Open accessibilty tools

Made in the Tees Valley

Exhibition title: Made in the Tees Valley

School: Sacred Heart RC Primary School, Years 3 and 4

Topic/theme: I’m a Boro kid and I can do anything

Curriculum areas covered: Art, Design and Technology, English and History

What we did to find out about our topic and create our exhibition: Our topic was all about being proud of our heritage and achievements in the area plus having aspiration for ourselves. We visited the Dorman Museum where we worked in the galleries that are full of Christopher Dresser ceramics. Children created artwork inspired by their visit. They designed, made and evaluated their own pots using techniques learned at the Museum. We then researched Christopher Dresser, the Stockton and Darlington Railway and Arthur Dorman to find out what else was ‘made in the Tees Valley’.

Our exhibition included:

  • Slip cast pots and pots of out own design
  • Original Christopher Dresser pots loaned by the Dorman Museum
  • Labels written by the children
  • Children’s art journals
  • Japanese windsocks inspired by Dresser’s visit to Japan
  • Information leaflets and posters

    • We invited Years 3 and 6 from St Gerard’s Primary to come to our exhibition as well as all the other year groups from our own school. We were amazed at how many of our families came along to see children’s work. After that, our exhibition moved to the Dorman Museum where it was on show to the public for 2 months.

    Image Courtesy of Sacred Heart RC Primary School

    How our students benefited from taking this approach: This approach benefited the children because they had a purpose for everything they were doing; to create an exhibition of their work to show their parents and families. They were able to learn about Middlesbrough’s heritage and be proud of what has been achieved here, in a genuinely cross curricular way. Researching and making the exhibition involved them gaining new knowledge in many curriculum areas and helped to develop their organisation skills. Visiting the Museum, working with ceramicists and creating the exhibition also enabled many of the children to achieve Arts Award Discover or Explore.

    How I used the toolkit: The children used the information online to do their own research. We used the invitation template to invite parents to the gallery and the poster template for children to create their own posters to put up around the schools. We also used the label template so that the children could explain the inspiration and techniques they used to create their pieces.

    Top tips for other teachers:

    “Allow plenty of time”
    It is a lot of work to create the exhibition, but the children enjoy it and get a lot out of it.

    Be prepared to adapt the resources for your children”
    We adapted some of the resources to allow the children to present their work neatly by adding lines for them to write on for the labels and leaflets.

    Image courtesy of Sacred Heart RC Primary School

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