Eggcellent Easter 2023

Looking for things to do this Easter Holidays in Wakefield? 

Here's what's on at Wakefield Museums and Castles for Saturday 1 to Monday 10 April!

Dragon Egg Week at Pontefract Castle

The Easter Dragon Egg Hunt at Pontefract Castle is back, and better than ever. Help Ilbert the Dragon find all of his eggs on a new trail available from Saturday 1 April to Monday 10 April.

Join in with different dragon activities throughout the week, including storytelling, eco-friendly crafts and the first ever Dragon Parade!

Almost all of our eggcellent Dragon Egg Week activities, including the trail, are free. 

Trail available 10am – 4pm daily from the Visitor Centre.

Click here for full information about all Dragon Egg Week activities

Castleford Changes at Castleford Museum

Monday 3, Tuesday 4 and Thursday 6* April

10am to 3pm

Free and drop-in

Have you noticed something different around town? We’re exploring how Castleford has changed over the last 100 years with a spotlight on the images from Albert Wainwright’s Castleford Sketchbook. 

Practice your sketching skills, make your mark on a community artwork, and look forward to what the next 100 years will bring! 

*Thurs 6: SEND families are welcome at all of our sessions but we are running this SEND session for those families who require a more relaxed atmosphere.

Let's Investigate Eggs! at Wakefield Museum

Thursday 6 April

10am and 1.30pm

As Easter approaches, it’s an eggciting time to investigate eggs! Join us to explore egg related objects in the museum’s collection. 

Decorate your own excellent egg cup and take historical recipes home to make together. 

£2.50 per child. Accompanying adults free

Click here to book Let's Investigate Eggs!

The Wild Escape

Go on an animal adventure around our museums and make some eco-friendly crafts with The Wild Escape! 

All activities are free and drop-in.

Castleford Museum - Tues 11, Thurs 13 & Fri 14 April* (relaxed SEND day) - 10am to 3pm each day.

Pontefract Museum - Weds 12 April - 10.30am to 12.30pm and 1pm to 3pm

Wakefield Museum - Fri 14 April - 10.30am to 12.30pm and 1pm to 3.30pm

The Wild Escape is a major new project led by Art Fund uniting hundreds of museums with schools and families in a celebration of UK wildlife and creativity.

Fred the Frog Finds His Way Home at Wakefield Museum

Thursday 13 April

10.30am and 1.30pm

Free - booking required

Help Fred the Frog find his way home in this interactive storytelling, singalong and play session for 2-to-5-year-olds and their adults!

You can also make your own funny froggy friend to take home.

Click here to book Fred the Frog Finds His Way Home

Let's Sow Some Seeds! at Pontefract Castle

Thursday 13 April

10am and 1.30pm

Join us for this fun multi-sensory session where we will see, smell and sample some of the tasty herbs grown at the Castle! 

You will also get to create together, decorating your own plant pots and sowing herb seeds to grow at home. 

£2.50 per child, accompanying adults free

Click here to book Let's Sow Some Seeds!

Click here for visitor and access information for all our sites

Click here for a printable PDF Easter Planner with all of our activities and workshops on

An Experience in the Exhibits

Recently, we hosted three Primary Education students from Leeds Trinity University for a two-week placement.

Kaisha and Oliver are specialising in Key Stage 2 (later years) whilst Jenny is studying early years (to age 7). 

This blog post was written by them.

For many years both research and experience has shown teachers that there is huge value in taking children out of the classroom to learn in an alternative context. As trainee teachers we have been fortunate enough to witness this first hand during our time at Wakefield Museums.

Over the past two weeks we have shadowed Learning Officer, Louise Bragan as she delivers some of Wakefield Museums’ wide range of workshops, including 1940s housewife, Greek pottery and Charles Waterton. We have seen how these workshops support and enhance learning across a number of curriculum areas and in ways which are as inspirational as they are unexpected!

