Pupils plot future Scapa Flow Museum education space

A Museum charting how the remote island of Hoy in Orkney became the hub of the UK’s largest Naval base in WWI and II is working with local school children to fire the imagination of young people who visit, as it undergoes extensive refurbishment.

School pupils from North Walls School will be the first members of the public to visit the Scapa Flow Museum construction site next Friday (28 May), as they step into the role of consultants for the Museum’s new proposed education space.

Scapa Flow Museum explores Orkney’s military involvement in the First and Second World Wars – from remote Scottish island to booming military base with around 40,000 personnel at its peak. The Museum provides a safe home for a major collection of wartime artefacts, many of national and international importance.

The pupils will be telling staff from the Museum and from the Council’s Arts Development service, and representatives from building contractors Orkney Builders (Contractors) Ltd, what resources children their age would need to use the space as a ‘base camp’ for starting ideas and projects, and regathering to look over their evidence and research.

The flexible education space will be created within an extension to the Museum currently under construction as part of a £4.4m refurbishment of the facility supported chiefly by Orkney Islands Council and Heritage Fund. The project also includes extensive new gallery space and shop, a modern café, and much needed conservation works on the historic Pumphouse - a building which received and distributed oil to the Royal Navy fleet stationed in the sheltered natural harbour of Scapa Flow.

Fridays’ consultancy workshop will lay the foundations for an educational partnership between the school and the Museum where North Walls pupils will become interpreters of the Museum for their peers, with upper stage pupils revisiting, reviewing and refreshing the space each year as part of their curriculum.

Emma Gee is the Council’s Arts Development Officer and will be helping facilitate the workshop: “The Museum team wanted to get the local school pupils involved in the life of the Museum now, when they can have an impact on the how the Museum caters for their peers – whether that’s future visits from school children, or children who come as tourists or visitors with their families.

“As members of the local community the children have unique memories through generations of the history captured in the Scapa Flow Museum. The workshop and partnership with pupils is just one way the Museum is going to be engaging with local people to ensure the Museum captures that richness so local people can feel it is a meaningful part of their lives and their story as a community.”

When completed, the Museum’s flexible education space will provide a research and collaboration space within easy walking distance of the school.

Shirley Stuart is Head Teacher at North Walls School: “All the staff involved are very excited to see what the pupils recommend – we’re very much just in the background as facilitators. The pupils are already very excited about the investment in the Museum and the benefits it will bring to them as pupils and as members of the community, and are bursting to help tell the story of their island’s role in World Wars to their peers.”

Councillor Gwenda Shearer is Chair of Orkney Islands Council’s Education, Leisure and Housing Committee: “I very much look forward to seeing the results of the pupil’s consultancy work. This aspect of the Scapa Flow Museum redevelopment is a fine example of the creative ways the Council and communities can work together to ensure services and facilities are truly supporting the beating heart of our communities.”

Meantime, Visitor Services Officer for Scapa Flow Museum, Jude Callister - also a local community member - has set up an office in the North Walls Primary School, giving pupils added access to her expertise as their work with the Council’s Arts Development Officer Emma Gee on materials for other children visiting the museum continues to takes shape.

Scapa Flow Museum extension and pumphouse refurbishment are supported by Orkney Islands Council, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Historic Environment Scotland, the Orkney LEADER 2014-2020 programme, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Museums Galleries Scotland, and the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, managed by NatureScot through the Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund. (The Natural & Cultural Heritage Fund is part of the Scottish Government’s European Regional Development Fund programme, which finishes in 2023. NatureScot is also managing another element of the programme – the Green Infrastructure Fund. The Scottish Government is the Managing Authority for the European Regional Development Fund and the European Structural Funds 2014-20 Programme. For further information visit the Scottish Government website or follow @scotgovESIF.)

Building work is expected to be completed in September 2021. Thereafter, the following months will involve installing exhibition fittings and carefully putting objects in place, with an anticipated re-opening scheduled for early 2022.

The Scapa Flow Museum previously attracted 14,000 visitors each year. It’s anticipated visitor numbers will increase as a result of the ambitious and extensive changes and upgrades.

The Museum’s role is to chart Orkney’s military involvement in the First and Second World Wars and provide a safe home for a major collection of wartime artefacts, many of national and international importance.

When complete, the Museum will open all-year-round for the first time in many years, encouraging more people to visit Hoy and boosting tourism throughout the island.