Priestlands Heritage and Young Peoples Project

    Measuring the Success of the Project

  Successes

  • The Project has brought the teachers and pupils from three schools together to liaise and work on activities, which bridged all curricular areas and all four Key Stages of education from ages 4 - 16
  • The site, with its wealth of historical and environmental assets, has been fully utilised to explore and raise pupils' awareness of their local heritage through a range of activities.
  • The partnership with our trustees and local organisations have been firmly established and will continue to be an important and valued asset in the ongoing development of our curriculum projects.
  • The outreach to the local community as we have investigated the site's heritage, offered access to our archive resources and promoted opportunities for further links. The Seminar and Exhibition were held up as excellent community events.
  • The development of the website to provide an organic, interactive archive and resource for teachers, pupils and organisations to use nationally.
  • The project has provided the opportunity to resource, pilot and review a range of curricular activities on the heritage theme, which can now be embedded into the curriculum.
  • The project has provided the funding for detailed, professional surveys on the historical and environmental assets of the site. These will provide enduring records and resources for teachers and pupils to use.

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      Areas for Development

  • The allocation of funding areas in the original submission bid hindered some developments. As the project evolved some changes were necessary to how the objectives could be achieved and this required greater flexibility. Regular review of the objectives led to some adjustments being made to ensure all of the work could be undertaken.
  • There needed to be greater emphasis on the development of the curricular projects. Funding allocations underestimated the cost of releasing teachers to investigate, plan and review these activities. This required more extensive pre-planning and costings for specific projects prior to the bid being submitted.
  • The time and funding for coordination of the project needed to be increased to ensure all the initiatives could be managed and led forward successfully, i.e. a full or part-time coordinator appointed with time committed for overseeing the project needed to be built into the submission bid.
  • The commitment to the project by the whole staff at each school needed to be secured, prior to Year One. Teachers undertaking the delivery of the curriculum projects needed to be involved more widely in the pre-planning consultations and setting of the project's objectives. This would ensure a powerful launch and a greater shared impetus to meet the objectives. The staff need to feel 'ownership' of the project from the start rather than being brought on board once funding secured.
  • The Management Group worked well with members from the three schools and the trustees. However greater involvement by the partner organisations would provide useful links.
  • The long-term management of some of the heritage assets of the site remain unclear. Liaison with the local and county councils continue, but progress has been limited and has restricted access to these areas of the site for activities with pupils.

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