Opening the Doors to Family History

Rotherham Archives, Rotherham ACFL, Clifton Park Museum

This project developed a family history resource aimed at Entry Level 1 – 3 that embeds literacy, numeracy and speaking and listening skills. The resource is based on the sources held by Rotherham Museums and Archives & Local Studies and will become a tool for SfL tutors to engage new learners.  As well as tutor notes and activities, the resource has extension activities, and links to supported visits to the services.  Elements of the resource could also be used by individual learners, and within a school setting.

The idea for this project came in response to staff in Rotherham Archives & Local Studies Service noticing a significant minority of customers with literacy and numeracy needs. Family historians may not consider themselves to be learners, but the informal learning opportunities involved in researching family history have great potential for inspiring people to improve their skills and gain knowledge whilst they have fun. 

Staff comments:

17 staff worked with project officer in development of aspects of resources

85 resource pack CDs have been distributed to tutors.

Analysis of the feedback from the resource pack launch events shows that 94% of the tutors said that they would take action as a result – eg. running the course, bringing learners to the Museum and Archives Service, pursuing their own research.

 

The resource is available free to SfL tutors and was launched at 3 events in Adult Learners Week 2006 held at Clifton Park Museum. See links on the left to download the resources.

Get more details about this case study: Rotherham evaluation report.doc [41.0kb]

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