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BRITISH POSTAL MUSEUM & ARCHIVE VOLUNTEER LANDS NATIONAL AWARD FOR MUSEUM LEARNING
11 July 2013
The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) is delighted to announce that volunteer Erene Grieve has been jointly-awarded The British Museum and Marsh Christian Trust’s national volunteer award for museum learning 2012.
Erene, who lives in Pembrokeshire, won the London regional award in May and was jointly presented with the national award during a ceremony at the British Museum on Monday 8 July for her unique ‘Stamps in Schools’ project. A retired
teacher and lifelong stamp collector, Erene runs Stamps in Schools with support from the BPMA, based in Central London. In 2012, she delivered 26 workshops across the United Kingdom.
Stamps in Schools takes the form of ‘stamp days’ in Primary schools, introducing pupils to the fascinating history of stamps and the idea of starting their own stamp collection. Items including original Penny Black stamps are used to illustrate the important role that stamps and the postal service has played in
shaping Britain. The workshop transcends curriculum subjects including maths, geography and history to tell the story of the post from Victorian times to present day. The project is received enthusiastically, and often changes opinions on stamp collecting.
Stamps in Schools has brought major benefits to the BPMA, allowing the organisation to work with a larger number of schools – the project itself reaches 1500-2000 pupils annually – and is a valuable partner programme to its London-based
school offer. Currently in the midst of a £22.4m fundraising project to build a new museum with educational and research facilities in Central London, the BPMA relies on projects such as Stamps in Schools to enable pupils across the country to engage with objects from the museum collection in a fun and
informative way. The Stamps in Schools project relies on generous donations and was supported in 2012 by a gift following the winding up of the philatelic group, The Friends of Thematica.
Adrian Steel, Director at the BPMA said, “I’d like to congratulate Erene on her hard work over the past few years and the passion and dedication that she shows in taking this project to ever-increasing numbers of schools and pupils and
telling the fascinating story of Britain’s postal past. Erene’s award is more than deserved and I look forward to continuing to work with her over the coming years to further grow Stamps in Schools and the BPMA’s wider educational offer.”
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