~~Twenty eight year six pupils from Western Downland School took over Fordingbridge Museum on Friday 23rd November.
Museum manager, Jane Ireland said, “The pupils took on a variety of roles such as meeting and greeting visitors, running the shop and talking to the public about the exhibits. All the feedback that we had from our visitors was extremely positive with lots of comments about how articulate and confident they were.  The museum is a great resource for local schools and this is a perfect example of the sort of thing that we can offer.”
Visitor Wendy Crowson said, “The children had done their homework so that they were really well informed about the exhibits.  I have lived in the locality all my life but I still learnt a lot about the history of the area that I did not know before.”
The pupils enjoyed dressing in period Victorian outfits to enhance the visitor experience and rotated so that each of them covered a range of exhibits throughout the museum. The WW1 exhibit was particularly interesting for them as they had been covering the topic recently at school.
Teacher Jackie Miller said, “The takeover day was particularly useful to the class because they learnt so many skills. It was of course primarily about history but they also had to communicate well both verbally and non-verbally and work effectively as part of a team. It gave them a useful insight into the world of work and they really enjoyed the experience. I am very proud of how well they represented the school.”