Museums: Project Island

‘When looking at our local history, the focus had always been on the better-known places in our surrounding area, in our case Rochester with its connections to Charles Dickens, or ship building at the Royal Naval Dockyards. St Mary’s Island — the place where the children live and come to school often seemed insignificant in comparison. However, during Project Island, Year 3 children discovered that where they lived had a very interesting past indeed. Graveyards for French prisoners and nuclear submarines in particular provided some doorstep history just waiting to be explored. Based on this fascinating local history, my school teamed up with two local museums and decided that the outcome for the project would be for the children to become curators of their own permanent museum within the school.

Island history