Attainment through Archaeology

This project was led by Rebecca Barclay, Heritage Training Officer at Archaeology Scotland. Achievement Through Archaeology is a program to develop skills and employability for young people. The aims are to help them connect and engage with their own local heritage to promote further learning and discover real world skills they perhaps did not realise they had.

Working outdoors on real sites helps health and well being as well as providing an alternative environment to the school classroom. In the wake of Covid restrictions the plan developed to work with whole class groups as well as smaller sessions with young people with additional support needs.

These may range from confidence issues through attendance to more complex issues like ADHD. Not every child thrives in a classroom environment.

The program supports collaborative working in teams as well as individual responsibility and strives to promote creativity through experience.

Practical examples of theoretical subjects like Maths and History are often better understood and so are more appealing when experienced in the real world. Mapping out the graveyard at Ochiltree Old Cemetery and using mathematical formulas to convert real world measurements to an accurate scale plan that would fit on a piece of paper is just one such example.

"I think one of the things that's quite nice about archaeology is that you don't get to experience it in school or everyday life. If someone brings that opportunity to you, people get quite excited about it. I mean it is not all Time Team or Indiana Jones, it's not quite that exciting, but with everyone working in a team it brings people together quite nicely. People get quite a lot from teamwork. We have had people on sites from primary school to people in their seventies solving mysteries together I guess is a great thing."

The work of the project will be written up and published online at Journal of Discovery and Excavation in Scotland. There it will be accessible to historians and anyone seeking information for their family tree for example.

"We had a lovely video made by the Robert Burns Academy supported learning Centre. For me it was amazing to see the change in the kids from the start of the project to the end of the project. You start off with a quiet group that don't really want to speak to you, they're quite shy and by the end they have produced a video that will be shown at the celebration event." - Attainment through Archaeology: Exploring Cumnock

The projects were shaped around individual groups and for different schools. There were single day taster events and five, day long sessions that could be spread out or experienced over a week depending on timetable availability.

Other activities involved exploring prehistoric rock art to find traces of ancient dwellings or creating their own art. Inspiration was drawn from those carvings or imagined animals that may have roamed the area in Neolithic times such as Beaver and Bears.

"The soundscape and the landscape could have been quite different if beavers had dammed the river for example. We used Neolithic mindfulness to help stimulate their imagination. The sessions were very popular, we had kids with attendance problems turning up every week. Some of them were even absent from classes while they were actually within the school but would show up for these sessions. It is a different environment, a relaxed small group really brings out the best in some people. We even had one girl who said she now quite fancies being an archaeologist so that's fantastic"

The sessions proved so popular that the project exceeded the delivery target by around 50% in terms of sessions delivered and pupils engaged.

As for hopes for the future:

"We hope that the kids have a new understanding of the historic environment in their local area. That they will continue to appreciate it and look after it and for what their heritage will be in the future. Hopefully we have inspired a few future archaeologists! Hopefully the kids will benefit for although the project is archaeology based, that's not what it is about. It is about young people and development of their wider skills, hopefully they have got quite a lot from that."

Other short films available are:
Attainment through Archaeology: Ochiltree Dig