by Liz Nakhla

Some State Youth Leaders have raised the issue of getting schools to visit National Stamp Shows.  In response to their questions this is how I did it for SSE07.

Before the Show

• I looked on the Internet and found the curriculum for children in primary school in grades 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I also spoke to two primary school teachers (friends of mine) for advice on program length and suitable activities.
• I found out that communication was one of the suitable topics, so the one hour program at SSE07 focused on that.
• I got a video “Journey Of A Letter” from Australia Post.
• Then I wrote letters to all the public and private schools close to the venue to let them know about the program, and included a booking form. It was all free. The School information and the booking form were also put on the SSE07 website.
• Only one school replied. They booked in 5 classes, from year 1 to year 4 (132 children) and that was all we could cope with. We were really not going to invite year 1 children but the teacher asked if we would please let two year 1 classes attend as well, so we did. The program had some slight changes for the year1 classes.
• Before the children who were booked in came, we sent the school a booklet from Australia Post “Postie Kate Activity Book” which ties in with the video “Journey of a Letter”. This was for the teachers to go through with the children before the visit.
• I researched museum websites that provided activities for primary aged children – got the previous idea.

At the Expo

• The children were met at the entrance by the group leader, watched the video and then moved into the next room to sit at tables, with one adult helper at each table. Activities included a scavenger hunt and addressing a postcard.  Prepaid postcards were supplied by Australia Post and then were postmarked by Australia Post with the special postmark of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The postcards were later delivered to the school. All the activities were aimed at teaching children some of the basics of stamp collecting (eg terminology). Each session lasted exactly an hour as each class was moved systematically through the activities.
• At the end, on their way out we took each class to look at the frames with at least 2 or 3 adults / and one or two teachers per class as guides. As they were leaving we gave each child a goodies bag (everything supplied by Australia Post and the Sydney Youth Stamp Group) and thanked them for coming along.
• We took photographs and gave the school a disc containing the photographs.
• The helpers were fully briefed and organised beforehand so they knew exactly what the program was and what their individual role was. As well as wearing name tags, they were given a hat and t shirt to wear so they were easily identifiable by teachers and children.
• Some children from this school have come along to the Sydney Youth Stamp Group meetings
• We also had one school group of about 25 children which turned up without booking.  This was a school stamp club, and the teachers had seen the information on the SSE07 website. We also managed to fit them in but changed the program slightly.
• We had about 157 children attending the Kids Zone at the SSE07 between the hours of 10am and 3pm.