South Shields pupils take over town museum for the day

Pupils from two schools in South Tynenside took over the running of one of the borough's cultural centres.

The youngsters - from Hadrian Primary School, South Shields, and Marine Park Primary School, South Shields, found themselves helping to run the show at South Shields Museum and Art Gallery.

The schools took part in the takeover day, as part of a national event.

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Hadrian Primary pupils looked to the museum’s creature corner and collections for inspiration before embarking on STEAM activities - using science, technology, engineering, art and maths to design a new home for the animals in the creature corner.

They also used mapping techniques to represent an object from the collection at the museum , in Ocean Road, South Shields.

The youngsters also used colour and shapes to reflect one of the paintings currently housed in the museum’s newly-refurbished art gallery.

Meanwhile, the Marine Park Primary pupils spent the day with the museum’s assistant keeper of history, Helen Vasey.

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They spent time searching and learning about First World War medals.

The pupils also wrote up display labels for the medals.

As well as that, they wrote out object entry forms to learn how the museum’s collections are catalogued.

During the day, the Mayor of South Tyneside, Coun Alan Smith, called in at the museum to see what the children were doing.

The final additions were made to Hadrian Primary’s STEAM projects in the afternoon, while Marine Park designed their own commerative medal.

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This activity was to tie in with the commemorative plague which was designed through a public competition and sent out to families of men who died in the First World War.

Both schools came together to end the day to share what they had learnt during their takeover.

The museum’s assitant learning officer, Leslie Palanker-Jermyn organised and managed the event.

She said: “It was exciting to see the children putting art into STEAM subjects to engage with every aspect of the museum’s collections.

“Their final projects were inspirational.”

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Takeover Day is an annual event where museums, galleries and arts organisations across the country get taken over by children and young people.

To find out more about Takeover Day – visit: www.kidsinmuseums.org.uk/takeover/ or follow @takeovermuseums #TakeoverDay