ALDO HLF Project Report - Toynbee Halltoynbeehall.brix.fatbeehive.com/data/files/Research_and... ·...

ALDO HLF Project Report

Project Name: Heritage Lottery Funded (HLF) Archives Learning and Development Project

Department: Youth and Community

Focus Area: Final phase of Revealing Social Reform; Evidence of heritage and impact of organisation in the community throughout history. 18/01/13 – 22/03/13

Product/Process: HLF

Prepared By:

Document Owner(s) Project/Organization Role

Siân Rachel Finn Archives Learning and Development Officer (ALDO)

Project Status Report Version Control

Version Date Author Description

1.0 20/03/2013 Siân Finn Archive Learning and Development Report

Project Status Report

Confidential 11/24/2015

PROJECT STATUS REPORT PURPOSE

To inform HLF and SMT of activity and future prospect of Archive Learning and Development at Toynbee Hall

The last 10 weeks the ALDO has bought Toynbee Hall’s heritage and history to life through exploring and making the archive collection accessible; through an Archives Skills Training Day (ASTD) and an educational event made up of activities and workshops for school visits. Events were well attended, evaluated and documented with evaluation tools, photographs and audio recordings. The results of both events are presented in this report.

TASC Introduction to Archival Description (Appendix I)

On the 26th February 2013 an ASTD was delivered to 9 participants (made up of volunteers, staff members, local residents, service users, historians and students) in the Toynbee Hall library. The day was hosted and coordinated by ALDO at Toynbee Hall and delivered by the Archives Skills Consultancy LTD.

Throughout the day participants were presented the building blocks of archival arrangement, descriptions and the basics according to the International Standard for Archival Description (General). Participants learned the theory of archival processes and put theory into practice placing value on organisational idiosyncrasies. Trainers and trainees handled genuine archival materials from Toynbee Hall’s archive collection and learned to understand the importance of Toynbee Hall’s work in the local community, nationally and globally since 1884.



Evaluation of the day was taken from particpants in the form of a questionnaire(Appendix II). Summary of Evaluation Gender: Female participants 7 Male participants 2 Age group: 18-24 = 3 25-34= 2 35-44= 2 45-55= 0 55-64= 2 Employment status: Full time = 4; Partime = 2; Unemployed = 1; Look after home and family = 1; Student = 1. Borough participants live in: Tower Hamlets = 4; Ealing = 1; Hammersmith = 1; Merton = 1; Lewisham = 1; Lambeth = 1. How participants found out about the AST? 3 from TH internal email, 1 External email, 1 Word of mouth, 3 through face book, 1 throughTH twitter activity. Why participants signed up for AST? To understand the archive process = 9 To make new friends = 1 To improve employability = 4 To gain confidence = 2 To improve knowledge of Toynbee Hall = 4 Outcome and summary of the ASTD TASC ltd were able to view and assess what is required to organise Toynbee Halls archive. Currently there is a cataglogue of documents and materials there were completed in 2005. Since then, more materials have been donated and produced which evidence Toynbee Hall’s work and events that are valuable in documenting the nature of Toynbee Hall and its heritage. TASC ltd have emailed a proposal of work, time scale and cost of professionally archiving Toynbee Hall’s current collection with future recommendations (appendix III). As a result of the ASTD, Toynbee Hall now has a bank of 8 volunteers willing to work alongside professional archivists and support Toynbee Hall’s archive if required in the future. The prompt and successful sign up to ASTD indicates a considerable interest in Toynbee Hall and how history is documented and preserved through the archival process. Our uptake on the ASTD was at maximum capacity with some participants willing to pay for the training. There is the potential to develop regular ASTD’s in collaboration with the training provider in the future as the demand was high. The history teacher at Tower Hamlets College requested his whole class of 11 students participate on the ASTD. The



spaces were quickly filled so unfortunatley we could not grant their request. We are currently waiting for TASC ltd to reply to a proposal for regular future ASTD’s at Toynbee Hall. Break down of cost

TASC ltd (training delivery) £1020 (inc VAT)

Lunch (Cappacino) £99 (inc VAT)

Room Hire and refreshements (TH) £69.60 (inc VAT)

Staffing cost (TH) £1068 (inc VAT)

Total cost £2256.60

Revealing Social Reform and Discover the History of Learning and Action at Toynbee Hall Schools Workshop.

Tuesday 5th March 9.00-12.30

6 Volunteers and 3 staff members and the Chief Executive Graham Fisher were involved in a morning of activites and workshops. 5 schools that are members of the East London cohort of the Pupil’s Parliment were invited to bring 4 student representatives from Year 4 and 5, aged 9-11 years.

Volunteers were recruited and took part in a facilitation training afternoon prior to the event and given a handbook for activities (appendix IV). 7 different activities were planned and delivered with photographic evidence. Permission slips were obtained and submitted by schools upon arrival allowing us to document day with photographs and an audio recording of the intergenrational talk between the lunch club service users and the children. All of which can be used for evidence and publicity for Toynbee Hall, the schools, Pupils Parliment and HLF. Pupils and teachers experience of the morning were evaluated post event, the results of which are presented in this report. Pupil evaluation and feedback (Appendix V):



17 children attended from 5 local primary schools and evaluated the activities at the end of the morning (appendix V). A tour of Toynbee Hall was given by Graham Fisher. 14 children rated the tour with a happy face, 2 indifferent and 1 sad. What’s a motto was a team activity where schools were split and put into categories and had to create a team motto. 16 children rated the activity with a happy face and 1 with an indifferent face.