The 1940s housewife workshop is popular with Year 5 and 6 classes. It offers an alternative insight to learning about the Second World War by focussing on daily life for a lady and her children living in Ossett, a small local town. Children (and teaching students) are surprised by how little food was available under rationing, demonstrated in a very stark way by ‘Dorothy’, Louise’s character for the workshop (and her real life grandma!). It was fascinating to see how children responded to the effects of war when told from a local perspective, when much of what they had absorbed so far had been about dates and important figures.  After speaking to Dorothy children had the opportunity to look at real ration books, identity cards, gas masks and other papers and paraphernalia associated with life at that time. Oliver and Kaisha were inspired to create a series of handouts to accompany each item for teachers to use in future lessons.

World War 2 Ration book, identity card and Women's Voluntary Service scarf and hat (below) used in the workshop

 

In the Charles Waterton workshop children learn about the local eccentric who created the first nature reserve, rode a caiman and used pioneering taxidermy methods to create monstrosities with a political message.  As expected, this workshop directly relates to the history national curriculum, but Louise also provides a wonderful literacy link. Children follow in the footsteps of Charles by using a quill and ink to write with. It was fascinating as a student teacher to observe how children reacted to this task – speaking to their teachers it was clear that children who are usually reluctant writers embraced the alternative medium, some producing notably higher quality work with the quill that in pencil at school.

This workshop inspired Jenny to create a teachers' pack which will be used to support teachers and other accompanying adults to help children get the most out of a visit to the exhibit.

John Bull and the National Debt - one of Waterton's crazy creatures

Children get to handle a real crocodile skull as part of the workshop

 

The Greek Pottery workshop saw us take the learning into school. We were as amazed as the year 6 class that we were able to not only see, but also touch, pick up, smell and examine the 3000 year old jugs and urns that make up a small part of the Museum’s extensive handling collection. The sense of awe and wonder shown by  children who got to hold these and other objects during our visit, demonstrates the enormous value of museums and the use of objects, both as a way of connecting children with their past and sense of place and to learning across the curriculum.

We were fortunate enough to visit the museum stores as part of our placement – a huge warehouse filled with objects from the sublime to the ridiculous. I think we could all have lost many days to that fascinating place which was reminiscent of a scene from Indiana Jones! Objects formed an important part of our two weeks’ with Wakefield Museums: we were fortunate enough to receive training on how to use objects as a stimulus for learning and to see how this operated in practice. These skills will be invaluable to us as teachers in the future to help engage and inspire children across the curriculum.

Personal Reflections:

From a personal perspective history was always my favourite topic, so this alone already cemented my interest in this establishment. As formal as a museum might appear there was a great working environment with friendly staff (who offered to make coffee every 15 minutes with free parkin) and a relaxed atmosphere.

Working with children in an unfamiliar setting may appear daunting, but if the topic is something you are deeply engaged in, the time flies by. I’ve spent more time talking about a Kit-Kat wrapper to year 6s than I ever thought I would. Yes, that sounds incredibly tedious and boring but if history is your interest you’d be surprised! In short, if history or anything you know is at the museum that interests you, go for it, you might just learn that Kit-Kat wrappers were blue in the 1940s due to the shortage of milk and thus the colour change indicated that the traditional milk chocolate was temporally changed with dark chocolate. - Oliver

My experience of history at school was different to Oliver’s. I was bombarded with facts and figures, politicians, kings and queens and I found the whole subject boring and irrelevant. I love teaching younger children as the awe and wonder about the world which they have is wonderful and contagious. My time here at Wakefield Museums has taught me how I can bring history and a wide range of other subjects to life and make them meaningful to even young children by using objects and relating learning to their own experiences. I have spent two weeks in awe and wonder myself at all the amazing artefacts in the collection and how they can be used and I know that what I’ve learnt will make me a better teacher. - Jenny

Oliver and Jenny at the Museum Store - looking at a WWI diary with curator, John

Tear-jerking, awe-inspiring and truly inspirational…

No, this is not a review of the latest romantic comedy – it’s even better - it’s a review of my time at Wakefield Museum!

As a self-confessed history geek, the opportunity to handle artefacts spanning from Ancient Egypt to World War Two was something I couldn’t imagine passing up. On the very first day genuine tears were shed over a Victorian prison cell door because I was so fascinated by it and I imagine I probably cried more than any prisoner who ever had the misfortune to have been held behind it.

