'Heritage for all' gets tops marks from learners

A project report has recently been released for the award-winning Heritage Education for All (HEFA) Project in the South West of England. The WEA's South West Region joined forces with the National Trust Wessex Region to run the project, which was funded over three years by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

HEFA succeeded in attracting over 500 learners to a range of courses held at fourteen National Trust properties in the South West, and in its primary aim to develop and deliver inclusive heritage courses for both disabled and non-disabled people.

The response from students who went on HEFA courses has been overwhelmingly positive, with over 91% of the students saying they enjoyed their course 'very much', and 93% of those who had not previously visited the heritage site or property of their course promising to return as an independent visitor.

Students on the photography course get to grips with their digital cameras at Tyntesfield House.

In addition to being well-received by participants on the course, there have been positive developments for the WEA and the National Trust as a result of the project:

• WEA South West has developed expertise in running inclusive heritage courses, and nine courses have been continued from HEFA into mainstream WEA education provision. This expertise and contacts developed with organisations in the field have already led to an increase in the number of disabled people attending WEA courses across the Region.
• An inclusive learning pack and Course Access Requirement Questionnaire have been developed to help WEA tutors and staff identify, plan for and respond to support needs before and during courses.
• National Trust staff and volunteers received training in inclusive teaching methods and disability equality issues, which have helped change attitudes and create awareness of the needs of disabled people at National Trust sites. WEA Tutors have also benefited from this training. The commitment of both organisations' staff to reach out to new audiences and to remove barriers to learning was crucial to the success of the project.

The nature of the project meant that the types of course on offer were diverse in subject matter and location, as the following examples show.

Students are treated to a demonstration in the kitchen of one of the heritage houses.

Practical Art at Avebury
A group including non disabled people, people with learning difficulties, people with hearing loss, people with mobility issues and people with sight loss visited the Study Centre at Avebury. They were encouraged to use all the senses to experience the ancient stones there, and made a variety of pieces of art that were later displayed in the Avebury Barn.

Archaeology at Chedworth Roman Villa
The group at this site ranged in age from people in their 20s to some in their 70s, and half of the students were either blind or had a visual impairment. Touch was incorporated into all the activities, which involved excavation, description and touch of finds from the site and an oral description of the Villa and its history.

Digital Photography at Tyntesfield House
This three-day course included a one-day site visit to Tyntesfield and two days spent learning how to use digital cameras and how to manipulate and print images from them using computers. The course included learners with mobility issues, manual dexterity issues and mental health issues, as well as non disabled people.

Staff working on the project collected feedback from the course participants at the end of the project, and the comments shown below reflect the positive experiences and views expressed by many of the students:

"I was terrified of the first course, look forward to coming now".

"It was a great challenge for me, I enjoyed every minute".

"This has given me the confidence to go on other courses.

"I met very interesting people who I would not have had the opportunity to meet in my every day life. It taught me to be aware of others needs and put them above my own".

For more details of the HEFA project or a full copy of the Project Report, please contact Julie Cable-Searle at WEA South West Region on 0177 9166 500 or by e-mailing: jcable@wea.org.uk