News

Kids Takeover the Manx Museum

If you visit the Manx Museum on Friday 21 November, you’re in for a big surprise! Pupils from Year 5/6 at St Thomas’ Church of England Primary School have been trained to take over the running of the Museum from 1pm – 3pm as part of ‘Kids Takeover Day’.

They will be welcoming visitors at the Museum reception, answering enquiries, working with artefacts, monitoring the environmental conditions of the Museum’s stores, leading gallery tours and even liaising with the media to ensure the entire day is a great success. The children will also be engaging visitors with some museum theatre, performing their own First World War play ‘Our Way to Victory’ in the Museum galleries at 3pm.

‘Kids Takeover Day’ is an annual event where museums across Britain are taken over by children and teenagers. The national initiative is organised by independent charity Kids in Museums who aim to help place children and teenagers at the heart of the museums.

Year 6 pupil Frankie Cullen will be Assistant Director for part of the day, she commented:

“I’m so excited about taking over the Museum! I cannot wait to be running the Museum and giving tours in the galleries.”

Classmates Charlotte Derbyshire and Alexander Shirtliff added:

“We’re all really excited about Kids Takeover Day because it will be so much fun and the Museum is full of history, it will be really cool to perform our play in the galleries as well. We’re all a bit nervous though!”

All fifteen class pupils have been working with Manx National Heritage’s Community Engagement Officer, Katie King, for the past eight weeks so that they know how to undertake their job roles for the day. Katie King explained further:

“We are passionate about engaging young people in the work we do at Manx National Heritage. This will be the third year we have participated in Kids Takeover Day. The pupils have had some excellent ideas for making the day exciting for visitors and for making the Museum more child-friendly in general. The MNH team have been training our new young staff to manage the gallery floors, be courteous to visitors, and to ensure the security of our artefacts. We are all looking forward to the day, and hope as many people as possible will come and enjoy the children’s hard work.”
St Thomas’ Year 5/6 class teacher Laura O’Grady went on to say:

“The children are very excited and enthusiastic about the day and it will certainly be a challenging experience for them. I am hoping this opportunity will give the children a memorable experience that will develop their communication and team work skills, and give them confidence in their own abilities – it will be a lot of fun as well!”
‘Kids Takeover Day’ takes place at the Manx Museum on Friday 21 November and admission is free. To enjoy pupil led gallery tours please visit between 1pm – 2:30pm, and to see the play ‘Our Way to Victory’ please arrive at 3pm.