SCHOOL'S MUSEUM GAINS OFFICIAL RECOGNITION

A school's collection of 200 artefacts including ancient Roman and Greek coins and oil lamps and a fragment of Egyptian papyrus is the first of its kind to gain accredited museum status.

The Rumble Museum at Cheney School, an academy in Headington, Oxford was founded in 2013 to boost students' interest in the Classics and has now been recognised by Arts Council England.

This means it can more easily apply for grants to help develop its collection and can enter into partnerships with other museums and galleries.

The museum is the brainchild of Lorna Robinson, who teaches Latin and Classical civilisations at the school and founded its community Classics centre, which offers free classes and talks to local people.

Artefacts, many of which have been donated, are catalogued by students who curate the displays that are spread across the school. Some items such as ancient coins are brought out for handling in lessons. Highlights include a silver tetradrachm coin of ancient Athens depicting Athena on one side and the goddess's owl with an olive sprig and crescent moon on the other. The coin was worth about four times the daily wage of a skilled worker or soldier.

She said: "Objects can be really special — seeing an object in front of you can be very different to reading about it in a book or seeing a photograph. There's also the magic of knowing that you're holding something that was also held by a Roman 2,000 years ago, for example."

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It's history in the making as Cheney School's museum gains official recognition (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/its-history-in-the-making-as-cheney-schools-museum-gains-official-recognition-czs99sdmw)

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