Open the Doors: Celebrating School Archives Day! 12th March 2026

This episode is a call to all who work with, manage, or care about school archives! We spotlight School Archives Day (12 March 2026), an initiative conceived by Julie Devenney, Archivist at Hutchesons’ Grammar School, home to a rich and extensive archive. Julie is also the founder of the popular @ArchiveHashtag on X, connecting archivists and enthusiasts around the world.

Learn how you can celebrate your school archives, showcase your records, artefacts, and images, and inspire interest in the unique stories your collections hold.

• Discover how School Archives Day started and what it celebrates.
• Get tips for engaging your community with your archives.
• Be inspired to showcase the stories and treasures of your school.

🔗 Links & Resources:

• School Archives and Records Association (SARA):https://schoolarchivesandrecordsassociation.org/
• @ArchiveHashtag on X: https://x.com/ArchiveHashtag
• Hutchesons Grammar School: https://www.hutchesons.org/

Mark Your Calendar:

12 March 2026 – join School archivists everywhere to celebrate and share your school’s history.

www.talesfromthearchives.co.uk 

www.sds-group.co.uk 

Social Media: 

Insta: @katesds_chronicle 

Sound Credits: 

OLD CLOCK TICKING_ Broken Antique Grandfather Clock Ticking Inconsistent Ticking(SFX).wav by GuntherDorksen -- https://freesound.org/s/328067/ -- License: Attribution 3.0 

PMusic by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net/ 

Extraordinary and fascinating archives online!

Extraordinary and fascinating archives online!

Transcript

SDS Kate 0:09

Hello and welcome to another episode from Tales from the Archives, a podcast by the SDS Group. My name's Kate, and I'll be taking a deep dive into the fascinating world of archives. Today's podcast is a little different because this is a call to action. If you work with school archives, care for them, manage them, or even just champion them, this one is for you. If you've ever wanted to spark more interest, more engagement, and more excitement around your collections, then listen up. School Achives Day has been formed by Julie Deveni, archivist at Hutchinton's Grammar School, home to a rich and extensive archive. Julie is a driving force in the world of archives. She's incredibly active online and the founder of the now popular At Archive hashtag. And today we're here to talk about OneDate, the 12th of March 2026, because that's School Archives Day. So welcome Julie Devenney. Hi. Hi then. And hello, and you. And um Julie, you're the archivist of Hutchinson's Grammar School and the driving force behind School Archives Day. And um thank you so much for joining us on Details from the Archives. My pleasure. Thank you. Um so I'm gonna go head straight into it and say after the success of School Archives Day last year, what were your key motivations behind developing this project for schools?

Julie Devenney 1:53

Um well a couple of years ago, um, I was the vice chair of Aura Scotland and I helped set up uh School Archives Day. Sorry, Scottish Archives Day, right? Ahead of myself. Um, and that was obviously to showcase um Scottish archives. And so I just thought, well, school archives should really have their own as well. Yes, highlight it in the same way. So um yeah, I just thought, like, let's have a day to highlight the importance of preserving school heritage, showcase the amazing collections we hold, yes, um, and celebrate the incredible work that school archivists do, many of us alone archivists, so um, it's kind of to give them a helping hand, be part of something bigger, kind of foster a sense of belonging to the sector. Because we are a small but growing sector, um, and I just wanted to help shine a light on school archives and archivists.

SDS Kate 2:42

So okay, so um for archivists listening from schools, what is the best way for them to get involved in school archive day?

Julie Devenney 2:54

Well, how you join in is completely up to you. Um it can be solely online, it can be in-person activities, it can focus solely on pupils or do something for your alumni community. Um, if you're strapped for time, which many of us are, um you can start small, um, incorporate it into an existing project or anniversary or your fundraising campaign. Right. Um you can simply do something like a school quiz or just display a few items in the library to talk, publish an article, um, do an oral history workshop if you're feeling a bit more um energetic and you want to do something a bit more. But you could just simply highlight a favorite object on social media using the hashtag um school archives day. Um there are some resources on the SARA website, um, School Archives and Records Association website, which is free to join if you're a school archivist. And on there you will find um poster templates, um JPEGs of the School Archives Day uh wording and hashtags. Um so you can use that online or in displays, um, however you want to use it. And then on the day, uh do your activity. Um, and then if you want to post it online, again use a hash hashtag to share or share it in your school magazine. It's it's however you want to use it. So your day to highlight whatever you're doing, your collections, your work, whatever.

SDS Kate 4:21

Right. So it's kind of like a day that everyone gets together and celebrate and celebrate any way that they that they like. Oh, right, brilliant. So um, so um, can you give us an idea of what you'll be sharing or doing at Hutchinson's grammar school archives to give some people some inspiration?

