Manchester’s National Football Museum welcomed Year 4 pupils from St Mary’s Primary School in Moss Side to take over the space as part of the annual Kids in Museums Takeover Day.
From the Scottish Highlands to Somerset and Cornwall, young people across the UK are invited to take over adults’ jobs for the day, with over 70 heritage sites and 2,500 young people taking part in the 2023 initiative in mid November.
Organised every year by Kids in Museums, the charity is dedicated to making museums open and welcoming to all children, young people and families.
This year’s Takeover Day theme was Let’s Play!, so St Mary’s pupils used the National Football Museum’s Batteries Not Included exhibition, which tells the story of football toys and games from the Victorians through virtual reality.
The children took on the role of exhibition consultants to review and rate the 17 interactive games and exhibits and shared their expertise on what makes a fun and engaging museum exhibition for them.
The pupils also got to be curators for the morning. They were able to go behind the scenes into the collections store and donned protective white gloves to carry out condition checks on objects such as Jill Scott’s England cap, Alvarez’s Manchester City Shirt, Anita Asante’s England shirt and Alex Greenwood’s England boots, as well as women’s boots from the Victorian era.
They also took part in a ‘make your own museum’ activity, selecting objects from the main galleries that captured their interest and considering why they chose each of the objects they’d selected for their mini museum case.
“Play is so important – it helps children to learn, engage with history and get creative. We hope all our participants had a great day and took something away from the unique Takeover Day experience.”
Alison Bowyer, director of Kids in Museums
One of the students who took part said: “I really enjoyed going behind the scenes and looking in the special boxes, we got handle and measure the objects and learn about looking after them which was very interesting!”
More memorable experiences
Other schools across the country took part in a range of sessions, with highlights including a SEND school visiting Orleans House Gallery in Twickenham to create artworks and select images from the gallery’s collection for its new exhibition Play Works.
Elsewhere, young people in Birmingham got together at Selly Manor to take part in a murder mystery, while children in Loughborough visited Taylor’s Bell Foundry to shoot a series of short films to help promote heritage in Britain to other young people.
Did you take part in Takeover Day? Tell us about your experience by emailing editorial@schooltravelorganiser.com
Alison Bowyer, director of Kids in Museums said: “Our playful Takeover Day is a brilliant opportunity for museums to get an expert opinion from children and young people on what makes a fun and engaging day out at a heritage site.
“Play is so important – it helps children to learn, engage with history and get creative. We hope all our participants had a great day and took something away from the unique Takeover Day experience.”
Since 2010, Takeover Day has enabled over 45,000 young people to have a meaningful and memorable experience behind the scenes at a museum, learning new skills, building confidence and having fun.
Dates for the 2024 Takeover Day have yet to be announced. For more information about how your school can get involved go to kidsinmuseums.org.uk.
