: Learn

Hi Bulb Buddies! There’s something in the air at the moment, as winter begins to turn into Spring. You may have noticed blooming flowers, chirping birds, and longer days? These are some of the earliest signs that springtime is coming! Let's dive in and explore some of the exciting changes that you might notice as this season draws closer.

What is Spring?

Spring is one of the four seasons that we experience each year. It comes after winter and before summer. During spring, the days become warmer, and nature starts to wake up from its winter snooze. In the UK Spring begins in March, so it’s still a few weeks away. But there are lots of signs that it’s coming. 

The Early Signs of Spring:

• Blossoming Flowers: One of the first signs of spring is the appearance of colorful flowers. Keep an eye out for daffodils, crocus, tulips, cherry blossoms, and many more as they start to bloom and paint the world with their vibrant hues.
• Singing Birds: Have you noticed the cheerful melodies filling the air? That's the sound of birds returning from their winter migrations and singing to attract mates or establish territories. Listen closely, and you might even hear the distinctive songs of robins, sparrows, and finches.
• Buzzing Bees and Butterflies: As the flowers bloom, they attract busy bees and fluttering butterflies. These important pollinators play a crucial role in helping plants reproduce. Watch them flit from flower to flower, collecting nectar and pollen.
• Greening of Trees: Look around, and you'll notice the leaves on trees starting to unfurl. Spring brings new growth, transforming bare branches into lush green canopies. It's a sign that life is returning to the land.
• Warmer Weather: Bid farewell to chilly days as spring brings warmer temperatures. It's time to shed those bulky winter jackets and enjoy the gentle sunshine.
• Baby Animals: Spring is a time of birth and renewal. Keep an eye out for baby animals like ducklings, lambs, and bunnies as they make their debut in the world. You can watch for new lambs on the LAMBCAM from 1 March: Lambcam 2024 (museum.wales)
• Rain Showers: Don't forget your umbrella! Spring often brings showers that help nourish the earth and support new plant growth. So, embrace the rain and splash in the puddles.
• Longer Days: Have you noticed that the days are getting longer? That's because spring marks the time when the Earth's axis tilts closer to the sun, giving us more daylight to enjoy outdoor adventures.

Spring is truly a magical time of year, full of wonder and new beginnings. So, grab your magnifying glass, put on your explorer hat, and venture outdoors to see how many signs of spring you can spot! One might be your bulbs, have they started to grow? Can you see what colours your flowers will be yet?

You can share your photos via email or on Twitter by tagging @Professor_Plant

If this is your favourite part of the investigation so far, maybe it will inspire your entry to the BULBCAST video competition! More details on this can be found here: Bulbcast 2024 

Keep up the good work Bulb Buddies,

Professor Plant

Hi Bulb Buddies,

I wanted to give you a heads up about an exciting new competition that will be launching soon!

It's a chance for all groups participating in this year's Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation to show off their fantastic filming and storytelling skills! You'll be asked to work in groups to produce 30 second videos exploring what you've enjoyed most about the Investigation. 

I'm looking forward to sharing more information with you and seeing what you all create! 

Watch this space for further updates soon...

