The Academy is for children and young people with complex special educational needs and disabilities. Since 2016, the University’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GL&M) have collaborated with staff and students from the Oxford-based school to co-develop a programme of creative learning opportunities and project work based around the University’s collections.
The exhibition, ‘Curious about Calculation’, features a number of mathematics-based instruments in a museum standard display case including a Chinese abacus, Lightning Adding Machines, and a Britannic Calculating Machine from the HSM who are also loaning the display case long- term.
Iffley Academy & HSM Display Case – Mrs Daphne James (left) shows Dr Silke Ackermann around the Dali Classroom exhibition (c) Ian Wallman
Wall panels and labels were co-created in an ‘Easy Read’ style which presents text in an accessible, easy to understand layout. It is a widely-acclaimed method of inclusive explanation and interpretation and increasingly adopted by museums and galleries to help people with learning difficulties and also for those with other conditions that affect how they process information.
Iffley Academy & HSM Display Case – HSM Learning Producer Christopher Parking demonstrates an old money adding machine (c) Ian Wallman
The students also extended the exhibition to their classroom illustrating all the additional knowledge absorbed and research undertaken to deliver ‘Curious about Calculation’, including interviewing Dr Ackermann. This allowed other pupils from the Academy to benefit by visiting and participating in hands on presentations given by Dali Class.
The Iffley Academy Partnership is led by the University’s GL&M Arts Engagement officer Miranda Millward and senior staff at the school. As Miranda explains:
“It’s designed to familiarise students with cultural venues in an accessible way and then facilitate their participation in creative projects. Previously, we have worked successfully with the Ashmolean’s Pompeii and the Bodleian’s North Sea Crossing exhibitions. And we plan to continue the programme with other GL&M venues to co-curate exhibitions with Iffley Academy along different themes.”
Iffley Academy & HSM Display Case – Old Money (Dali Class presentation) (c) Ian Wallman
Dali Class pupil Yacine talked through the objects on display at the unveiling last week in front of an audience including Dr Ackermann, Miranda and the key staff and pupils involved from HSM and Iffley Academy.
“We liked an old Chinese abacus with its place value columns. It can count really big numbers and we set it to one million. We put it next to a modern-day classroom abacus with each row showing the different ways you can make ten. We put two Lightning Adding Machines into the case – one assembled, one not, to reveal how it works inside. It was made and used in the USA as two of the dials say ‘dollars’ and ‘cents’.
Tom Procter-Legg, Head Teacher, Iffley Academy, added:
“This project has made a significant and sustained impact on both the school as a whole, individual teachers and on students. It has been recognised as an essential vehicle for school improvement and we look forward to continuing to work with Oxford’s Gardens, Museums and Libraries on similar projects to inspire our students.”
Since the Iffley School Partnership was established, over 300 students have achieved an Arts Award qualification and a greater understanding of potential careers within the cultural sector.
