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Category: General News

  • Museum closure – 18 December

    Museum closure – 18 December

    The Museum is looking wonderfully festive ahead of our Christmas programme starting tomorrow, and we’ve already welcomed our first Santa Hunt visitors.

    As we will be delivering four Christmas evenings (Glad Tidings) in a row (20-23 December, plus 13 and 14 December), we’ve decided to close the Museum on Wednesday 18 December, in addition to the usual Monday and Tuesday closures (16-17 December).

    Office based colleagues can come to site as normal on this date. Hourly and contracted staff will receive direction from their line manager.

  • Our Bostin’ Promise – update for Managers

    Our Bostin’ Promise – update for Managers

    Thank you all for your support so far in getting the message out to your teams about Our Bostin’ Promise. We hope it has landed well and that you and your teams are getting to grips with understanding what it means for you and our visitors.
    You will have seen posters going up in break spaces and work areas and hopefully, you’ve all had a chance to watch the video and start to think about how you can apply the promise to your work and set goals for your team. Progress Review time is a good moment to use Our Bostin’ Promise to highlight and commend best practice or identify areas for improvement. A reminder of the resources available to you including the FAQs and Guide with examples of best practice and where there is room for improvement. This has been updated with a Team Bostin’ Promise Template, which you can use to create your version of the Guide, making it relevant to your and your team’s work.
    We wanted to make sure there are opportunities for you to feedback about the promise so far. To hear from you about how the launch went, what questions colleagues are asking, whether you’ve used the Promise in 1:1s already, and what support you think you will need going forward for your teams to uphold the promise. All comments, thoughts, and ideas are welcome Our Bostin’ Promise Manager Feedback Form
    As we go into the New Year training will be provided for frontline staff to get more familiar with the promise and better understand their role and impact as they uphold it. As the New Year progresses we will be looking at how we recognise best practice around the Promise.
  • Merryhill Skill Shop & Dudley College initiative

    Merryhill Skill Shop & Dudley College initiative

    We’re excited to share our recent collaboration with the Merryhill Skill Shop and Dudley College to train and recruit job seekers from the Dudley community. This partnership allowed us to connect with some truly talented individuals, and we’re thrilled to welcome 7 new colleagues to our team in casual positions.
    Throughout the process – which included a week of customer service training, trial shifts, and final interviews – these candidates demonstrated outstanding enthusiasm and dedication.
    We’re proud to support this initiative and look forward to continuing our partnership in the future. If you see our new team members on-site, be sure to give them a warm welcome!

  • Perkbox discounts for Christmas!

    With Christmas coming up don’t forget to utilise Perkbox.
    Perkbox now has a great savings calculator so you know what your instant saving would be. You can opt for which retailer and how much you want to spend;
    Perkbox Christmas discounts
    Perkbox Christmas discounts 2
    At the moment there are these great savings to be made on your shopping or gift ideas;
    7% voucher
    Primark, Asos and M&S
    50% Off
    Virgin Wine
    £70 Off
    Ninja Air Fryer
    8% voucher
    London Theatres
    Dicount Code to spend online or instore
    Nike
    15% Off
    Merlin attractions
    6% voucher
    WH-Smith
    6% voucher
    Ticketmaster
    If you are not signed up on perkbox but would like to be, please see Susannah in the People & Culture Team.
  • October half term – colleague evaluation survey

    October half term – colleague evaluation survey

    Thank you to everyone who participated in our October half term programme – Crime & Capers. We have had some brilliant feedback for the programme and now we need to hear from you!

    Please take a few minutes to fill in our colleague survey to tell us what you think by clicking here.

    Here are some highlights of what our visitors thought:

    “The children loved the half term detective trail, particularly seeing the spiv get arrested by the detective & marched off the prison whist he was selling his stolen goods! We came for two days (stayed in hotel) the children still wanted to stay another night & visit again today!”

    • 95% of visitors rated their overall experience of the programme as “good” or “excellent”.
    • 40% of visitors used their Trail which is typically higher than average usage.
    • Visitors repeatedly mentioned that they enjoyed speaking to roaming characters and participating with the investigation story line.
    • Visitors mentioned that locations were sometimes difficult to find, queues in enterprise units and not all characters interacting: “Some actors were outstanding others just sat and didn’t get out of their chair.”

    Well done to all teams and please do complete the survey. For any specific questions on the programme or feedback, please email [email protected]

  • Glad Tidings tickets

    Glad Tidings tickets

    There are a limited number of staff tickets available if you would like to attend Glad Tidings this year.

    Details:

    • Location: Ticketing Office in Canalside
    • Discount: 50% off on your tickets!
    • Last day to purchase: Friday 29 November

    If you are interested, just pop in and say hello to purchase your tickets.

  • Audio descriptive and visual awareness training

    Audio descriptive and visual awareness training

    We are looking to recruit a cohort of historic characters to attend an audio descriptive training session, where you will learn about communicating effectively with blind and partially sighted visitors. The training will be facilitated by Vocal Eyes who believe blind and visually impaired people should have the best opportunities to experience and enjoy art and heritage.
    Available places: 12
    Who this training is for: Historic characters interested in delivering Access tours at the museum on a Saturday, as well as delivering outreach work offsite.
    When: Monday 25 November.
    Time: 12.30-4.30pm.
    Location: The Western Room – Learning Classroom 2.
    What you will learn:
    • Visual awareness: learn how to identify the barriers facing blind and partially sighted visitors attending heritage or Museum venue. You will be able to welcome blind and partially sighted visitors and give support in making our collections and events more accessible.
    • Audio description training: learn about audio descriptive principals bringing arts and heritage to life for blind and visually impaired people. It is the use of precise, logically structured language, interwoven with historic references and cultural narratives, to evoke an artefact or a place. It can be delivered live, as an audio-described tour, or as a recorded guide, for visitors to use independently.