Julie Devenney 4:41

Yeah, we're kind of going a bit all out. I'm gonna don't don't just do everything. Yeah, I want to do everything, but uh yeah, trying to keep it um pretty small. But yeah, we have a school quiz um for pupils and staff. We had one last year, it was quite good fun. Um and they're I've created some uh School Archives Day bookmarks as a wee prize. Um, I'm also doing a talk which is going to be just for staff on our founders, the kind of good, bad, and ugly version of what they got up to in their lives. Um and even the primary school are getting um involved. So obviously, there's different age ranges there, so they can either draw a picture of a future school building or write about one or write an alphabet poem about the school. Um, and these activities were inspired by our old school magazines. Um, then these kind of drawings and and writings will be displayed at our 150th anniversary of girls at the school event in that we're having in May. Oh wow. Um, so it's a nice thing to kind of show our former pupils what current pupils are doing. Um, we're possibly going to be asking the S6s and former pupils to fill out advice cards and advice they'd give younger pupils. So that's kind of a nice kind of intergenerational thing. Um, possibly also an event in the library with our rare books collection, but um, it just depends how much time we have on the day.

SDS Kate 6:07

Yeah. Oh wow. So um, so I'm just thinking, what's the idea behind sort of sharing archives? Is it about getting people more excited about school archives or raising awareness of the archives or alumni, or is it is it something else?

Julie Devenney 6:25

Um, it's all those things. Um, school archives have some really amazing collections. Um, I've been to a few archives and I just love what they have, and it's good to share the stories and the projects uh that they're doing to spark interest amongst the pupils, the staff, alumni, parents, and the wider community because a lot of people don't realise what we actually hold, and some of the things are absolutely fabulous. Yeah, um, but it is also about raising awareness um of their importance both within and outside the school. Um, it's a chance for archivists not just to highlight the collections they have, because we often focus a lot on our collections, but also the work that they do, their role. Um, you know, even to senior staff, marketing, it's to make their work more visible to you know, supporters, potential volunteers, you know, the decision makers. Um we do such a wide range of things in the in the archive that are not seen. Um, so it's good to show that, and you never know, you know, somebody, you know, a pupil you might speak to and inspires them in a career in archives, you never know. Absolutely, yes. So yeah. Well, yeah, just last year, um the you know, one of the archivists um she shared some items, I think, in the school and got into conversation with um some senior members uh who'd come to have a look at what she had, um, and that led into her work, uh things that she needed to do her work, and she ended up with a new fire door for the archive. So um it it's gonna be anywhere. Yeah, so um it's it's been good.

SDS Kate 8:04

Yeah. So um on the 12th of March, can um can school archives from anywhere in the world take part?

Julie Devenney 8:13

Yes, absolutely. Um last year uh we had archives of of course from across the UK. They joined um um joined in, um, but we also had a few from Australia, which was great. Um so interested to see their collections and what they do, and um so it's just it's nice to see what your counterparts are doing elsewhere because um obviously I know.

SDS Kate 8:34

That's really interesting, isn't it?

Julie Devenney 8:36

Yeah, yeah, I know what kind of you know, the kind of Scottish sector, so it's nice to see what the other sectors, you know, parts in you know, England, Ireland, Wales, uh, but again, Australia is just it's a different way, different things. Um, some things are really similar, some things are quite different, but it was it was really, really good to see that. Um, but it's not just school archives that were invited to take part. Um, also if you're a museum archive, a local authority archive, charity archive, for example. Um, if you've got school archive material, you know, registers, prize lists, then um we're inviting people, um, those archives as well to join in. Um, it just helps kind of show researchers where material is, yeah, what we have, and it opens a dialogue in a kind of friendly, informal way as well between us. So I've spoken to like the archivists in Australia about you know their collections and what they did. And um, yeah, it's you know, we quite often, you know, we've got similar things, you know. Oh, I've got that, you know. Do you have this? So it's quite nice to, you know, as again, as I said, as we're lone archivists, to feel like we're part of something a bit bigger and and and have that kind of dialogue. We don't often get to network with each other, so it's a nice day to see what we've got and go, Oh, yeah, I've got one of them as well.

SDS Kate 9:52

Yeah, really good connection. Yeah, that's amazing. So um you're incredibly active online yourself, and you've even won the Archives and Records Association New Professional of the Year Award in 2019 for your creative use of social media with archives. So um, you're always encouraging people to share their archives on places like X. Have any favourites caught your eye that you can share with us, or are there just too many to choose from?

Julie Devenney 10:22

I just love them all. I haven't got a favorite because it is such a great opportunity to see what everyone else has, and everyone's archive is unique. Um, and some of us have some really bizarre things. Um, and so it's so much fun to see what some people have. You're like, oh wow, that's amazing. So um, yeah, that's just so much fun. But um, yeah, we're not just encouraging people on X. Um, obviously, I I run the um archive hashtag account on X. So if anyone does post anything, I'll retweet all your posts to try and get as much exposure as possible. But we are also encouraging um archives to post on Instagram, Facebook, wherever your audience is. So yes, okay.

