: Learning

I wish to say a big thank you to all the schools who participated in the investigation this academic year. Thank you for sharing your weather records, comments and photos. I hope you all enjoy the holidays.

Please share any observations on the type of weather you see over the holidays with your comments when you return to school. I wonder if any of us will have a white Christmas!

Happy holidays,

Professor Plant

On Tuesday 12th September Amgueddfa Cymru kindly hosted our ESOL class on an ESOL trip-out to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. Welsh Refugee Council volunteer Souleymane Ouedraogo submitted the following report on the special outing. 

As part of an outing organized by Welsh Refugee Council ESOL tutors Marie and Chris; ESOL learners from different cities in Wales gathered at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. We were warmly welcomed to Amgueddfa Cymru (National Museum of Wales) by museum staff recalling that Wales has several museums including that of Cardiff created more than a century ago. 

We then went to visit the Clore Discovery Centre. In this learning centre, there are multiple carefully preserved objects from geological, paleontological, archaeological and natural history research. Each object has its origin story. After the tour of the centre, there was time for a practical exercise that combined theory and practice seen during previous ESOL lessons. We practiced brilliantly with the support of our guide and the WRC delegation. It was both fun and educational at the same time. 

We then proceeded to visit the Art Gallery. Pictures and paintings are often tinged with landscapes and varied reliefs. Everyone can analyse and appreciate the artwork in their own way. Some paintings are very old (over 500 years), others more recent. You often have to get closer to better understand the artistic work. You need eyes to see, but even better, you need to have ingenious eyes to understand the messages conveyed by these beautiful paintings. Thanks to the great work of painters of other times, each new generation has elements of research to better understand history. 

I would like to thank the Welsh Refugee Council for organizing the outing but even more so the National Museum for having offered this invitation. It has allowed us to not only learn a little more about the culture of Wales but to also create contacts for possible opportunities in the future. 

 “I would like to reiterate our thanks to Amgueddfa Cymru, for an excellent day for our students.  I thought that there was a really nice balance of activities, excellent use of relevant artifacts and pictures – not to mention your enthusiastic and motivating presentation.” said Martin Smidman Volunteer & Partnership Manager at the Welsh Refugee Council.

Diolch yn fawr Amgueddfa Cymru.

A group photo in the Clore Discovery Centre!

Hi Bulb Buddies,

I want to say a big thank you for all your hard work on planting day. You helped to plant 11,183 bulbs across the country and from the photos I’ve seen, it looks like you all had a great time doing it!

Weather records should be kept from 1st November. Please make sure that your thermometer and rain gauge are in a suitable place next to your bulbs so that you can take weather readings every day that you are in school. Don’t worry if you are on holiday this week, you can enter ‘no record’ for any days that you are not in school. 

There is a resource on the website to help you prepare for taking Weather Records. I’ve attached this here in case you haven’t already seen it. This resource helps you to answer important questions, such as ‘why rainfall and temperature readings are important to our investigation into the effects of climate on the flowering dates of spring bulbs’!

Use your Weather Chart to log the rainfall and temperature every school day. At the end of the week, log into the Amgueddfa Cymru website to add your weekly findings. You can also leave comments or ask questions for me to answer in my next Blog. 

Let me know how you get on. You can share photos with me via email or X/Twitter.

Keep up the good work Bulb Buddies,

Professor Plant

It's Planting Day Bulb Buddies!

176 Schools from across the UK will be joining together to plant 11,183 bulbs for this fantastic project.

We run a Planting Day creative media competition every year that encourages schools to showcase planting day at their school. Watch this space to see the winning entries in November!

Meanwhile, we'll be following every stage of the Investigation on this Blog. We'll hear from pupils directly, as they share their comments when uploading their weekly weather data. We'll regularly check in with schools to hear about any extreme weather in their areas and any issues that might affect their weather stations or planting areas (in the past this has included hungry squirrels!) 

We'll watch with pupils for the first signs of spring and share their excitement as the first shoots and then the first flowers appear. 

We will then review the weather and flower data for the period November 2023-March 2024, and compare it to data collected since 2005 to see if we can spot any trends. 

We hope that you will join us on this fun journey as we explore the effects of weather and climate change on spring bulbs. 

Professor Plant

“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!