Ely Museum is delighted to welcome its first school group back to the museum.
Ely Museum is delighted to have welcomed its first school group back to the museum following its reopening on Friday 21st May and a £2.2m National Lottery Heritage Fund redevelopment.
This morning, the museum welcomed over 40 year 6 pupils and their teachers from the Isle of Ely Primary School for an exciting, fun day of learning about World War II.
Through role play, the children learnt about the unique local story of the evacuee children from the Jews Free School who found themselves evacuated to Ely in September 1939. Volunteers at Ely Museum played the roles of JFS headmaster, Dr Bernstein, the children also met Mr Goff, Ely’s Air Raid Warden and Mrs Hinton Knowles, wife of the Vicar of St Mary’s Church who organised the children’s billets across Ely and East Cambridgeshire and is fondly remembered by many of the evacuees.
Alongside practicing an air raid drill and putting on their gas masks, the pupils from the Isle of Ely Primary School also learnt about rationing and how to ‘make do and mend’ by stitching on buttons and some war time rationing essentials like dried egg powder and more unusual cuts of meat like pig trotters! The children also turned their hand to making their own war time toy by using things found around the home and making a donkey from a cork!
Sarah Kerrison, Learning Officer at Ely Museum says; It’s really exciting to be opening our doors to schools once more, especially to such enthusiastic classes. The revamped galleries means we have a lot more flexibility to use the space with school groups, and it’s been great to see them full of children for the first time today. With a few tweaks for covid safety we are running our full programme of sessions and we’re getting lots of enquiries – come and see us!
Louise Crawley, Year 6 Teacher at the Isle of Ely Primary School says; The children have really been looking forward to this long anticipated visit to the museum! The activities the children have enjoyed on their visit today is a great way to bring their learning to life and connect their classroom learning to our local history.
A year 6 pupil from the Isle of Ely Primary School says; I really enjoyed the role play today where we learnt what it was like for children in Ely during the war, it gave me a real sense of what it would have been like for them! I’m looking forward to learning about some rationing recipes and to come back with my family for a visit to the museum too!
Find out more about our learning programme at the museum on our website www.elymuseum.org.uk/schools or by emailing our Learning Officer at learning@elymuseum.org.uk
Press release from Ely Museum
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