But that is the magic of museums for me, as through my time here I have loved being able to connect with a random miscellaneous object from the past and imagine the story behind each artefact. The handling collection contained a Victorian iron and a few wooden pegs, which could easily be overlooked or discarded by someone who was disinterested. Instead, the time we could spend with each artefact on this placement allowed my mind to wander and imagine who these items could have once belonged to.

Was it a young housekeeper or an ancient gran, fingers gnarled from a hard life? I’ll never know and that doesn’t really matter, it’s the element of not knowing in fact that makes it all the better because my wild thoughts will never be shut down or dismissed.

Through this time exploring I realised first-hand how powerful a journey of enquiry can be, and I feel I am now more keen than before to provide this opportunity to the children I will one day teach. The use of open-ended questioning and higher-order thinking is something we are frequently lectured about but it truly means nothing until you see it in practice, guiding the children towards forming their own opinions and interests regarding the past, its role in the present and how it can shape the future they will come to find themselves in - Kaisha

Commemorating World War 1

It is coming up 98 years since the armistice of World War One.

Here at Wakefield Museum we have a variety of objects on display that tell the various stories about people, places and events surrounding World War One.  There is now also a new downloadable teachers' pack to support schools by providing information about some of the objects in the collections. The pack can be found here.

There were many families affected by World War One, not just those who lost loved ones but also the people who survived and returned.  One gentleman who returned home to Wakefield was George Kellett. Relatives of George donated his diary, written in 1918, whilst a soldier in France and Belgium. With agreement from the family the museum have used social media to share the George's thoughts. To see what life was like for one Wakefield man see @WW1_Diary on Twitter.

 

George Kellett's 1918 diary is now in the museum collection

Sadly there were many who did not return home. Students from Kettlethorpe High School earlier this year researched and developed work on two such men. Their work is on display at the museum and further information can be seen in the previous blog post found here.

Students from Kettlethorpe High School in Wakefield Museum with their thought-provoking display

 

New Casual Learning Posts

Come, work with us!

We are looking for enthusiastic, committed and reliable people to join our Learning Team on a casual basis, to deliver tours and activities across our sites.

These Casual Learning Enabler posts have been newly created to increase capacity across our museums and castles, initially mainly focused at Pontefract Castle as part of our exciting redevelopment there.

 

Are you up to the job of bringing these ruins back to life in a fun and engaging way?

We are looking for people who are committed to excellent customer service and are able to deliver (with initial training and support) a range of exciting and hands-on activities and costumed tours for a variety of audiences including primary schools, children and families.
 
The ideal candidates will work well independently but also within a team; have excellent communication skills as well as experience of delivering a range of learning sessions. This role is offered on an as-and-when required basis.

For more information and to apply, visit the Wakefield Council recruitment page, and type Casual Learning Enabler into the job title box.

Closing date 12 August.

Commemoration of Local Soldiers and the Battle of the Somme

On Monday the 20 June, Wakefield Museum was pleased to host a visit by four pupils, Emily-Jo, Rachel, Holly and Nell, and their history teacher, Miss Quartermain, from Kettlethorpe High School. The purpose of the visit was very special – to install a display created by the pupils to commemorate the First World War.

Kettlethorpe pupils and teacher responsible for making and installing this moving display - Holly, Nell, Ms Quartermaine, Rachel and Emily-Jo

 

The pupils had conducted research to find out about two First World War soldiers – Pte Frank Hollings and Sgt Nelson Summers – both of whom had connections with the Wakefield area.

Pte Hollings was born and raised in Sandal and was associated with the Harriers at Thornes Park. He died on 20 December, 1915 in a gas attack in Ypres. He was 20 years old.

Sgt Summers was in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Though born in Staffordshire, in his adulthood he lived in Horbury and worked at Charles Roberts & Co. railway works. Sgt Summers was married and had three children. He died at the Battle of the Somme on 1 July, 1916 at the age of 30.

The pupils were able to make contact with some of Sgt Summers’ descendants. His granddaughter was able to tell them that, prior to the outbreak of WWI, Nelson Summers was a member of the Territorials in Wakefield.

