The National Archives’ Education & Outreach team is marking the 75th anniversary of the NHS with an innovative new project to engage young people with NHS history. Working with leading community project Anstee Bridge, our team is bringing together young people and a professional artist to explore our historic collection in new ways. Rachel Hillman, Deputy Head of Education & Outreach, explains more.
What are we planning for NHS 75?
We saw the 75th anniversary of the NHS as the ideal opportunity to work with teenage students. The NHS is something we all use and have experience of, but not many in this age group will know the history of how it was created and developed. Our archival collections tell this story really well through primary sources, particularly the film and poster archives, which are really engaging for younger audiences.
Why are we working with Anstee Bridge?
The Outreach and Education team have worked with a community organisation called Anstee Bridge since 2018, using our records in creative ways to build engagement with their students. As part of our young people’s programming, we aim to welcome young people of all backgrounds and abilities and hope to make The National Archives a place that is accessible, exciting, and relevant to them and their lives. It’s wonderful to see young people’s enthusiasm and knowledge grow during the project and to see our historic collections so well used.
Who are Anstee Bridge?
Anstee Bridge in Kingston Upon Thames is a project that helps young people to build confidence and resilience and to re-engage with education through creativity. Anstee Bridge supports schools to help them meet the needs of Year 11 students who need an alternative to school to encourage them to engage with education. They work with 14-16 year olds who have social, emotional, and mental health issues and who have lost confidence in education.
Students are referred by local schools and spend one day a week at Anstee, following an alternative, creative curriculum, that builds their confidence, provides them with emotional support and helps them to re-engage with education.
This partnership allows The National Archives to make history more accessible and show the creativity that can come from our collection.
What is our project about?
Through a series of creative workshops, Anstee Bridge’s young people will learn about the start of the NHS through original records, such as recruitment posters and uniform designs. They will then create a ‘pop-up exhibition’ and a fashion show that will be showcased at The National Archives in December 2023.
What will be the legacy of this project?
It’s so important to us that there will also be a long-lasting legacy for this project, so the benefits continue after we finish working with this set of young people. An online resource and toolkit will provide digitised copies of the archive records that have inspired the students, a short film about the project, and guidance for educators who would like to deliver their own creative projects inspired by archive material.
How can people find out more?
The showcase event for the project will be held at The National Archives on Thursday 7 December, and the accompanying exhibition will be available onsite at Kew throughout December. We will also be publishing the toolkit and resources on our website – so check the education pages for updates. If you want to get in touch with our education team, please contact us, we’d love to hear from teachers and educators and especially students!