Museums, Libraries and Archives are uniquely placed to complement the formal learning that occurs in school environments. Our organisations can provide the cultural creative richness of learning that sparks enthusiasm and inspires children and young people.

MLA West Midlands is committed to ensuring that every child of school age is enabled the opportunity access and actively participate in culture and heritage. Since January 2005, MLA WM has been working with museums, libraries and archives to develop their services and to broker relationships with schools and families in order to achieve a ‘cultural entitlement’ for children and young people in the region.

Key Objectives:
• To explore learning styles and develop responsive and creative programmes of learning through museums, libraries and archives for children and young people.
• To increase the demand from children and young people for creative learning from museums, libraries and archives by addressing the barriers to participation that they face.
• To broker sustainable relationships between museums, libraries and archives, and children, young people, teachers and parents.

Funding:
MLA WM’s Cultural Entitlement initiative is currently funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) through the MLA Partnership

To keep up to date with what is happening in the region please click on the PDF newsletters.

Programmes:

Learning Links Expression of Interest Form Dudley Archives Case Studies St John's House

or click on the PDF documents to view this information.

Activities: Education Development

Since January 2005, we have been working with museums and archives in the region to facilitate the development of their services in order to more effectively engage with children and young people.

Each museum/archive project works towards supporting the teaching of the National Curriculum as we believe that formal learning is enhanced by positive engagement with cultural collections and resources.

However, we also aim to inspire children and young people, to captivate them with culture and to encourage them strive for more in their lives.

Creativity is the key component of our activities.

Some of the projects that we have supported are:

The Lace Guild - 'Travelling Threads' A specialist museum demonstrating its educational merits through creative outreach

Heritage Motor Centre – ‘Wheel Meet Again’
A different view of WWII - Commemorating the war through industry

Worcestershire Archives and LEA – ‘Broadening the Curriculum’ Using technology and cultural heritage to explore new ways of learning