    The selection process:

    If you are interested in the audio description and visual awareness training, please submit your supporting statement via Planday to Chantelle Richards or email [email protected] detailing why you would like to be a member of the cohort of trainees (100 words).
    Deadline for your submission: Wednesday 20 November.
    Successful applicants will receive confirmation of their acceptance on Thursday 21 November. Your availability on the training date is essential.
    Please bring your own packed lunch.
  • Final call – send us your “Crossed finger” selfies!

    Final call – send us your “Crossed finger” selfies!

    Since the first draw was held in 1994, the National Lottery has raised over £49 billion for good causes and awarded over 690,000 individual grants to projects and organisations, making a real difference to local communities.

    We’ve been hugely supported by the National Lottery through the National Lottery Heritage Fund over the years, most recently to make our 1940s-60s development possible.

    We’re joining in with the National Lottery’s 30th birthday celebrations, with dedicated content across our social media channels and website. For the big day on 19th November, we want you to get involved!

    We’re making a final call to ask colleagues to send over “crossed finger selfies” – make the famous Lottery “crossed fingers” gesture and snap a photo of yourself in situ in your role, whether that be in a forge, down the mine or behind the counter in Hobbs!

    Get involved:

    • Pose with the crossed finger gesture and snap a selfie on your phone
    • You can do it in groups or on your own, it’s up to you
    • Think about the background – if you’re visitor facing, think about the Museum building you’re in
    • Remember if you work back of house to make sure there are no sensitive or private documents on walls or desks around you
    • If you are visitor-facing, please make sure to snap your photo before 10am or after 5pm

    You can send your selfies to [email protected] or send them via WhatsApp to the Museum press phone on 07703 670530.

    Please note that by sending your photo you agree to us sharing it as part of the promotion, so do make sure you are happy with us using your photo before sending it over – if you have not signed a BCLM photo consent form please speak to Hannah Brown ([email protected]) in Audiences & Communications to sign one.

  • Halloween – colleague evaluation survey

    Halloween – colleague evaluation survey

    Thank you so much to everyone who took part in and supported this year’s Halloween Nights events! We’ve had some great feedback from visitors and have increased the visitor satisfaction rating by a massive 14% from last year! There have been lots of positive comments about the mine experience, the SciFi presence (Daleks and Ghostbusters), the atmosphere and the costumed characters in general. As always, your feedback is extremely valuable to us, so please take a few minutes to fill in our colleague survey.

    • 68% of visitors rated their experience as ‘good’ or ‘excellent’—a significant increase from our Halloween Nights events over the past couple of years!
    • 70% felt it was an immersive experience.
    • 73% felt that the performances they saw were interactive.
    • The leaflet/map was also popular, with 78% of visitors saying they used it and 81% of those rating it as “good” or “excellent”.

    Here are some examples of both positive and constructive comments from visitors:

    “Loved the Halloween nights. This is the second time we have been to this event. It was great. The actors really make the night! Loved ghost busters and the darlicks. Loved trick or treat street. Loved the werewolf, loved the stilt walker and the musicians, loved the dj and disco, loved the mirror photos, loves the fireeater and the mines.”

     “The witches of jerushah were fantastic. They really brought their area to life! Special mention to the ghost buster car and especially the daleks. My daughter loved being called small human and keeps telling me daleks like chocolate!”

     “Enjoyed the atmosphere for the Halloween event. Loved the fish and chips. Children loved the trick or treating… as well as the way the streets were decorated”

     “4th year to Halloween Nights and this year was by far the best . Scare mine was bostin!”

     “I thought it was a good night, however I feel there were far too many let in. The queues to any of the activities were too long. My 6 year old son has ADHD, so standing in a queue for an hour didn’t really work for us.”

     “I know it was a busy night, but I felt the car parking was not as well organised as normal (we visit several times a year)”

     “Would suggest more food, bigger portion sizes and better quality.”

     “There was a long wait for the animal show and that wasn’t brilliant (better last year) but it was ok.”

  • Filming at the Museum

    Filming at the Museum

    A whole site filming booking at the Museum means that we there will be some changes to our usual operations on Monday 18 and Tuesday 19 November.

    What does this mean for you?

    There will be no access to Car Park 2, the Canalside offices, the Village, the Workers’ Institute, the Elephant & Castle Pub, the School, Hut 14 or the Boat Dock.

    Old Birmingham Road (our 1930s street) should also be avoided where possible.

    What do I need to be aware of?

    Colleagues who are on site on these days will need to park in Car Park 1. The gate from Car Park 1 onto site will be open from 7.30am – there will be no access before this.

    Please be extra vigilant when moving around site and don’t block any access routes – there will likely be a lot of vehicle movement on these days.

    Changes on Wednesday 20 November

    Colleagues are able to access all areas of the Museum again from Wednesday, however there will be no access to Car Park 2. All colleagues and visitors will need to park on Car Park 1. The gate will again be opened at 7.30am.

    Thank you for your co-operation and understanding.