1 Museum courses in Belfast

Makaton awareness: Taster session for museums  Thursday 23 January, 10am-12pm  Are you interested in finding out more about Makaton and learning some useful everyday words to use in your museum?  About this training  According to The Makaton Charity, over 100,000 children and adults use Makaton symbols and signs, either as their main method of communication or a way to support speech. This includes young children and people with learning disabilities.   The Makaton Charity explain that, “Makaton is a unique language programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate. It supports the development of essential communication skills such as attention and listening, comprehension, memory, recall and organisation of language and expression.”  During this virtual introduction session, The Makaton Charity trainer will:  provide general information about Makaton and how it may be used in different settings to support language development and communication, enable attendees to learn approximately 30 useful everyday signs and symbols, alongside 12 more words which have been tailored for museum settings. This virtual training session will be delivered over two hours by The Makaton Charity.  Who should attend?  This training is aimed at staff at museums, galleries and heritage sites who are interested in making their organisations more welcoming to Makaton users. 

Making your Museum Accessible to Low Income Families   In partnership with Children North East   This is a recording of a session which took place Wednesday 6 March, 10am-12.30pm You will have access to the recording to watch and revisit until 3rd October 2024.   Do you want to understand your audiences that are experiencing poverty better? Do you need dedicated time for your staff to understand the barriers faced by those experiencing poverty to accessing cultural spaces?   About this webinar   Both Kids in Museums and Children North East will share their insights into some of the barriers faced by families experiencing poverty when it comes to connecting with cultural spaces, and why this understanding is so important for all of us in the cultural sector.    This webinar will be led by Alison Bowyer, Executive Director of Kids in Museums, and Chloe Maclellan, Poverty Proofing Team Manager Communities, Early Years, Arts and Culture at Children North East.   They will be joined by Georgina Ascroft from Culture Hartlepool and Rebecca Maw from Jarrow Hall Anglo Saxon Farm, Village, and Bede Museum. Both Georgina and Rebecca will share some of their learning gained from the Poverty Proofing© process.   The session will help delegates to: deepen their understanding of poverty in the UK start to explore the connection between poverty and cultural space gain insight into how poverty can impact a family’s chances of engaging with cultural places think about how considerations around poverty impact on the experiences we provide to families in our own organisations. Take a look at the full schedule   About the trainers Alison is committed to Kids in Museums’ mission that all children, young people and families should be able to visit UK museums and feel welcome. Poverty is growing in prevalence as a barrier to a family museum visit and Kids in Museums wants to raise awareness about how to address this.    Chloe is a strong advocate for positive change fuelled by community voice, working in partnership with organisations to engage in Poverty Proofing© interventions to bring about this change as well as engaging in strategic partnerships to spread awareness and understanding of Poverty in the UK.    Who should attend? This training is aimed at staff and leaders who work in museums, art galleries, heritage sites, and cultural and arts spaces, who are interested in developing and enriching their current offer with a better understanding of audiences experiencing poverty.

Since the end of the pandemic, children, young people and families have faced a barrage of challenges to their standard of living, wellbeing, family life and place within society. Our conference will focus on how museums can become welcoming and accessible spaces that enable all children, young people and families to socialise, relax, play, work and learn. Family Against the background of a slow post-Covid recovery and ingrained inequalities of access amongst museum audiences, we will share examples of museum programmes that have successfully welcomed children, young people and families who have historically been excluded. Often these new audiences have found a sense of safety and belonging in their local museums and become less isolated. Society In an increasingly polarised world where online disinformation proliferates, museums have a vital role in enabling people to build empathy and explore social justice issues. Work in this space helps museums remain relevant to younger audiences and helps them feel more optimistic about the future. Careers As the number of museum traineeships and apprenticeships are shrinking, so are the routes into a career in heritage. We’ll explore programmes that are opening up the museum workforce and enabling a wider group of young people to find meaningful work and build skills and confidence for future employment. Conference Format The conference programme has three strands: Case study presentations Interactive workshops A selection of activities, panel discussions and workshops programmed by the Kids in Museums Youth Panel. These sessions will be bookended by expert keynote speakers and the launch of the new Kids in Museums Manifesto. Explore the programme and schedule Bursaries We want the conference as accessible as possible. We have free tickets available for under 25s and others who are unable to afford to buy a ticket. To apply for a bursary, please complete the short form on this page. The deadline for applications for bursaries is 21 January 2025.

