Running an Educational Partnerships Scheme

Intended readers

Are you considering setting up an intergenerational learning project? Do you want to involve people with interesting life experiences in the educational activities you run? Are you planning activities about the Second World War or another historical event/anniversary? A small or large scale Partnerships Scheme, brokering contact between different social groups, may provide good opportunities for innovative project work.

Background

The Their Past Your Future Partnerships Scheme ran alongside Heroes Return, a funding programme enabling Second World War veterans to make commemorative visits to areas they served in overseas during the war. It aimed to encourage meaningful and learning-focussed interaction between young people and veterans. The scheme matched veterans with interested schools and young peoples’ groups throughout the UK. Their Past Your Future facilitated and initiated meetings between the two groups providing administrative support, and guidance on intergenerational learning.

Aims The aims of the Partnerships Scheme were: To encourage intergenerational activity in local settings, focussing on local people’s experiences during the war; To facilitate access to intergenerational learning for people who would not otherwise have the opportunity to work together; To create positive partnerships between young people and local veterans to be sustained beyond the life of the project.

For the veterans our intended learning outcomes were:

Skills Developing relationships with peers and with older and younger people, and developing skills to facilitate these relationships.

Values, Attitudes and Feelings A deeper sense of understanding for people of different ages, races, religious experiences and backgrounds to themselves, and a positive appreciation of diversity; An appreciation of their own, their family’s, or their community’s identity and past.

Activity, Behaviour and Progression Participating in commemorative, community events for the first time [in some cases].

For young people our intended learning outcomes were:

Knowledge and Understanding A deeper understanding of the variety and diversity of people’s experiences of war, and of the impact on their lives; An understanding that people’s experiences of war were individual and personal, and had a long term impact on their subsequent lives and environments.

Skills Developing relationships with peers and with older and younger people, and developing skills to facilitate these relationships; Developing skills to encourage learning in social, informal and personal ways.

Values, Attitudes and Feelings Valuing the sacrifice and contribution made by the veterans of the Second World War.

Why are community partnerships important?

Meeting with representatives of different social groups is fascinating, memorable and rewarding. It adds a dynamic dimension to finding out about the past and provides an opportunity for community members to share positive interaction. The Partnerships Scheme gave schools and young people the opportunity to meet people who remember living through the Second World War. This was important in the context of the 60th anniversary of the end of the war and the dwindling number of veterans available to share their memories first-hand

Nuts and bolts

Number of veterans (UK) that expressed an initial interest in working with schools	1,664
Number of veterans that registered for the scheme	529
Veterans matched with UK schools (by November 2005)	235
Number of schools that registered initial interest in the Partnerships Scheme	193 (approximately 50% primary and 50% secondary)
Number of schools that registered for the Partnerships Scheme	87

Partnerships Scheme Timeline

April 2004	Formulation of detailed project plans;
2004 (ongoing)	Partnerships Scheme information disseminated to veterans; Registrations of interest received from veterans; Guidelines for veterans and schools drawn up;
Nov 2004	Partnerships Scheme for schools, youth groups and veterans opens. Guidance and information published on project website;
March 2005	Emails advertising the Partnerships Scheme sent out to History and Citizenship teachers;
March-May 2005	Registrations for Partnerships Scheme from schools;
May-Nov 2005	Partnerships set up for school and youth groups around the UK with local veterans;
Sept 2005	The Response (1) project newsletter sent to veterans;
Dec 2005	Evaluation questionnaires sent to participating schools to obtain feedback on Partnerships Scheme;
Jan 2006	Partnerships Scheme closes;
Feb 2006	The Response (2) project newsletter sent to veterans;
Mar 2006	Approaches to Age Concern, Museum branches and CSV RSVP regional offices to provide veterans with advice on ongoing volunteering opportunities;
April 2006	Telephone interviews with a sample of Partnerships Scheme veterans for evaluation purposes;
April 2006	Final mail-out to Partnerships Scheme veterans with information on other intergenerational projects. Scheme closed.

What we did

Contacting veterans

• Contacted veterans via Heroes Return scheme mail-outs, and invited initial registrations of interest;
• Recorded veterans’ details on a specially prepared database;
• Made it clear that participation was entirely optional at any stage, and stressed educational benefits for veterans.

Providing guidance

• Consulted with the Centre for Intergenerational Practice;
• Wrote detailed guidelines for schools about working with veterans;
• Wrote detailed guidelines for veterans about working with schools;
• Trialled guidelines and secured sign-off by project partners.

Administration and logistics

• Made registration forms available on the project website;
• Matched partners on geographical proximity and suitability;
• Expanded database to record details of schools and youth groups and to record details of partnerships made.

Advertising

• Advertised to schools and youth groups on project website;
• Targeted email advertising at History and Citizenship teachers;
• Contributed to feature articles in teaching press.

