V&A Museum
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Kids take over V&A Museum of Childhood for first time in its 145 year history

By press officers Ruby, aged 10 and Thomas, aged 9. Main Image: Takover Day kids with Rushanara Ali, Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow

The V&A Museum of Childhood’s Takeover Day invited Globe Primary school students to take on a number of roles across the Museum, including leading tours, answering the phones, talking to builders, deciding on acquisitions and organising the archive.

All students were asked to apply for their preferred roles and completed a day’s training in advance of the Takeover.

Today, the students of Globe Primary School took over the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green for the first time ever. All the students have been split up into groups around all areas of the museum. The museum organised this to find out about how children would like the Museum to be changed and get even better.

The students said that they want the front doors to be gold and to give out presents and sandwiches for when people arrive. Also some students want to bring back the WW2 toys although most people enjoy the Museum the way it is now. Notable visitors included Rushanara Ali, Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow. The Directors gave her a VIP tour and introduced her to the different teams.

Museum of Childhood Directorate Team, said: “We love the museum the way it is. But one of the ways we think more people would visit would be to have an exciting new toy on display. For example, like Michael Morpurgo: a lifetime in stories exhibition which has Joey the war horse puppet. Better banners to entice people to come in (advertising) would be good. Also we think the toy shop is really attractive and bubbles are only £2.50, which helps everyone EMBRACE THEIR INNER CHILD!!!”

People have had different jobs across the Museum. Some of the shop assistants made price tags. Curators have been looking after objects and learning how to handle them. The directors have been overseeing the museum and had a radio interview. One of the meet and greeters used a clicker to count how many people visited. Also archivists gave talks about the board games in the Museum.