Learning Resources
For anyone who wants to do their own self guided sessions at the museum.
We offer a range of Session Plans for use alongside or in place of a visit to the Museum. These sessions have been specifically designed to meet the needs of the National Curriculum. In particular, they provide cross-curricular creative learning across History, Art, English and Science. These are available for downloading using the links below.
There are also a number of resources available for you to use at home, in your classroom, or with your community group. You can find these at the bottom of this page.
Session Plans
Age 6-8
Drama session: This activity focuses on the ability to empathise and explores the reaction of the local people to the burns patients at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead.
Faces Activity: In this activity participants will explore what makes people unique and how everyone looks different while putting it in context with the story of the injured airmen during World War Two.
Feely bags Activity : This builds on empathy while encouraging participants to think about what it would be like to lose your vision.
Hands Activity : Similar to the feely bags activity above, this activity builds empathy but instead of sight, focuses on touch/dexterity. This relates to the injuries suffered by Second World War pilots which were often worse on the hands.
Age 7-11
Drama session: This session explores the idea of East Grinstead as the Town that Didn't Stare through drama.
Molly's Medical Drawings: This activity combines art and history by focusing on the story of Molly Lentaigne, a voluntary nurse who recorded McIndoe's work in the Operating Theatre.
Rebuilding Faces Session: In this workshop, participants will create a caricature of themselves and reflect on what makes them unique.
Age 12-16
The Good, the bad and the Ugly: This creative activity will encourage students to explore different ways of creating images with pencil, charcoal and collage.
Resources
- The Town That Didn't Stare Presentation. This presentation covers the story of the aircrew, their injuries and their journey to recovery under the care of McIndoe and his team. This is most suitable for Key Stage 1-2. Available to download here, with the script/more information here.
- McIndoe The Maestro Presentation. This presentation also covers the story of McIndoe and the Guinea Pig Club but is tailored towards Key Stage 3-4. Available to download here.
- McIndoe and the Guinea Pigs Quiz. This quiz covers some of the key aspects of the McIndoe story. Available to download here, with the answers here.
- True or False. This activity is designed to get people thinking about the topic in a different way. The quiz can be found here and the answers here.
- Wordsearch. We have put together four options to keep your groups occupied. Available in Easy, Medium, Hard and Very Hard.