Lessons come to life at Hancock Museum

A classroom topic was brought vividly to life for a group of schoolchildren from Walker, when they enjoyed a visit to the Great North Museum: Hancock.
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The Year 4 pupils from St Alban's Catholic Primary School had been studying Ancient Egypt in class, and were able to gain some hands-on experience of the subject during their time at the museum.

“The children have been learning about how we know about Ancient Egypt,” said Rachael Laverick, Year 4 teacher at the school, which is a member of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust. 

“They have been looking at Howard Carter and his discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The trip to the Hancock allowed the children to see artefacts up close and gave them an understanding of what life was like in Ancient Egypt.”

“I created a treasure hunt-style worksheet using images from the museum’s website,” she continued. “The children used this to scaffold their research, as they found and jotted down what the artefacts were and what they were used for.”

It was the second time the trip had taken place, with this year’s group of 29 children accompanied by Mrs Laverick, along with fellow St Alban’s staff members Garry Marshall, Karin Visser and Rachel Brinskey.

“Trips like this are extremely important,” added Mrs Laverick. “Even though we live at a close distance to the museum, many of the children had never been before.

“Apart from that, it is great for children to make their classroom learning more concrete by seeing actual artefacts.

“The children particularly enjoyed seeing a mummy up close, and the afterlife experience.”