several of the Amgueddfa Cymru sites. Together they have collaborated on many projects that have brought the history and culture of Wales to life, inspiring young people and adults across many workshops and performances. 

In previous years National Museum Cardiff and the National Waterfront Museum have collaborated with them on a variety of projects. In 2009, Alfred Russel Wallace, who’s discoveries spurred Darwin to produce ‘On the Origin of Species’, was the focus. In 2022, the story of Elgan Jones, a 14-year-old boy who was arrested for poaching in 1898, became a court room drama which placed the audience as jurors. Now, in 2024, the National Waterfront Museum is working with them once more on a project exploring the story of the Merthyr Tydfil born boxer, Cuthbert Taylor, in a production called ‘The Fight.’

To get a deeper understanding of Theatr na n'Óg, ‘The Fight’, and the role Amgueddfa Cymru plays in the partnership, Leisa Williams, Senior Learning Officer at National Waterfront Museum and Geinor Styles, the Artistic Director at Theatr na n'Óg, sat down for a chat about projects past and present.

Use the media player to listen to the conversation in full. 

About ‘The Fight’ |

'The Fight' is a brand-new play telling the true story of a Welsh boxing legend.

In the deprived valleys of the 1930s, boxing was more than just a sport; it was a way out of poverty. Merthyr-born Cuthbert Taylor, now seen as one of the best boxers of his generation, should have had the opportunity to fight for a British title, but was denied this chance because of the colour of his skin.

Written by Geinor Styles, Directed by Kev McCurdy

Click here for information on school performances, workshops, learning resources and more.