Chichester's Novium Museum celebrates national award nomination for 'innovative' virtual field trips

A digital learning programme for primary school pupils, developed by the city's Novium Museum, has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award.
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The museum’s ‘Virtual Field Trips’ programme, which benefits primary school pupils across the Chichester District, has been shortlisted from more than 140 entries in the Digital Culture Awards’ ‘Content Creation and Distribution’ category.

The Digital Culture Awards — from Arts Council England’s Digital Culture Network — celebrate creativity, resilience and digital innovation of the arts and culture sector, and provide a chance to showcase and recognise the best in digital transformation, digital engagement and use of technology.

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The virtual field trips were developed by The Novium Museum in 2020 in response to the challenges faced by primary schools as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Chichester’s Novium Museum digital learning programme has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award.Chichester’s Novium Museum digital learning programme has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award.
Chichester’s Novium Museum digital learning programme has been shortlisted for a prestigious national award.

Bringing history to life with a combination of collection objects, actors and cross-curricular interactive activities, they are designed to bring high quality, engaging museum learning directly into the classroom.

Councillor Roy Briscoe, cabinet member for community services and culture at Chichester District Council, said: “This is a fantastic achievement for [the] museum.

“The Content Creation and Distribution category, for which the Virtual Field Trips programme has been shortlisted, celebrates creativity and innovative uses of digital technology to deliver cultural content, and the programme certainly delivers all of that and more.

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“Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the museum has embraced digital technology to keep Chichester’s history accessible to all.

The virtual field trips were developed by in 2020 in response to the challenges faced by primary schools as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.The virtual field trips were developed by in 2020 in response to the challenges faced by primary schools as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The virtual field trips were developed by in 2020 in response to the challenges faced by primary schools as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"In a time of continued uncertainty and challenges for schools everywhere, our Virtual Field Trip programme enables children to continue to benefit from our enriching learning programme and extensive museum collection without needing to leave their classrooms.

“The programme isn’t solely a digital offering either, as each virtual field trip comes with an option to access an accompanying loan box containing real and replica artefacts, providing real hands-on learning, as well as a virtual Chichester City tour.”

Tina Hill, senior manager of the Digital Culture Network, said: “The Content Creation and Distribution category was very highly subscribed (we received over 140 submissions) and Virtual Field Trips from The Novium Museum has been selected as one of our four final shortlisted projects.

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"We were incredibly impressed by the imagination and creativity in how the project brings physical museum field trips to children and young people virtually to support a wider curriculum during such a challenging time and in such an engaging way.”

The Novium Museum has been shortlisted alongside The Old Vic, Alexander Whitely Dance Company, and Open Clasp Theatre Company.

The winners will be announced at a virtual awards ceremony on January 20, 2022.

A series of Roman themed virtual field trips, including Roman Army, Roman Daily Life and Britain Before the Romans, aimed at children aged seven-11 years old are available to hire from The Novium Museum now. To find out more, visit: www.thenovium.org/vft.

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Information about The Novium Museum’s learning programme, including loan boxes, workshops, and Covid-secure measures, can be found online at: www.thenovium.org/learning or by emailing: [email protected]

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