Success of Education Syndicates East Midlands project is celebrated by the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law, at the Galleries of Justice Museum, Nottingham.
On 24 June 2014, Nottingham’s Galleries of Justice Museum hosted a showcase event for the Heritage Lottery Fund financed Public Legal Education Syndicate (PLES) East Midlands Project. The project, initiated by Egalitarian Trust CEO, Tim Desmond, had the aim of increasing access for schools to legal heritage sites, and delivering citizenship-based education, as has been pioneered at the Galleries of Justice Museum for two decades, by the National Centre for Citizenship and the Law (NCCL), the Egalitarian Trust’s education arm.
The sessions, delivered at a ‘cluster’ of regional host sites with historic courtrooms – Northamptonshire Sessions House, Leicester Town Hall and Oakham Castle – were created and facilitated by 13 student interns from Nottingham Trent University and Stratford Upon Avon College, leading to increased skills and employability, as well as formal qualifications.
The delivery phase of the project concluded on 30 June, with sessions delivered to children from 25 schools across the region since they began in Northampton, in March. Teacher feedback has been enthusiastic at every session, and there is clearly a demand for this type of education provision at local heritage sites.
The Education Syndicate concept, created by Tim Desmond, is about collaborative working to achieve joint objectives. Legal heritage sites who do not have their own education programme, and perhaps do not have the expertise or budget to create one, can work with the NCCL to develop and deliver sessions that fit NCCL’s mission of inspiring young people through citizenship education and also increase access to the host site. The HLF funded East Midlands project proves that the model works, as was demonstrated to those present at the very positive showcase evening. The next step is to take it forward, beyond the initial HLF funding, to new host sites and to involve new groups of students in this innovative initiative.
Find out more
For more information about the PLES East Midlands Project, please contact the Project Coordinator, Rebecca Buck: rebecca@nccl.org.uk
For more information about the work of NCCL and the Egalitarian Trust, including the future of Education Syndicates, please contact NCCL’s Executive Director, Pollie Shorthouse pollie.shorthouse@nccl.org.uk
To find our more about NCCL: www.nccl.org.uk Twitter: @ncclinspiring