Activities and events

• Tracked the range of activities - from VE Day celebrations or lessons about Remembrance, to long-term interview or film projects;
• Ran specific learning events utilising Partnerships Scheme veterans;
• Arranged an experimental email correspondence partnership for a primary school project combining History and ICT.

Monitoring and evaluation

• Distributed a monitoring form to record partnerships;
• Designed evaluative questionnaires for pupils and teachers;
• Devised telephone interview questions to evaluate veterans’ experiences.

Feedback

• Informed all veterans of wider project progress via a newsletter: The Response.

What worked?

• Most success was seen in areas with a large urban population.
• An average of 3 veterans per school or youth group worked well, based on ratios for intergenerational work taken from other projects (roughly one veteran per 8-10 students).
• Decisive factors for success were the enthusiasm of individual teachers, or individual veterans who were particularly skilful at engaging young people. Interestingly, these were often veterans who had never talked about their experiences in a group setting before.
• Veterans with props (photographs, uniforms or medals for instance) received a good response, particularly from younger children.
• Some very successful partnerships occurred where only one local veteran could be found; in such circumstances schools would often take the veteran to heart, leading to strong and lasting friendships.
• The email partnership project worked well administratively, and enabled veterans living in more remote areas to be involved.
• The newsletter allowed the project team to maintain contact with veterans, and to assure them their contributions were of great value to the Partnerships Scheme and the wider project.
• Museum-based events run by the partnerships team were important to help us test our own guidance, and feel connected to activities.

What did not work?

• It was not always possible to meet the specific requirements of partnership requests. Schools were given too much choice at the registration stage and could choose the sort of veteran they would like to meet, but there was no way of predicting which veterans would register from their area. Veterans were given the choice of visiting a primary or secondary school, but it was not always possible to achieve this.
• Difficulties were encountered in sparsely populated areas of the UK (e.g. parts of the North East) or rural areas with a high proportion of retired residents but fewer registered schools (e.g. Norfolk).
• Some individuals were very keen to take part but could not, due to a lack of local registered schools. For these veterans the scheme was frustrating; some did not understand that we could not match them to a local school unless the school approached us.
• It was not anticipated that many schools (particularly primary) cover Second World War history only in alternate years. This was a drawback as some schools registered several months in advance.
• The complex monitoring form designed to record details of partnerships was superfluous. Very few of the forms were returned, so most monitoring was carried out through letters and phone calls.

What would we do differently next time?

Intergenerational activities usually take place on a very local level. A national scheme administered from a single point is not an easy way to manage partnerships, or the most efficient method. The very nature of work involving dedicated volunteers and busy school-based partners means a heavy workload of communications for the project organiser. If there had been scope for regional coordinators in the Partnerships Scheme, that may have augmented the success of the project and partnership matches may have been secured for more veterans. However, if a project like this were to be carried out on a more local level, where ongoing personal communication with interested schools as well as veterans could be ensured, it would prove a great success and would be of great value to both the local community and the individuals involved.

Feedback quotes

“You hear such bad things about schools these days and I feared I was going to meet a bunch of yobs. But I couldn’t have been more impressed. I kept on talking and I thought I must be boring them. But every time I stopped, they just said carry on…After it was over they all shook our hands.” Al Cunningham, past president of the UK Canadian Veterans Association.

“The satisfaction, which not only I, but all of the veterans have experienced, has been most worthwhile as we have established a personal relationship with the pupils…It is rewarding to learn that events that took place sixty years ago should attract such enthusiastic attention.” Major A Mitchell, President, 99th Normandy Veterans Association (Newcastle-under-Lyme).

“I found it very enjoyable encounter with the young people and indeed their teachers. They were all prepared to take an intelligent interest in our reminiscences and were most courteous. I believe the media are grossly unfair to the young and I have faith in the great majority of today’s generation – and enjoy their company.” Major Douglas Goddard, MBE.

Downloads

• Partnership Guidelines for Schools and Young People
• Partnership Guidelines for Veterans
• Sample veteran partnerships letter
• Sample page Newsletter Sept 05
• Sample page Newsletter Feb 06
• Primary school partnerships evaluation form
• Senior school partnerships evaluation form
• Teacher partnerships evaluation form
• Telephone interview questions for veterans

Useful links

Age Concern Time Capsule website for shared memories
http://www.thetimecapsule.org.uk

Age Exchange (Lewisham, London)
http://www.age-exchange.org.uk

Centre for Intergenerational Practice
http://www.centreforip.org.uk

Evacuees Reunion Association
http://www.evacuees.ndonet.com

National Sound Archive (British Library)
http://www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/history.html

Oral History Society
http://www.ohs.org.uk

Sound Archive at the Imperial War Museum
(Visitor information and link to online search.)
http://collections.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00g007

St Dunstan’s (charity working with blind ex-servicemen and women)
http://www.st-dunstans.org.uk

The Royal British Legion schools service
http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/schools.asp

The Royal British Legion Scotland
http://www.rblscotland.org