An Array of Audiences

This week has been a little hectic, but has been a demonstration of some of the audiences that we are engaging with on the Richard III Project.

Monday began with a visit to Humberstone Primary School, where two Year 5 classes, showed me their work on Richard III.  It was wonderful to see how imaginative and engaged the children were with the subject.  They re-enacted the key events during the Battle of Bosworth, showed me persuasive writing on where they thought he should be reburied (which included a case for York to be fair to both sides), and also their designs for tiles similar to the ones found in the Church of the Grey Friars.    In return I told them about the archaeological dig and answered their questions to fill in any gaps in their knowledge.  It was a great example of a cross curricular project in practice and I saw the schools resources we have produced in the classroom setting.

Tuesday night was very different, it ended with a trip to Burton on Trent to talk to the Burton Stoke Club.  This was a more straight forward talk (if there is such a thing).  I presented and answered questions about the project.   One lady told me a story about her father working on the buses in Leicester and that they referred to the car park as King Dick’s Yard during the 1930s.  I will have to look into this one further!

Thursday afternoon was different again, and a trial of a new idea.  Myself and two students went to the Latimer Arts College in Kettering and spoke to a couple of different classes.  Firstly I spoke about the project as a whole to the year 10 and 11 history students.   This was to demonstrate how different subjects at university interact and how interests and academic subjects can be used on interdisciplinary projects.   The second and third talks were by my two student volunteers, Karen and Katherine, to a small group of A Level students.  Karen spoke about excavating human remains and how objects can tell us facts about history and the area being excavated.  Katherine, spoke about weapons and the role of engineering in determining what made marks on bone.    I think the student talks went well, we will definitely be doing it again for other schools.

And finally this morning, a meeting (so not quite an audience) at Leicestershire County Hall to discuss plans for commemorating the Centenary of the Great War (not really Richard III either!).

This week has just gone to demonstrate the wide range of people we are working with, providing resources to and sharing information.   Not all audiences have the same requirements, level of knowledge or interests, but we do out best to meet their requirements.