British Museum - Take over day

© The British Museum

The day was held on Saturday 24^th November. Young Friends of the British Museum worked with BMuse, the Youth Panel to take over several roles around the venue. Using contacts within the Young Friends, members were invited by email to sign up to Take Over Day and allocated different responsibilities thought out the day. The jobs were Visitor Information Point, Handling Desk Correspondent and Tour Guide. There were 50 children involved from 8 – 13 years old. Because of the venue size and how busy it gets it was a manageable number for the museum to handle, but I was told they had another 20 Young Friends on the waiting list so the event was clearly very popular before it started.

The Visitor Information Volunteers welcomed families into the museum and answered questions about directions. They also informed them about other events the Take Over Team were going to hold during the day. The reception from the visitors was a general surprise that it was children acting as the first point of contact but they really thought it was a great idea and the children within the family were listening to what was being said as they could relate to the Young Friends Volunteers.

In two galleries a pair of Handling Desk Correspondents had began their shift and were busy explaining a collection of objects to the general public. Before the Take Over day they had been given a training day to learn about the role and this was graciously noted by the parents and children themselves for giving them more confidence about talking about the objects.

The first tour about the Double-headed Serpent began at 12.30 and there were two more afterwards. Before it the children had a chance to practice what they were going to say about the “Object in Focus” with the Youth Panel, a crowd of approx 15 people gathered as the tour began. They were very good and although I think nervous at first they seemed to really enjoy the experience.

I was told the afternoon was even more of a success and the organiser is hopeful that this set up can be bigger and better next year. She was also keen to continue the involvement of the children on guided tours particularly a more frequent event. The museum concluded that they had learnt a lot from getting the children involved in this way.

My day was spent moving around from each group collecting feedback from the children, schools representatives and the museum staff.

A conversation between myself and two take over children: “So far what word would you use to describe your day taking over?” “Awesome” “Extraordinary” Conversation between myself and a mother of Take Over Day Volunteer, “How do you feel about seeing your little boy taking over?” “It’s absolutely fantastic. It’s such and exciting opportunity for him to do this. Especially growing up in Camden and coming on a lot of school outings this is an amazing opportunity again. I hope for my younger son to get the same chance.” Bob a visitor from Connecticut USA “My kids are enjoying the museum more and are more engaged tan if it was an adult talking. It’s also fun to see how much the children know. I definitely think this is a good thing.” An adult working with the children said, “I didn’t realise how young they would be but they have had great training and they really know their stuff. People want to engage with the children more and are asking lots of questions, the experience for them is excellent.”

For more infomation about Take Over Day click visit the Kids in Museum website http://kidsinmuseums.org.uk/