Takeover Day at Havering Museum

Back in November, one Saturday morning, Havering Museum was taken over by local children from the 12th Romford Brownies and 3rd Squirrels Heath Cubs along with other local children who were visiting the museum visiting with their parents.

Havering Museum was pleased to be able to take part in Kids in Museums Takeover Day on 19th November 2016. This is an annual event where children and young people are encouraged to takeover roles in museums and galleries for the day to participate in the life of the museum. Havering Museum has previously held our own takeover days with our  children’s club Havering Hedgehogs, but this year the event was extended to include other local children.

The preparation for the big day had been ongoing for some months. We were contacted by two uniform groups who were interested in taking part and also several parents also got in touch to say that their children wanted to be involved. So in an attempt to include everyone, the Directors decided that the whole day would be a free entry event and this was kindly sponsored by Clemence Hoar Cummings LLP.

On the day the children enjoyed taking over several different roles in the museum. They worked on the front desk to greet visitors and take those important phone calls. They became young Conservators and worked with our volunteer Connor to take part in some object handling  and became tour guides learning about the different objects on display in the museum. Of course biscuits and juice were provided for the all important snack break!

All of the museum volunteers were very impressed with the young people who enthusiatically embraced the roles in the museum. We think that some day some of these young people could be working in museums themselves.

Many thanks also to all of the volunteers who helped out throughout the day and put in so much effort to make the youngsters feel welcome.