Best wishes,

Professor Plant

Last year we celebrated Adult Learners Week in September, alongside other learning providers across Wales. 
We were excited to deliver activities across all 7 museums within the  Amgueddfa Cymru family, building on existing offers and piloting new sessions and activities.
At St Fagans we were able to develop a full programme of activities which took place throughout the week, including crafting taster sessions and workshops, mindful nature walks and opportunities for Welsh and English learners. 
The Amgueddfa Cymru programme was promoted via the new Adult and Community Learning section of our website, with the individual site offers also appearing on their main What’s On listings page. We were also able to promote our programme via the Adult Learners Week platform, supported by the Learning and Work Institute, as well as ensuring we ran a comprehensive social media campaign in the run up and throughout the week, across X (Twitter), Instagram and Facebook.
As part of this work, we also promoted our series of virtual craft tutorials and taster sessions and the self-led learner resources we offer. 
We worked closely with partners including Dysgu Cymraeg Caerdydd, Menter Caerdydd, Adult Learning Wales and Creative Lives to ensure our programme was tailored to the needs of the learners we hoped to attract and was enhanced by the richness that partnership working brings.
Over the course of the week, we saw a total of 160 people take part in the learning opportunities on offer at St Fagans and a total of 331 people across Amgueddfa Cymru as a whole. This marked our biggest ever Adult Learners Week, of which we are very proud. Take a look at some of the highlight here: https://youtu.be/lgKtmLHr1_Q 
We wanted to ensure we collected feedback from learners to help us develop and improve our adult learning offer across the organization. 
Here’s a sample of some of the learner feedback we received: 
“Wonderful, positive, creative environment.” 
“Learning a new skill is fun and fulfilling”.  
“Very social and therapeutic experience”  
“I really enjoyed the workshop. Very fun and positive experience. Facilitators were really friendly and found it really therapeutic and sociable.”  
“Very much enjoyed – great opportunity to learn a new skill. Great teacher. I feel very chilled now.” 
“Thoroughly enjoyable and interesting walk – saw things I’d never noticed previously.” 
“Yn agordrws i fydhudol.”  
“I really enjoyed the Mindful Nature Walk at St Fagans. I learnt a lot and would recommend it! It was great to have someone so knowledgeable leading the session.” 
“Friendly environment, not at all intimidating, so if you want to try something new go for it!” (willow weaving bird feeders) 
“Empowered! A great way to learn a new skill.” 
“Great fun! Just go do it, you will enjoy learning a new skill!”  
“Dw i’nmeddwl bod digwyddiadauyn y Cymraeg yndddaiawn.”  
“I have always wanted to make an autumn wreath and the course gave me the confidence. It was an inspirational course.” 
The tuition was fantastic. There was help when needed but given enough space and time to try and do it yourself.”  
“Very much enjoyed drawing again after 20 years. Must get back into it now!” 
“I thoroughly enjoyed the sketching session at St Fagans and the encouraging nature of the group.”  
“A motivating, supporting and encouraging session which was led excellently by Marion and Gareth and so well hosted by Loveday.” (Sketching workshop at St Fagans with Creative Lives).  
“It feels so wonderful to try something new and see the results so quickly.” (Enamelling taster session).  
Legacy programmes: 
As a result of the piloting opportunities Adult Learners Week provided, we have since been able to launch 3 new regular Adult Learning programmes at St Fagans and National Museum Cardiff. 
Our monthly Audio Described Tour programme (alternating monthly between the two museums and shortly to launch at the National Roman Legionary Museum in Caerleon, with a view to extend to other sites as and when capacity allows).
Our new monthly Sketching Group at St Fagans, in partnership with Creative Lives (and building on the success of the wonderful National Museum Cardiff Drawing Group). So far we’ve held 3 sessions. Our first attracted 6 people, our second 8 and our third 24! Feedback has been so positive and word is spreading far and wide. If you’d like to join us next month please do so. All the info can be found in the link above. 
New termly Bore i Ddysgwyr Cymraeg Welsh Learner Mornings in collaboration with Dysgu Cymraeg Caerdydd and Menter Caerdydd. Last term we welcomed 35 Welsh learners to the museum to take part in a session on Welsh Christmas traditions. We’re looking forward to welcoming an existing group of Welsh speakers and learners on 25^th January for Dydd Santes Dwynwen where we’ll be exploring the Welsh Love Spoon collection and then the next Bore i Ddysgwyr Cymraeg. 
The 6 commitments enshrined in our 10-year strategy Amgueddfa2030 are embedded throughout our adult learning programme, specifically that of inspiring creativity and learning for life. 
We look forward to continuing to grow our adult learning offer and hope to welcome you in 2024 to one of our museums to take part in an activity or enjoy using one of our self-led learner resources! 

“Re-engage provides vital, life-enhancing social connections for older people at a time in their lives when their social circles are diminishing.”

https://www.reengage.org.uk/   

For over a decade we have been working with ReEngage (formerly Contact the Elderly), hosting regular tea parties at some of our museums for older people experiencing loneliness and isolation.

