Our work with schools

One of the most encouraging signs of recovery this year has been the return of face to face education sessions in the archive searchroom, after several years of online-onlyactivity with schools.

The first school to visit the archives since the pandemic was Gowerton Primary School which booked four sessions in October and November to study the Elba Colliery disaster of 1905, which killed eleven Gowerton men. Apart from Gowerton, schools using the service this year have included Bryn Tawe, Clydach, Cwmrhydyceirw, Pen-y-bryn, St Thomas, Tirdeunawand Townhill.

A total of 505 pupils engaged with the service in 2022/23.

The Archive Service joined in an all-Wales bid for funds from the Anti-racist Wales Culture Heritage and Sport Fund, which was successful.

The work will consist of two workstreams – a search for outdated terminology in our catalogues and raising staff awareness of racism. Sadly, a third workstream for the digitisation and web-mounting of archival material relating to Wales’ links to the historic transatlantic slave trade failed to gain funding.

Archive staff have also been in involved in discussions about the use of archives to meet the needs of the new Curriculum forWales in teaching pupils howto research their local area. The first phase of this project will involve selected primary schools using archival resources atWGAS to develop a research question and start theirresearch.WGAS will produce a videofor them on how to get started. In the second phase, it is envisaged that the primaries will work with their associated secondary schools to develop a shared understanding of their local area and how it has developed over time. In the third phase, the schools will produce a video or other record of theirprimary/secondary school collaborative journey.