Use this Page to…
- Discover different ways to contact educators to promote your schools offer.
- Find a list of useful contact types.
- Understand ways to advocate for your offer.
- Learn tips on how to work collaboratively with teachers and educators.
Tips for making Contact:
Use existing relationships:
- Your archive or team members may already have ties to local schools or individual teachers.
Direct outreach to educators:
- Start by researching local schools and emailing Heads of Departments with a brief, engaging pitch. Also, do consider that some times of the year are particularly busy, for instance, it is best to avoid making contact at the start of the school year or during exams (generally held in May).
Take part in school career days or library visits:
- You could also organise a school’s open day to showcase your collections and better understand schools’ requirements. You could set up stalls, give talks, arrange pop-up displays, and offer drop-in sessions.
Find out about large teacher training days that bring together staff from multiple schools:
- For example, the Unity Schools Partnership in the East of England hosts an annual event where all its teachers attend and participate in hundreds of sessions.
Make use of local and regional educational networks:
- For example, check whether you have access to a Local Cultural Educational Partnership (LCEP), which can help you connect with schools and cultural and heritage organisations.
Look into local teacher training programmes like PGCE or SCITT:
- Run a session for trainee teachers and educators on using archives, encouraging them to consider archives as learning resources early on.
Build an email list:
- This lets teachers easily join via your website or at events such as workshops and training programmes. Use the list to share updates about resources, visit options, and teachers.
Useful Contacts:
Within Schools….
- Specific teachers you or team members may already know
- Heads of Departments
- School Librarians and Archivists
- School Careers Advisors
Within Local Authorities…
- School Liaison Officers. Through their existing networks, they can connect schools with archive services. For instance, they can become Archives Champions.
- Youth Groups
- Local School Hubs Regional & National Hubs
Within the Archives sector…
- The Archives for Learning and Education Section (ALES) has produced a document that lists learning organisations and networks, and links to free online educational resources, funding and teaching tools.
Advocacy
- Prepare well and understand what you want to communicate. Whether you want to tailor a program that engages students with the local area’s history or develop a resource for teachers to use in the classroom, keep the message specific and simple. If resources are limited, focus on delivering a pilot creative project to one or two schools to build relationships before scaling up your program.
- Research funding opportunities such as The National Archives’ Engagement and Archives Revealed grants and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
- Collaborate with local repositories. Working together with local repositories presents an excellent opportunity to engage teachers and promote the value of archives in education. One effective approach is to organise a ‘Know Your Local Collections Day’ specifically for teachers
- Keep your contacts informed. Ensure you update your contacts on the service’s activities to reduce misunderstandings and strengthen support. Moreover, ensure that every member of the archive team has a basic understanding of your school’s offerings. This way, whenever they interact with teachers in the search room or at outreach events, they can confidently promote the archive.
Developing a schools program for your archive isn’t a one- size-fits-all process. Stay flexible and adaptable, keeping in mind your archive’s mission and goals as well as available staff time, resources, and budget
Working with Teachers
Adopt a collaborative approach:
- Let teachers share their needs and discuss how to integrate them into your schools offer. This sets a foundation for building long-term relationships.
- Gather quotes or testimonials from teachers and students to showcase your service’s benefits for use in marketing materials.
Promotional resources could include:
- Online resources, which may include both those hosted on your archive’s website and those published on widely accessed external platforms, such as the Times Educational Supplement Resources website.
- Printed material such as flyers, postcards, bookmarks and leaflets to distribute to schools, community centres, and at events. A clear, accessible webpage detailing your offer and providing contact information for learning providers.
Engaging with teachers can help integrate archive collections into the curriculum by developing learning resources that meet Key Stage requirements or state standards.
Archives also support broader educational goals by exploring topics like local history and community cohesion. For example, a teacher used archives to connect students with local history, enhancing their understanding of the community’s impact.
“As an English teacher, I am teaching students to interact and communicate with the world around them and its history. Utilising archives offers an interest point for students who often struggle to connect with the standard syllabus. For a lesson on Pals battalions, I looked to the archives for records of the Accrington Pals to help students really see the impact on everyday people near where my students are growing up. Lessons like these help students connect to the texts and information they are studying, but also the community around them and before them.”
– Rachel Smith
One in a Series….
This resource is the third in a series designed to encourage and support archives in collaborating with the education sector. The series consists of the following resources:
1- Why your Archive should Work with Young People
2- Archives as an Educational Tool
3- Ways to Contact Educators
4- Case Study
5- Additional Resources