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Activity: create your own Picture of Britain project
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St Edward's
Catholic Primary School
Swadlincote, Derbyshire
Ms Kreft's Year 3 class
Edmund Waller School
New Cross, London
Ms Kay's Year 3 class |
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 What We Did
At St Edward's School we chose the
Curators
for a Day activity because it fitted in very nicely
with our Local History topic. The children asked at home and brought
in pictures, books or artefacts about Swadlincote (either old or
new) so that we could put together an exhibition called 'Swadlincote
Yesterday and Today'. We looked at all the pictures and artefacts
and split them into categories and gave a group of children a category
each. The group then had to decide what pictures and artefacts they
would put in the exhibition and what information they would need
to go with them. The pictures were backed and the information typed
out and then we displayed it together.
The children learnt a lot about how Swadlincote has changed, especially within their own group activity.
They also learnt what skills and decisions are needed to put a museum exhibit together.
It created a lot of interest with parents and grandparents for whom we held an 'open day'.
For our Local Legends activity we chose a 'living' legend.
Jack Bodell was British, European and Commonwealth Heavyweight boxing champion in the 1970's and was a real hero in Swadlincote.
We invited him in to be interviewed by the children about the Swadlincote he grew up in and his boxing career.
The children learnt interviewing techniques as well as some information about the boxing world.
This also created a lot of interest with parents and grandparents who came to listen to the interview and meet Jack.
The children then wrote a 'newspaper' article all about Jack Bodell with great success.
At Edmund Waller School we linked our Curator for the Day activity with our Geography topic.
To give a historical perspective, the children were asked to bring in old photographs and artefacts of the area which we discussed and displayed,
the children providing the information to go with them.
We used our Literacy time to tell the story of Blockley Jack and to produce a newspaper report that might have been written at the time.
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Final Thoughts
St Edward's: We learnt a lot
about what Swadlincote was like in the past. It used to have
trams and there were a lot of coal mines and potteries. There
were 2 cinemas and now there are none. Edmund Waller School
is older than ours and there are a lot more houses around
it. But in the past it looked a bit like Swadlincote with
old buildings and no cars. They used to be a highway man called
Blockley Jack who lived there who used to rob people of their
jewels. We met an ex boxing champion called Jack Bodell who
lived all of his life in Swadlincote. We interviewed him and
found out about his boxing.
Edmund Waller: We learnt that New
Cross look very different in the old days with less houses
and more fields. There weren't many cars either. Swadlincote
is smaller than New Cross but the old photographs were like
our old photographs. They had a lot of coal mines. Blockley
Jack used to live in New Cross a long time ago and he was
a highwayman who used to rob people of all their money and
jewels. Jack Bodell is a boxer who lived in Swadlincote. He
was a champion.
Teachers: This was a really
interesting project to be involved with. The ICT of sending
emails fitted in with our ICT topic this term perfectly as
well as the word processing skills needed. The Curator for
the day topic fitted in with our Local History and nicely
brought it all together. We were able to link a lot of the
work, especially on Local legend topic, to Literacy particularly
with regards to speaking and listening skills and writing
a newspaper report. Working with a teacher and class from
another school certainly added another dimension to the work
and for us as teachers it was interesting. For the children
it was exciting seeing and learning about another area and
knowing that our work was being seen by someone else.
The children really enjoyed the project, especially
being able to share their work with another school. They learnt
a lot about their area in the past and how it has changed,
sometimes for the good, sometimes the bad. The work about
Swadlincote prompted discussions on coal mining which the
children had no experience of. We both chose as our local
legend a man called Jack but the comparison was really interesting.
Our Blockley Jack lived over a hundred years ago and was a
criminal and Jack Bodell is a local hero who lives to tell
the tale of his boxing career.
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