John Roxborough is a Learning and Engagement Coordinator in our University Library and Collections Department.
The Learning and Engagement team offers interactive taught programmes and events for schools, community groups, families and lifelong learners centred on objects, artworks, archives and rare books in our incredible collections.
Dialogue caught up with John to find out more about the work and a recent trip to a County Durham primary school.
Tell us a bit about the Learning and Engagement Team and the work you do.
Using the amazing collections we have here in Durham, the University Library and Collections (ULC) Learning and Engagement team works with schools, community groups, students and the wider public. We can often be found teaching in venues like the Oriental Museum, Durham Castle, the University art collection, our archives and Historic Libraries, the Museum of Archaeology and Bill Bryson Library. We also run huge community occasions like Holi and get out into schools ranging from Wooler to Whitby.
Earlier this year, you attended a primary school in Lanchester to talk about Ancient Egypt. Tell us about that visit.
As we usually work with over 18,000 children every year, we've developed some good links with the teaching community in the North East. Lanchester Endowed Parochial Primary School has worked with us many times over the years, and it was lovely to get out into the school to run our most popular session on Ancient Egypt with both of their year five classes. The fact that my eldest child was in one of the classes, did add a certain pressure!
What were the children’s reactions to your presentation/talk?
Waltzing into a classroom and handing over some real ancient Egyptian artefacts for the children to hold, always elicits an enthusiastic response. Add to that, the promise that you’ll mummify one of them at the end of the day and you usually have their complete attention.
What is your favourite thing about going into schools?
Since we go out to schools as well as having schools come into our venues in Durham, I’m going to say my favourite thing is the involuntary noise that children make when they walk into an incredible space. I partly do this job because of the amazing trips I had as a child to museums and castles, and I always feel compelled to give every person the same opportunity to experience that same sense of awe and wonder when they walk in.
What do you take away from these visits?
There are moments when everything clicks. The kids are interested, the teachers are having fun, my terrible jokes get a laugh, and you realise that this is going to be a brilliant day. It’s a sense that what you're doing today may live long in that child’s memory and you had better deliver the best trip they’ll ever go on!
Away from work, what does a perfect day off look like?
My standard Sunday has slowly, over time, approached perfection. Making breakfast pancakes with my children and then escaping to Durham Amateur Rowing Club for a 12k outing in a coxless pair with my mate. I’ve rowed for 26 years, and I still adore it. Then out for lunch with my wife and kids at the seaside (Seaham or Shields). Ideally fish and chips followed by ice cream. Then bedtime stories with my eldest culminating in a pint of Red Dust and a pick and mix in the Grey Horse in Consett. Heaven.