ADVANCING EDUCATION THROUGH A PROUD HISTORY: our aim for the National Education Museum. Getting a good idea up and running

Good ideas are pretty easy. In Through the Looking Glass Alice says: “I can’t believe that!” “Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone.
“Try again. Draw a long breath and shut your eyes.” Alice laughed. “It’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”

“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

It is not an impossible task for us to create a National Education Museum. We know it can be done. It is not easy, but it is eminently feasible.

We have made a big step forward on the road. The National Education Museum is now registered as a charity by the Charity Commission.

Our proposal is to set up an independent National Education Museum covering the whole history and development of education from nursery to higher education and lifelong learning.

The objects of the museum are to “advance the education of the public by the establishment and maintenance of a museum and educational facility relating to the development of educational provision in England and Wales and elsewhere.”

Some of our key aims are to inform, educate, enlighten and entertain the general public, including those pupils and students in education, and to have a museum housed in a building and fully resourced online.

We aim to collect, store and display relevant materials such as general education artefacts, paintings, photographs, documents, banners, books and pamphlets.

The NEM will have a special emphasis on promoting the value and benefits of a good, broad and balanced education for all. Being a charity will bring great financial and fundraising advantages. We propose that there will be links to other school museums and education exhibitions housed in museums around Britain.

We launched this exciting idea on November 25 2017 at a day conference held in London. We decided to invite specific people whom we either knew or who had expressed an interest in the idea of a National Education Museum.

Our two key speakers were author Gervase Phinn and Rebecca Oberg from Eureka Children’s museum. They gave us a great start with ideas for the afternoon workshops.

We have a group of Interim trustees who have been meeting regularly to ensure the plan goes forward.

It has taken a lot of work and patience to get to the stage where the Charity Commission has approved us, but this has been a vital first step.  It also means we now have a bank account.

We are planning a bigger and open conference in the autumn term, so please let us know if you are interested in being involved.

We had a display and leaflets at both ATL and NUT sections of the National Education Union annual conferences and received very positive feedback as well as offers of exhibits.

We have started this great undertaking, this adventure and we have the collective wit and determination to make it succeed. It is a noble cause.

To make a donation via BACS details: Acc: National Education Museum, Acc.No. 20393043, Sort Code: 60-83-01

If you are interested in this exciting initiative email: Anne Swift on [email protected] or Shelagh Hirst on [email protected]. For Charity Commission link: 1177115 - THE NATIONAL EDUCATION MUSEUM.