// Tamworth Castle News

Project: Remote Educational Programme Development (KS 1 to 4) at Tamworth Castle

Client: Tamworth Borough Council

Partners: Simon White, Naresh Kaushal, TGACom, Kezi Gardom

Start: A brief to adapt and translate the award winning on-site educational offer at Tamworth Castle into a new Remote Educational Programme – a suite of original and high quality media, resources, and lesson plans, for Key Stage 1 to 4

this great adventure & co. were commissioned to develop the new AR trail app, Tamworth AR Explorer, as well as to develop this brand new online educational offer for schools and home learners // new revenue stream for Tamworth Castle

To deliver this project we brought an exciting team together, including educator and education consultant, Simon White, artist and film maker, Naresh Kaushal, with content planning, scripting, and production experts, TGAC and Kezi Gardom

Journey: Starting with a detailed review and analysis of the existing on-site educational offer at Tamworth Castle, we developed a concept and approach that would maximise our ability to capture that great information and those experiences working with in-house talent wherever possible

The concept revolves around the idea of a fictional news agency, Tamworth Castle News, who are ‘Reporting on 1,000 years of history’. This enabled us to adapt the character pieces that Castle staff have developed over time and delivered successfully for years, as well as working with local historical reenactors to create new pieces and introduce new characters

Because different age groups need and expect different types of content, this reporter-style approach needed to be flexible. Working with Simon, Naresh, TGAC, and Kezi, we developed a strategy that enabled us to ‘dial up’ or ‘dial down’ the conceit, depending on the age and type of engagement with the content that would be needed for different age groups

For example, for younger years the actors were recorded in-character to bring different periods of history to life. For older years, actors in costume could speak about the character they were playing and the life and times they were from

For the older year groups, we did something a little different. For the Crime & Punishment theme, we reached out to two lecturers at Royal Holloway University of London, Dr. David Yuratich and Dr. Lawrence Newport – specialists in Law and History and the history of the law. We had several preparation sessions to better understand their research and explore core themes for the learning materials. After this, we recorded video interviews and conversations with David and Lawrence, which form the core media for Key Stage 4 students.

Similarly, for Buildings Through Time, we worked with Linda Baker, the Head of Education at the Castle, to capture some of her knowledge about this building, a rare example of an in-tact and continuously occupied Norman castle, and how it has developed over time

Destination:

From Castle Keep to the classroom for the first time – Tamworth Castle Remote Educational Programme – a new suite of high quality media and materials for Key Stages 1 to 4

• Coherent and Flexible: Developing educational materials across age groups requires a coherent, flexible and accessible approach to tie it together. The Tamworth Castle News concept can be ‘dialled up’ or ‘dialled down’ for different age groups, depending on the needs and expectation of the students and teachers – it also enables new media to be created in future that can work with and push the limits of this conceit, for example, special reports, citizen journalism, and school-led projects

• Working with in-house talent: Many heritage organisations and museums already deliver great on-site learning offers and experiences. Our strategy was to make the most of the existing knowledge and practise at Tamworth Castle, which is consistently popular, by working closely with the educational and visitor teams to adapt and capture their character pieces as short films that share some of the insights and knowledge they have developed over years

• Bricks and clicks: Tamworth is a unique historic site and one of England’s oldest buildings (possibly the oldest one still with a roof). This new online Remote Educational Programme is designed to complement and not replace the on-site visitor and educational offer. By linking the new educational programme with free ticket offers for students, special offers for home learners, and the potential for future on-site events and programming (when the rules allow), this new offer seeks to effect greater coherence and cross-promotion between Tamworth’s online presence and engagement, and their on-site offerings

This new offering will be available soon via Tamworth Castle’s main website.