Early Years toolkit SINGING ANDSTORIES AT and to uniforms, maps, tickets and posters. society. The collection items holds 450,000 from trains, transport and the growth of modern London, culture and the years, last 200 highlighting the powerful link between and explores the story of London and its transport system over Museum opened in in 1980 x specially for the sessions! the for specially some music and movement time, including transport themed songs written by Artburst collection and read astory together based on the weekly rotating theme. Then there is (eg red , green traffic light), hold and touch handling objects from the museum’s families. Families play together using aparachute to explore the colours of London The sessions both start and end with asong welcoming and saying goodbye to the sessions more familiar and accessible to returning families. associated songs which are available on Spotify. The hope is that this makes the their families. Artburst not only developed the sessions but wrote and recorded providing creative educational workshops that improve the lives of young people and and they also deliver most of the sessions. Artburst is an award-winning social enterprise We commissioned acompany called Artburst to develop the content of the sessions ticket. annual an a drop-in basis. However, there is an entrance fee to the museum of £17.50 per adult for songs, dancing, stories and object handling. They are free for families to join and run on 12pm, and10.45am, 1.45pm 3pm. The sessions include parachute games, singing bespoke that focus on adifferent type of transport, and they are delivered four times aday at during term time for children aged 0to 5year olds and their adults. There are six sessions The under Singing 5s and Story sessions began in November They 2015. run every Tuesday SUMMARY Early Years toolkit and events for all visiting families’ (one of LTM’s Family Learning Programme aims). museum’s to stories ‘provide and appropriate interpretation exhibitions collections, of to part be of acore museum family learning offer with the aim to open up more of the were sessions the Furthermore, careers. engineering of range diverse a with engage to seeks to offer inspiring opportunities for young people, teachers, parents and carers these sessions also supported the museum’s Enjoyment to Employment scheme, which complement the play zone and link it to the museum’s collection. The development of to the museum and apositive response to All Aboard, we decided to offer sessions to under seven years old. Following an increase in family visitors with children under seven In March the museum 2015, opened the All Aboard family play zone aimed at children organisationFor our AIMS AND GOALS welcome and considered. felt welcome. We believe that targeted programming reassures families that they are children under five, and we wanted to ensure that families with very young children collection is full of buses, trains and other vehicles, which is avery popular topic for being loud or playing that they do not belong in amuseum space. The museum’s the museum. Some parents and carers might feel that if their child is running around, wanted to ensure that families feel welcome and that they have asense of belonging in Another important factor that led to the development of the sessions was that we at the wider collection. encourages families to explore the galleries outside All Aboard, and look around them provides those returning families with amore varied experience. Furthermore, it five to the museum regularly as part of their routine. The Singing and Stories sessions don’t just visit during weekends and school holidays. Many adults bring children under Just under of 50% museum visitors to London Transport Museum are families and they audience our For Early Years toolkit nurseries would book to come to age. This has now led to the museum’s schools team offering nursery sessions. Previously recognition of how successful programming can if be it’s aimed at aspecific audience/ One of the most significant outcomes of the sessions was that it has led to afurther For o OUTCOMES F collection and we are able to make connections with museum objects during the sessions. objects can distracting. be But this is also positive, as the families are surrounded by the under sessions 5s take place in the galleries where it can often loud, be and where large our learning ‘ the museum has an unusual layout. With the sessions taking place during term-time, Our biggest obstacle is space. Being in the old Covent Garden flower market building, our youngest school visitors. nursery sessions specifically designed to fit with the experiences and ages of some of advanced, despite experienced freelancers attempting to adapt them. There are now they would find it familiar. they could listen to it before they came so to the Spotify music so if they wanted to, groups, we were easily able to direct families excitement about returning. For outreach them home and in turn, hopefully creates is not limited to the museum, but follows meant that the experience families have the songs readily available on Spotify has times on Spotify. The impact of having been collectively listened to over 5,000 The four songs written by Artburst have Depot siteinActonTown. to expandtheunder5ssessionsandreachlocalcommunitiesaroundmuseum’s fee? InApril2018,themuseumwillbedevelopinganoutreachprojectinwestLondon that familiesarenotexcludedfromattendingsessionssimplybecauseoftheadmission Financial barriersaresomethingthatwewillcontinuetoconsider:howcanensure to singalongandhaveformedrelationshipswiththefacilitators. families attendasession,manywillreturneachweek.Regularrecognisesongs which weconsidertobeagreatsuccess.Anoutcomethatcelebrateisonce Despite thisbarrier, in20161,175under5sandtheiradultstookpartthesessions, for anyoneovertheageof17. A significantbarrierformanyfamiliescomingtothemuseumisouradmissioncharge o r ou ur orga r au d T i ransportorium’ room is booked for primary school sessions, meaning the en nisation ce Y ear 1sessions in which the content was often too Early Years toolkit L LESSONS T the children to do the same, and the more fun is had by everyone! carers. The more adults jumping and dancing and singing along, the more it encourages from the sessions is that volunteers are vital to ensuring the involvement of parents and are akey part of the Learning team at the museum already, but what we have taken away support of avolunteer is essential. We were not surprised by this discovery, as volunteers to support the activities, although this wasn’t essential. We have since found that the The sessions were initially developed with the intention that avolunteer would present be more aware of what we offe needed marketing and have reached out to local community centres to make families programme has been successful, there have been times when it’s been very quiet. We’ve Just because you programme something, it does not mean people will come. Whilst our All images©LondonTransportMuseum2017. Learning Officera This casestudywaswrittenbyStephanieO’Neill-Winbow, FamilyandCommunity ltm Or forinformationaboutourschoolsprogrammeearlyyears,goto: l Visit ourwebsite.Formoreaboutfamilylearning,visit: FURTHER INFORMATION local communityinwestLondonsurroundingthemuseum’sDepotActonTown. we havefundingfromArtsCouncilEnglandtoexpandtheprogrammeandengage Sessions arerunusingfundingfromourcoreFamilyLearningProgramme.From2018 FUNDING training anddelivery Approximately £6,500annualdeliverycosts,includingdesign,marketing,resources, A BUDGET a element had been considered based on experience and knowledge of the under 5s Get the experts in! Commissioning Artburst to develop the content meant that every t udience. pproximately £9,000 start- pproximately £9,000 museum.co.uk/learning/family-learning OP useum.co.uk/learnin T IP EARN t heLondonTranspo T g /s r up costs, includin up costs, . chools/early-years rt Museum. g deve l opment and resour opment and c es