We may not be able to host school visits at the moment, so Jo Keenan our Learning and Participation Manager has been busy creating Loans Boxes for schools. So we can take Bodmin Keep to them!
The boxes each have a different theme of; First World War, Second World War and Remembrance. The boxes support teaching in the classroom, link to the national curriculum and are an ideal starting point for promoting and developing observation, critical thinking, problem solving, questioning and empathising skills. Object handling encourages learners to engage their senses by feeling weights and textures, examining mechanisms and surface finishes, listening to sounds and even smelling for clues about use. Each of the boxes includes a mixture of original and reproduction objects some of which are over one hundred years old! Each box comes with teachers’ notes which give context and historical information about the objects and ready to use resources.
Child of War session loans box
Schools and colleges can also hire a loans box where learners will explore what it was like to be a child during World War Two. During group work and investigative activities with real and replica objects, themes including rationing, evacuation and play are explored. This box includes all the resources needed to deliver the session including a lesson plan, PowerPoint showing what life would have been like for children in Cornwall during the war and teachers’ notes. “The resources accompanied with the session plan made everything so easy to run and helped to bring the topic to life. In the current climate with it being difficult to get children out on school trips, this was a superb way of bringing the trip to the children. I’d recommend this to other teachers as having the session plan with the activity resources saves so much time and enables you to maximise the resources.” KS2 Bodmin teacher
To find out more about our loans box scheme for your school, just contact Leah Mason at leah.mason@bodminkeep.org.uk