The first tea parties took place at National Museum Cardiff, initially 4 times a year, but as the group grew this increased to 8 parties per year, hosted between National Museum Cardiff and St Fagans National Museum of History.  

The tea parties enable group members to visit the museums in a safe and supported way, meet their friends, make new social connections and spend time exploring the museums collections through engaging activities and talks with members of staff. And there’s always plenty of tea and cake!  

During this time, we have built strong links with the group members and Jane Tucker, the group leader. Ahead of the tea parties we have conversations with Jane to make sure we are aware of any accessibility, mobility and other needs within the group to ensure we can tailor the sessions accordingly.  

Here Jane tells us a little more about how the tea parties started and her role in supporting the group:

“I started volunteering with Re-engage (or Contact the Elderly as it was then) in March 2013 as a driver.

On a visit to St Fagans (funnily enough) in approximately 2017, I happened to see Marion Lowther who, at the time, was the Re-Engage organiser for Wales.  She told me she had a group of about 6 guests but no coordinator.  At the time they were only meeting 4 times a year as the only host available was National Museum Cardiff, hence why we are called the Cardiff Museum group.  I volunteered to take over the group and have managed to get more hosts and more guests.  The Museums are always a favourite of the group because you always provide interesting talks and activities.  

As you know a lot of our ladies are quite frail and are unable to leave their homes unaccompanied.  The visits to the Museum are a real highlight for them and we are so grateful for your continued support.” (Jane Tucker, ReEngage Group Leader).

In March of this year the group visited National Museum Cardiff for a session all about the current BBC 100 Exhibition, exploring the 100 year history of the BBC in Wales. 

The session was run by two members of the museum learning team, Jo and Louise. They used fun informal quizzes to highlight the exhibition content in a comfortable setting, as navigating the exhibition itself would have been challenging for the group members. Jo ran a TV picture quiz focussed on TV in the 60’s and 70’s and Louise ran a short TV theme tune quiz. 

Jo and Louise said “The group enjoyed chatting about their memories and there was lots of reminiscing about visits to the museum with children and grandchildren. They really enjoyed their tea!” 

Jane said following the visit “the talk we had at National Museum Cardiff was great, when the 2 hosts were playing music from old television programmes and adverts.  Our guests had lots of fun trying to recognise the tunes and then talking about the old programmes.”

The groups last visit to St Fagans took place in May 2023, facilitated by two members of the St Fagans learning team, Hywel and Jordan.

Jordan explains: “After introducing them to the site we gave a talk about the ‘Cynefin’ work being developed in our school learning programme, using the Wales is... gallery, exploring individual senses of identity and how we can use objects to support the sharing of these stories. Then, we discussed the groups’ personal understandings of their ‘Cynefin’, using handling objects from the museum collection to spark memories and conversation. Handling objects like the darning mushroom, pre decimalisation coinage and green shield stamps, proofed to be popular talking points for the group, encouraging them to shared stories of living in Wales and other parts of the world, their experiences of using everyday objects like this and changes over time.”

Here’s what some of the group members said about taking part following the session:  

“Most enjoyable afternoon at St Fagans Museum. It is lovely to see other people to chat with as I spend a lot of time alone.  It’s really appreciated.” (Anne)

“I really enjoyed the talk about the museum and the work they are doing.  Sundays can be really lonely so having a Re-Engage tea is such a joy and something to look forward to.” (Rita)

“Handling the objects at the Museum was really fun as well as informative. It gets your brain working and brings back memories.” (Hazel)

We’ll be welcoming the group back to St Fagans this summer to take part in some traditional yarn crafts inspired by our textile collections. Then they’ll be returning to National Museum Cardiff this autumn autumn.  

The museum learning team and group members alike always look forward to the tea parties. Over the past 10 years they have grown to become a key fixture in our wider Health and Wellbeing programme. Long may they continue!  

With thanks to all the ReEngage group members for sharing their stories, thoughts and feedback. Looking forward to seeing you next time!