SDS Kate 11:02

So if someone is listening from a school archive, you know, who looks after the archives and they're a bit nervous about getting involved, in what way would you encourage them to get involved? How how to how would you encourage them to get involved?

Julie Devenney 11:18

Yeah, um, it's quite difficult for some workers because they don't think they have a lot of time or they don't know what would interest their audience. So I'd probably recommend that you start small. Um, if you post something that interests you, nine times out of ten, it'll introduce it uh interests other people as well. Yeah, yeah. Um think about who your audience is, keep it informal. Um, again, as I said before, you know, keep it small, as you know, small as a quiz, a word search, even, or you can have you know one object, one story, um, a now and then building, or you can repurpose um a talk you've already done. So you're not coming up with new ideas, you can just do yeah, something like that. Yeah, um, connect to something that they care about. Um, it's always a good way in. Um, if you need um staff on board to help you as well, give them a clear purpose, tell them you know, it this can support learning and teaching, or celebrate an anniversary, um, strengthen community and alumni links, um, give pupils a sense of belonging in the school. Um, so there's lots of ways that um you know that you can encourage staff to help you as well, and archives are surprisingly fun. Um I think so, yeah. I think it's yeah, a lot of people think archives are in a dusty old basement and it's really boring, it's it's ancient history, but yeah um you're discovering new things, and for you know, alumni, it's nostalgia, you know, current pupils, it's storytelling, and there's some really great stories in the archives, so um, yeah, uh and you know, focus on the stories, not perfection, it doesn't have to be a perfect display, but you know, you just tell a story, yeah, yeah.

SDS Kate 13:01

Great. So so how how do you hope School Archives Day will inspire people now and for years to come? I mean, where do you see the future in uh sort of school archives day?

Julie Devenney 13:16

Um, well, school archives in general are inspiring. Um they capture the everyday experience, um, even just simple things like registers and minute books, prize lists, because they reveal how childhood and learning have changed over time. Yeah, you know, they give you great insights into local, national, and global events such as wars and how they affect young people, um, and they preserve voices that don't usually appear in kind of official histories. Yeah. Um, and they're quite particular to your local area, your local identity. Um, so I'm hoping that School Archives Day um, you know, will be more integrated integrated into kind of the wider community. They can see how um, you know, schools sit at the heart of your communities and their archives reflect that. So it can hopefully open up dialogue with more researchers, um, you know, with the the wider community around them. Um, you know, and and then obviously within schools, inspire learners um with real stories. We we use um our Victorian stuff with our S6s, and they absolutely love that. Um, we do creative writing with our English department on our World War I stuff. Um, and you know it's you're using primary sources, it's your original material helps critical thinking, um, especially in these times of fake news and AI and things like that. Um inspiring creativity um with pupils, uh, generational storytelling, which I talked about before, is our oral history workshops. We have the alumni and current pupils talking about their experiences. Um, you know, these they're not just names and dates, they're lives lived, and I think we need to show that more. So I'm hoping School Archives Day um shows people what we've got in the archive, what we do with the archive. Um I think films show us as being uh little old men and ladies hidden away in a basement wearing a cardigan, sipping on coffee and shouting shush to everybody. Um, but archives uh we we do so many different things. Um, you know, social media digitization, um, every day is different in the archive. I always think right I'm gonna do this today, and then end up doing something completely different, and there's always so many fun things to do. Um, so I'm I'm just hoping that we can show what we do in the archive. Um, it's often difficult for archivists to explain what we do because we do so many different things, we have so many different hats on. So I hope it kind of opens up um the archive to people. Um and yeah, just show uh what we do, um and more discussions about the archive.

SDS Kate 16:13

Brilliant! Oh well that's amazing, and thank you for sharing um and talking uh with me today, Julie. Thank you so much. And so school archivists mark 12th of March in your calendars. Join in, share your treasures, and let's celebrate School Archives Day together. Okay, thank you. Thank you. So now the rest is up to you. This is your opportunity to celebrate the power and potential of your school archives. A moment to open the doors, delve into the records, and share the stories, the artifacts and images that define your institution's unique history and character. You'll find a link in the podcast notes to Sara, the School Archives and Record Association website. The SDS group will be truly excited to see and celebrate everything you share in support of School Archives Day. A sincere thank you to Julie Deveni and Hutchinson's Grammar School. And for this and other stories, visit www.talesfronthearchives.co.uk. Thanks for listening, and I'll join you next time on Tales from the Archives. Goodbye.