First days at Stowe

15 July 2016

Community and Learning Intern Blog

Hello! I’m Fran. Alannah and I are Stowe’s two Community and Learning interns for 2016 – welcome to our weekly blog!

We’re already coming to the end of our first week at Stowe, which we’ve spent settling in (we’re staying in sixth-form boarding accommodation – Stowe is also a school!) and getting to know the ins and outs of the House and Gardens, as well as meeting our mentors Jess and Lesley. We arrived on Monday and spent the first two days touring the House, building our knowledge of its extensive history, and attempting to find our way around! This week Stowe has also played host to a group of visitors touring the United Kingdom to learn about running heritage sites; Alannah and I joined them in some of their talks and activities.

At the moment, the Community and Learning team at Stowe is preparing and getting ready to start their exciting summer programme of family activities, making use of the spaces in Stowe to inspire and teach. This programme is based primarily around a session directed by Jess or Lesley every Tuesday.

Families are also invited to make use of the Learning Centre and Stowe’s Fantastical Furniture, all of which are geared towards responding creatively to the surroundings at Stowe. There are dress-up activities, as well as arts and crafts of many different forms which make use of different materials to inspire all ages!

Ultimately, Alannah and I are aiming to contribute to Stowe’s use of digital resources for learning. We have been stationed in the library for part of this week, looking into how other heritage sites and museums are using sound in particular as a medium for improving accessibility and increasing engagement with visual and spatial art. We’ve also enjoyed creating new resources such as a colouring sheet, a treasure-hunt and a collage page for younger visitors to use at Stowe, all based on the theme of ‘Movers, Shakers, Builders, Makers!’

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog – we hope you join us again next week!