Kettlethorpe pupil, Rachel, working with curator, John Whitaker, to install the WWI display in the museum entrance

In addition to conducting their local research, Emily-Jo, Rachel and Miss Quartermain had the opportunity through a government funded programme to journey to France and Belgium to see the WWI battlefields for themselves. One of the objectives set for the pupils by this programme was to share what they saw, learned and experienced with at least 110 other people. The pupils chose written words and art as the mediums through which to share this information.

With this in mind, the school asked if the pupils could display their finished work at Wakefield Museum - and we were very happy to say ‘yes’. The result is a very moving display with, at its centre, a beautifully crafted patch-work textile that illustrates different aspects of what soldiers like Pte Hollings and Sgt Summers experienced during the war and the ways in which we remember WWI soldiers today. This is accompanied in the display by an original drawing dedicated to the memory of Pte Hollings and Sgt Summers created by Lucy, a pupil who was not able to attend for the installation, as well as text cards that reveal what the pupils learned about the lives of the two local soldiers and the impact this project has had on the pupils themselves. The display reached the target of attracting 110 viewers within two days.

 

Beautifully made patchwork textile commemorating Pte Hollings and Sgt Summers

The installation of the Kettlethorpe pupils’ display in Wakefield Museum is very timely as 1 July, 2016 marks 100 years since the Battle of the Somme.

It is joined by a second commemorative display installed by our curatorial and design team in the atrium on the Upper Ground Floor of Wakefield One which features a wrist watch that was worn by Captain R. England, also of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, during the war. On a paper tag attached to the watch Captain England typed, ‘D [Company] was timed to “go over the top” at 7.48 a.m. on the 1 July and this is the watch which timed that event in the battle’.  Captain England survived the Battle of the Somme and donated the watch to Wakefield Museum in 1974. On a paper tag attached to the watch when it was donated are typed the following words: 'D [Company] was timed to "go over the top" at 7.48 a.m. on the 1st July and this is the watch which times that event in the battle".



A wrist watch belonging to Captain R. England and worn at the Battle of the Somme. This watch is now at the centre of a commemorative display at Wakefield One.





 

New display to commemorate the Battle of the Somme

 

Both displays can be viewed at Wakefield One throughout the summer



We have also launched a new Downloadable Resource Pack for Schools. 
Click on the image below to download.



Downloadable Teachers' Pack

 

Working with the next generation of teachers!

We have had a couple of fantastic work placement teaching students working with us:

Our names are Megan and Terri. We are studying Primary Education: Early Years at Leeds Trinity University and over the past two weeks, we have undertaken a placement with the Wakefield Museum Services.

The purpose of our placement has been to experience learning in an alternative setting.

Throughout the two weeks, we have had the opportunity to observe several workshops (such as WW1, Victorian and Egyptian) and assist with the activities involved in them such as handling artefacts. Having the chance to handle some real artefacts such as weapons used in WW1 really excited us and we were both fascinated by the mummified baby crocodile in the Ancient Egyptian collection!

Mummified baby crocodile

The children involved in these workshops have been both Key Stage One and Two children. These workshops were very interesting and engaging, but they also allowed us to successfully develop our own subject knowledge and confidence when working with children. We also observed a workshop at Sandal Castle and were given the chance to visit other places off site such as Pontefract and Castleford Museums and Pontefract Castle (where we went on a magazine tour) to gain a broader knowledge of how museums and heritage sites contribute to education.

Completing our placement at Wakefield Museum has allowed us to see how History lessons in school can be developed into cross-curricular sessions. For example, the WW1 session that introduces children to Wakefield soldier George Kellett incorporated diary writing, therefore covering aspects of the Literacy curriculum. Part of this session involves an actor portraying George Kellett by reading extracts from his diary to the children. We were also given an insight of how much content is covered in each session depending on the time allocated to it. We found that the amount of content covered was perfect for the amount of time a session lasted.

