What's On

In the coming weeks, the Rumble Museum will be celebrating the history of Cheney School, and especially its legacy of making and crafting of all kinds. One of the schools which went on to form Cheney School was Cheney Technical School, founded by John Henry Brookes, a craftsmen and educator. You can find out more about the history of the school here.

This will involve a project with sixth form museum council students digitising a vast array of school reports, photographs, magazines and other materials which have been donated to the Rumble Museum. One of many items donated to us has been this school report from 1960, which alumnus Bernard Stone has been kind enough to let us reproduce. As you can see, there is much that has changed about reports, as well as some things that remain the same! The report gives some idea of the technical, crafts-orientated education which took place at the Technical School.

As well as this project, the museum is organising a sixth form conference on Tuesday 11th March which will celebrate the technical school’s history and legacy, with a range of all day workshops, where students will be able to make something - from mosaics, clay cities, jewellery and globes, to printing, songwriting, short storywriting, and more. We are very excited to see what our Year Twelves all produce!

We are delighted to be holding a Festival of Birds at Cheney School on Tuesday 4td February, 3 - 5pm.

The event will be the first of a series of events celebrating the nature around us, as we begin an extended series of miniature events.

There will be a range of bird-themed information and activity stalls, including scientific, artistic, craft and storytelling explorations and celebrations of the birds around us. There will also be refreshments available and a live bird display. All ages are warmly welcome to attend.

Find out about the birds around us, and how they have inspired ancient myths, stories, art and more through the ages. There will be a number of local scientists and artists talking about how their work has been inspired by birds.

We will also be displaying prints of birds from magical realist, bird-themed novel The Birder, set in Oxford, and written by Rumble Museum director Lorna Robinson.

The event will open at 3pm for Cheney School students and 3.30pm for visitors.

If you would like to book places, please fill out this form.

We are delighted to announce a first event of its kind organised by the Rumble Museum at Cheney School.

Nature Late will celebrate the world of nature on site at Cheney through talks, workshops, stalls, activities and exhibitions. The schedule is as follows:

6 - 6.30pm - "Saving Our Insects" - opening talk by Professor Dave Goulson.

6 - 8pm - Ecology Festival for all ages with a large range of science and nature-themed stalls and activities

8 - 11pm - Moth Night

The programme is still being developed, and a full line-up will be announced nearer the time. If you would like to attend, please fill in this form.

In the run-up to our Nature Late event, we will be running some smaller nature-themed activities and events, and will announce these in the coming months.

We will be holding a bird-themed event in the early spring to celebrate the birds on site, and to launch our new collection of bird prints around Oxford - more to follow soon.

We are delighted to announce an Astronomy and Stargazing Evening on Thursday 19th December, 4.30 - 8pm at Cheney School.

The event will feature an opening talk from an expert astronomer, planetarium show, stalls and activities, and stargazing.

Below are timings for each part of the evening:

4.30 - 5.15pm - planetarium show - FULLY BOOKED

5.30 - 6pm - opening talk by Professor Jocelyn Monroe: Dark Matter and the Universe

6 - 8pm - stalls, activities and stargazing

If you would like to book places to attend, please fill in this form.

The Rumble Museum regularly organises a very wide range of speakers to deliver talks on all sorts of topics. Recent ones have included A.I., medicine, economics, astronomy, neuroscience and the role of religion in public life. You can listen again to some of our recent talks below by clicking on the images.