Hope everyone enjoyed their half term break and returned to school relaxed and refreshed.
We had a really good start to the school year, with a number of schools visiting The Archive Centre and staff going out to see some of you in your classrooms, including Woodlands Primary School and Happisburgh Primary School.
Learning about the impact of the railway on Cromer
We have ran our first two Drawing Norwich’s Churches workshops. Year 5 and 6 pupils from both Hempnall Primary School and Shelton with Hardwick Community School and Year 6 pupils from Great Dunham Primary School spend their mornings working with two local artists in order to take inspiration from our current exhibition.
Pupils started by creating three ‘thumbnail’ sketches on anything in the Long Gallery. Many chose to sketch items in the exhibition, but other drawings included the Long Gallery itself and one of the fire extinguishers. Once they had completed the initial sketches the pupils used their detective skills to work out the theme of the exhibition. Pupils also spent some time considering the works of other famous artists before creating a number of other drawings. The workshop allowed time for the class and the artists to critique some of the pupils’ work before children moved on to their final drawing which was displayed in the Green Room.
The pupils had a great time during the workshop, and learnt a number of valuable lessons. Feedback included:
‘I learnt that not all art has to be complex’
‘[I learnt about] smudging the charcoal on my drawing and using different tones’
‘I got better at drawing’
‘[I learnt that] every picture doesn’t have to be perfect’
‘[I learnt] to concentrate more’
We look forward to welcoming the final two schools for their Drawing Norwich’s Churches workshops next week.
Hingham Primary School also visited The Archive Centre for a History of your Village workshop. As a start to their Victorian Hingham topic, the class found out about people in their village from the census and trade directory. Next they looked at original documents showing a variety of Victorian schools in Norfolk in preparation for looking at the history of their own school, which is a former Victorian Board School. The documents included an exercise book of Thomas R Salmon, c. 1865, a Plan of Narburgh and Narford School, 1870, and monthly attendance forms for Catfield School, 1899-1900. The pupils found the latter document particularly interesting, as it showed how many children were absent around this time of year in order to help with the harvest.
All our slots for school workshops for the remainder of this term are currently fully booked, but we are already taking bookings for Spring 2018. We look forward to seeing some of you over the next couple of weeks.
Norfolk Record Office 