George Kellett's diary

Actor playing George Kellett

 

As well as observing and supporting workshops, we were given a project to work on throughout our placement. This was to create a teaching pack on Charles Waterton that the museum could use to encourage schools to engage more with local study and the museum itself. In order to help us with this, we researched Charles Waterton extensively (both before and during the placement) and visited the Charles Waterton exhibit in the museum. We put together three cross-curricular sessions to support the teaching of Charles Waterton in both Key Stage One and Two and also included a range of possible follow up activities, early years input, outdoor activities and possible visits (such as Walton Hall where Charles Waterton lived) that may enhance learning.

Caiman caught by Charles Waterton in 1820

 

It is very difficult to choose one aspect of our time at Wakefield Museum as our favourite because there has been such a wide variety of opportunity. However, our particular highlights were handling artefacts from a range of different historical periods, watching children’s faces when they saw these artefacts and observing the role play part of the WW1 workshop. We would definitely recommend this placement to other students and we look forward to bringing our future classes to the museum!

Thank you Megan and Terri - it has been great to have some fresh insights into our sessions. We wish you well with your studies and hope to see you with your classes in the future!

 

 

Experience Castleford Forum Museum

Hi my name is Danielle. I am the front of house staff at Castleford Forum Museum. I have been in the post for 4 months now and I am really enjoying it! The job includes meeting and greeting the visitors, ensuring the museum is clean and tidy and collections are looked after - but my biggest aim is to ensure all visitors get the most out of their visit. 

In the museum we hold drop-in sessions inspired by the collections we have on display in the museum during the school holidays. These are open to everyone. It’s great to get involved with the community and provide different activities to ensure everyone gets the best out of the museum and can understand their local heritage.

Mugs painted in a drop-in session in Castleford Museum - inspired by the Castleford Pottery on display

It is fantastic to have local schools in the museum that can learn from their own heritage with it being on their door step. We offer lots of different workshops and self-led sessions to the schools.

Roman comb

I have recently been involved in a school visit from Castleford Park Juniors Academy. Year 3s came to Castleford Forum Museum for a self-led session. They were about 50 children on each day. The topic the children were most interested in was the Romans. The children looked around the Roman displays and the rest of the Museum before coming around the activity table for question time with our curator, Dave Evans and me. The children really got involved and wanted to know lots about the Romans.

Roman tile with a dog paw-print!

After the question time was up, the children were split into two groups. One group to see the Henry Moore display downstairs and the rest to do the activities I had developed, before swapping over. 

I showed the pupils the objects from the worksheets, and helped them find the words around the museum for the Roman crossword I had created for them. This challenged and developed me; I read through and made notes from the Roman Castleford books and resources, I wanted to learn anything I felt might come up in the session. I learnt about all the collections in the Museum so I could be most helpful on the days for the children. 

The children learnt a lot, and the teacher from Park Junior School told me “the children from Monday’s session are still going on about it and how much they enjoyed it.” 

It was great to watch and help the children in something I had created for them. Overseeing the visit was a new and great experience for me as a front of house staff; I learnt something new and spent half the day talking and answering questions with the children and staff.

There are lots of drop-in sessions coming up in Castleford. Why not pop in and get involved?

Flags, Badges and Paper Chains!

Saturday 2 May  

11am – 2pm

Castleford Forum Museum

Suitable for all

Take inspiration from the Jack Hulme images of celebration to create badges and flags ready for the big race!
Free, no need to book

Mosaic Coasters

Tuesday 26 May

11am – 2pm
Castleford Forum Museum

Suitable for all!

Make a mosaic coaster with ceramic tesserae (or paper for younger participants). 

Free, no need to book

Brilliant Boats

Thursday 28 May
10am - 12.00 noon
Castleford Forum Museum
Design and create your own mini model boat!

Suitable for all!
Free - no need to book


Henry Moore Tiles 
Friday 29 May
11am – 2pm 
Castleford Forum Museum
Find out about Henry Moore and his artistic style, and use it as inspiration to decorate a ceramic tile/coaster.
Suitable for all!
Free - no need to book 

Henry Moore Sculptures
Saturday  30 May
11am – 2pm 
Castleford Forum Museum
Be inspired by the community case created by St Joseph's School and create your own Henry Moore sculpture from clay. 
Suitable for all!
Free, no need to book