Dictator rules was a whole group activity exploring obedience in society and was rated with 17 happy faces from the children.

The Historic Timeline (HTL) was another team activity where the children worked together putting items and props related to Toynbee Hall’s archive collection into chronological order along a physical time line



taped in the middle of the Lecture Hall floor. Participants had to present their items to the rest of the group. 15 children rated the HTL with happy faces, 2 with indifferent faces.

2 of the volunteers are elderly members of Toynbee Hall’s lunch club, they shared thier experiences growing up in the East End and how they are involved with Toynbee Hall with a Q and A session after. This activity was audio recorded. 17 children rated the talk with happy faces.



Teacher feedback and evaluation (Appendix VI). 4 out of 5 schools rated the workshop overall as good and 1 excellent. Organisation and adminstration: 4 rated good 1 excellent Educational content of material covered: 4 rated good and 1 excellent Facilitator knowledge and presentation style: 4 rated good 1 excellent Facilitator conduct and response to questions: 3 good 2 excellent Activities Tour of Toynbee: 1 needs improvement 2 satifactory 1 good 1 excellent Teddy Name Game: 2 satisfactory 2 good 1 excellent What’s a motto?: 1 needs improvment 1 satisfactory 3 good Dictator Rules: 1 satisfactory 3 good 1 excellent Timeline: 2 good 3 excellent Talk by older people: 4 good 1 excellent All 5 schools rated the pace of the workshop as just right. All 5 schools felt the skill level of the workshop was just right. All 5 schools would reccomend the workshop to other schools, teachers and pupils. 3 Schools gave the following reasons why:



“It was fabulous to learn about a local community resource – its history and how it can be used now. “ The session was informative to not only children but also adults it gave us a better understanding of the importance of Toynbee Hall and how it has helped people over the decades. “Learning based in real life situations for children who may lack opportunities”. 4 out of 5 schools would use a classplan based on the workshop if available online. What the teachers liked best and found most useful for themselves and thier pupils were fed back with written comments. “Children getting to work together and share ideas from different schools. The children loved the interview with the 2 older gentlemen” “I thought hearing first hand recounts of life in the local area made the children interested in the history. Also the source work for the time line activity was good as the children got to access information from the archive” “Timeline activity and real person experience” “Volunteers engagement with the children. It was well organised and was efficiently ran” “The pupils really enjoyed hearing from Lauri and Mannie” Teachers answered the following question: What skills do you think the pupils have gained from the archive?

Historical knowledge and sequencing of events

Interview questioning

Made connections between local childrens lives past and present “Historical skills, putting events in chronological orderand using a variety of secondary sources to find out about life past and present.” “Presentation skills” “Experience of time in local area” “A better understanding of Toynbee Hall and what it had and has to offer members of the community in East London”



“It encouraged them to think about the past and how life in the East End used to be which appealed to them.” Constructive feedback from teachers was gained by them answering the following questions: What could have been better? Was there anything that was not covered that you would have liked to have seen included? “A full tour. We would have loved to have seen where they used to run ‘court’ sessions” “There could have been more work using sources from the archive, perhaps a carousel of activities so children get first hand contact of more them” “The tour was very poor. Not for children. Smaller groups for the name game” “perhaps the session could have finished a little earlier to suit school timings” “The motto activity was quite difficult – needed to explain the words ‘culture’ first, a talk task for a first activity!” What would be useful to add to a toolkit which would be available online? Only one school responded to the final question on the evaluation sheet, with the following reply: “Scan in the items from the archive so they’re available online” Outcome and summary of the “Revealing Social Reform School’s Workshop” Due to the resounding success and positive feedback for all involved with the event, school visits could be a regular feature at Toynbee Hall with the potential to generate revenue. The intergenerational aspect of the morning was by far the most enjoyed and popular activity, with Toynbee Hall valuing and involving its services users. Since the event Mannie and Laurie have been invited to speak at other community events in the City of London. Volunteers gained experience working with both young people and the elderly bringing together a diversity of cultures, generations and skills. All volunteers said they would volunteer at Toynbee Hall in the furture. The what’s a Motto? activity could be developed further by expanding more on Toynbee Hall’s categories of Revealing Social Reform; by presenting prominant icons and figure heads alongside their legacies that feature throughout Toynbee Hall’s history. It has the potential to be adapted and be accessible as an online learning resource.



The HTL can be developed and used as an interactive online learning tool by using the click drag and drop feature to place items along a virtual Toynbee Hall timeline following the categories. Breakdown of cost

Materials 30.00

Refreshments for schools 23.00

Volunteer lunch and snacks 29.00

Photography and rights to images 50.00

Staffing cost 1425.15

Total 1557.15

Final observations and reflections of the Archives Learning and Development Officer. ThrowbackThursday is now a regular feature on Toynbee Hall’s social media channels (Twitter and Facebook) where the Communications team showcases images from Toynbee Hall’s archives to its online followers and Facebook friends. The popularity and success of both the events during the final phase of the ALDO role revealed that Toynbee Hall’s history, legacy and impact in the East End is rich, inspiring and gound-breaking. However, accessiblity needs to be further developed and explored with more time and investment. The demand to access the archive and heritage of Toynbee Hall exceeded expectations. The uptake for the ASTD and the Schools workshop was indeed very quick. Since ASTD, there have been enquiries into when the next one will take place. The schools workshop could easily cope with a full class of 30-40 children, meaning Toynbee Hall could open the workshop to whole class visits. Relationships with local schools have been established and can be explored further.

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