Babies in museums  Wednesday 12 March 2025, 10am-12.30pm  Do you want to learn more about how babies experience museums to help you to develop, or improve provision for this audience and their parents/carers?   About this training  This training webinar will be led by Professor Anna Franklin and Dr Alice Skelton from the Sussex Baby Lab. The Sussex Baby Lab is a team of researchers at the University of Sussex who conduct fun and friendly experiments with babies to understand how they see, think and learn.  They will be joined by Nicola Wallis from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and Anna Murray from National Galleries Scotland – Modern One, Edinburgh, who will talk about their work with babies and their parents/carers.   The session will help you to:  understand the importance of this work gain an insight into how babies see, think and learn in museum spaces think about how to develop provision for babies in your organisation gain inspiration from case studies to take your own work forward take away top tips to inform your practice. Take a look at the full schedule.  This training event will be delivered virtually on Zoom over one half-day session (two hours and 30 minutes with a short break).   Who should attend?  This training is aimed at staff who work in museums, art galleries and heritage sites and are interested in either beginning to offer provision for families with babies or developing their current offer.    

Developmental stages of children and developing activities for 0-12 year olds   Do you want to know more about how children learn and play at different ages to inform how you create family activities in your museum?    About this training   This training webinar will be led by cultural heritage learning consultant Anna Salaman. She has thirty years’ experience immersed in the arts, heritage and cultural sectors, specialising in learning and participation, creativity and play. Anna has worked with organisations around the world including ArtScience Museum (Singapore), Discover Children’s Story Centre, the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum, and the V&A.   The session will help delegates to: learn about the developmental stages of children, ages 0-12, gain an understanding of different facilitation styles to build confidence when interacting with children of different age groups, explore the five types of play and facilitating play, make plans to put the training into practice in their organisation.   Take a look at the full schedule.   Please note: this is a recording of the session which took place on 6th June 2024.   Who should attend? This training is aimed at staff who work in museums, art galleries and heritage sites and are interested in developing your knowledge and understanding of the developmental ages and stages of children to inform how you create activities for families. 

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Working with Children and Young People to Respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency   This is a recording of a session which took place Wednesday 20 March 2024.    Do you want to support children and young people to respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency, but don’t know where to start?    About this event   The Climate and Ecological Emergency affects everyone, but its impact will be felt most by children and young people and they are becoming increasing concerned by the issue. In the Climate Network’s Climate Action Survey, more than 80% of young people revealed that they were concerned about climate change, and 75% believe it will negatively impact their future.   Museums can play an important role in supporting children and young people to learn more about the Climate and Ecological Emergency, to discuss and debate the issues surrounding it, and to get involved with social action to achieve long-term change.   In this webinar, delegates will:    understand the importance of this work think about how to use their collections and initiate local partnerships to take their own work forward gain inspiration from case studies to inform their work.   About the trainer   This training webinar will be led by Kathy Moore, Deputy Chair and Environmental Responsibility Champion at GEM and Director of Climate Museum UK. Kathy recently left SHARE Museums East after 10 years to work freelance. Always passionate about environmental issues, she ran an annual, museum-led A Level conference on biodiversity for over 10 years, using natural history collections and involving many external partners. Kathy has delivered Carbon Literacy courses to a variety of museums over the last two years and is now working with Historic England to roll out their Carbon Literacy offer.    She will be joined by Louise Bragan, Senior Officer: Programming and Learning at Wakefield Museums and Castles, Jodie Henshaw, Museum Curator at Mansfield Museum and and Izzy McLeod, a Amgueddfa Cymru Producer and climate communicator.   Take a look at the full schedule.     Who should attend?   This training is aimed at staff who work in museums, art galleries and heritage sites who are interested in supporting children and young people to respond to the Climate and Ecological Emergency within their organisation. 

Effective Strategies for Teaching Speaking and Writing Skills (25 Hours)

Working with young volunteers    Would you like to work with young volunteers in your organisation?   About this event   During this training session, we will be exploring all aspects of how to work with young volunteers, from recruitment and logistics to safeguarding.   This webinar will be led by Eleanor Moore the Sustainable Volunteering Officer with the Museum Development South West Programme. Her background is in social and community history curatorship and advisory work within the museums sector, with experience of managing volunteer teams.   She will be joined by Sebastian Amos, Chair of Trustees and Adam Marsden, Young Volunteer at Transport Museum Wythall and Rania Nur, former Young Volunteer, now Trustee at the Museum of the Home. They will be sharing case studies about the young volunteer programmes in their organisations.    The session will help delegates to: understand the importance of this work think about how to develop young volunteer roles gain inspiration from case studies to take your own work forward understand good practice around safeguarding and young volunteers.   Take a look at the full schedule.   Please note: This is a recording of the session which took place 18th June 2024.    Who should attend?   This training is aimed at staff who work in museums, art galleries and heritage sites who are interested in developing or improving their provision for young volunteers. Voluntary volunteer co-ordinators, whose main role is to lead day-to-day on the involvement of volunteers and/or young people, would also benefit from this session.