Agenda item

Report of the Director of the Museum of London.

The leaflets referred to in Appendix 1 are available on request from the Town Clerk’s Department.

The Education Board received a report of the Director of the Museum of London on education outreach work undertaken by both the Museum of London and its partners in the Learning and Engagement Forum (LEF). She noted that activity undertaken by the museum itself could be broken down into two strands. The first strand was formal outreach activity undertaken through school curricula, and the second was informal engagement through day-to-day courses and lectures.

            The Director went on outline the wider activity of the LEF, a collection of ten cultural organisations maintained in whole or in part by the City of London Corporation that sought to make a marked difference in young peoples’ lives. The ten organisations had a broad mix of skills and specialisms that, collectively, provided a rich cultural offering.

            She then noted that the Museum alone was engaging directly with around 300,000 pupils each year, and had drawn up several work areas with which the City of London Corporation could increase its education portfolio and influence on education throughout London. The first of these was ‘hard education’ on topics such as homophobia, racism and gang culture. The second involved partnership working with the London Metropolitan Archives to draw up a business case for a refreshed Great Fire of London website in time for the anniversary celebrations in 2016, a piece of work whose importance was underlined by the popularity of the current Great Fire of London website which, whilst receiving 1.7m hits per year, was also in need up refreshing and updating. The third strand was the plan to establish a School Visits Fund to provide small grants to London schools to assist them in organising visits to members of the LEF and the City.

            The Director went on to respond to several questions and comments put to her by the Board.

·         It was not yet clear whether the hard education would be primarily virtual or desk-based. Officers were currently working with teachers to identify the level of demand.

·         The commemoration of the Great Fire would involve a host of issues that had contemporary relevance, including refugee camps, organisational and urban resilience, and civil evacuation. Moreover the commemoration fell over a weekend (2-5 September 2016) which gave the commemoration massive potential to involve large numbers of people.

·         Members noted that there were several structures within the City that pre-dated the Great Fire; that the City of London Guides should be consulted in any planning for the commemoration.

RESOVED, that Members:

·         Note the report and the progress made to date on education outreach; and

·         Support the programme of the Learning & Engagement Forum as a mechanism of delivery of strategic objectives, particularly the projects identified within the report.