We were thrilled to receive the Sandford Award for outstanding heritage education again this year, a quality mark that we’ve held since 2014.

The Sandford Award is the gold standard for heritage learning, recognising the exceptional contribution of heritage organisations to formal and informal education. The award is a validation of formal learning through schools programmes, as well as family programmes and community projects.

This quote from our assessment report sums up the Sandford findings,

“Learning at the M&S Archive in Leeds is a whole lot of fun! Covering 140 years of retail, social and design history, the collection has been expertly mined by the Education & Families Officer to yield up all sorts of curriculum connections. From Early Learning Goals in the ‘Shops and Shopping’ workshop through to business concepts and product design in the KS3-4 workshop ‘Business Brains’. With a well-equipped Learning Room for hands-on workshops, and an engaging permanent exhibition to explore – including a walk-in Penny Bazaar shop and a Design Studio where children (and big children!) can try on M&S clothing from across the years – this is ‘not just any’ archive, but one designed to excite, inform and inspire.”