Activities you can get involved in!

Hello again,

It’s only been a day since we launched our Magna Carta blog and we’re already writing our second post. We’re quicker than Usain Bolt in rollerblades. On a speed boat.

Usain Bolt on a speed boat
(www.telegraph.co.uk)

Anyway, this is an important one. Did you know that as well as running this blog we’re also putting on some activities to celebrate the Magna Carta’s 800^th birthday? This means that not only can you learn more about the Magna Carta by regularly checking this page, you can also visit us at Oxford Brookes University. And you totally should, we’ve got biscuits and everything.

Here are the main two activities we’re running for young people from Oxfordshire and beyond:

Modern Magna Carta Challenge
This is a challenge to young people, like you, to create a modern Magna Carta for the world we live in today. What’s missing from the original? What should a modern charter include? You don’t have to write this on an old piece of parchment either, you can be as creative as you want. Make a video, take some photographs, create a Facebook page - it’s completely up to you.

The best of these exhibits will then be displayed in a city-wide exhibition, A Modern Magna Carta, in Oxford Brookes University’s Glass Tank Gallery from June 22 - July 24 2015. The exhibition will then go on tour (like a rock star) to the Museum of Oxford and be displayed there from July 29 - August 19 2015. Even better, while the exhibition is here at Oxford Brookes we’re going to put on a fancy evening for you, your family, your teachers and your friends. We might even order some posh food.

The deadline for submitting exhibits is Friday 22 May 2015. We know this doesn’t leave you loads of time and we are sorry about that, but that being said it is currently the Easter holidays, so get to it!

Posh food (www.trentbridge.co.uk)

Magna Carta Symposium
This is a unique one-day event that we’re hosting at Oxford Brookes University on Thursday 18 June 2015. It will include staff and students from across the University delivering workshops inspired by the Magna Carta, as well as a keynote speech by a special guest speaker (we’re hoping to get Jay-Z, he did release an album about the Magna Carta after all). Oh and we’ll even provide lunch!

If you’d like to get involved with both or either of these activities then please e-mail us at magnacarta2015@brookes.ac.uk. If you’re a student in Oxfordshire then it might be worth mentioning it to your teachers too as we have contacted all primary and secondary schools directly about this. Teachers are very busy though so just show them this blog if they haven’t had chance to read our letter. Oh and maybe buy them a cupcake too.

We hope to see you soon,

The Oxford Brookes Magna Carta Team