Romans, Vikings and Anglo-Saxons

History

Primary

A school commemorates the birth of Edward the Confessor

Edward the Confessor was born in Islip in 1005 and, 1,000 years on, the local community are celebrating. Dr South's Primary School started planning celebrations a couple of years back, at first imagining a small pageant. Two years on and the numerous events have involved teachers, pupils, parents and the village community. A replica of the Bayeux Tapestry was brought to the village and the highlight of the festival was a re-enactment group who were booked to establish a Saxon encampment in the village. One hundred and twenty Saxons took part in battles, falconry, archery and the burning of a Viking longboat, bringing this piece of history to life. The programme is a portrait of what a few dedicated people can do, showing how much children learn and remember from hands-on experience. Dr South's School underwent an Ofsted inspection during the run-up to celebrations and was commended for its strong links with the community.

Ed the Con

A focus on a theme-led curriculum designed in a Bristol school

A focus on Headley Park Primary School in Bristol, where, over the last six months, they have been designing their own theme-led curriculum. Headley Park are taking things one step at a time, combining cross-curricular projects with some discrete subjects. Year 3 and 4 teacher Alice Ballantine presents her combined history and geography What Floats Your Boat project. Alice shows a few of the things she's done to plan and implement this new way of teaching, including the construction of a Viking longboat in the school hall.

Primary Topic Work - Customise your Curriculum: Setting Sail

School trip to Roman Fort and the opportunity to dig!

Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum in South Shields is built alongside the remains of a former roman military base which supplied 17 forts along the length of Hadrian's Wall. Sue Pierce from Ashley Primary School in South Shields has brought her Year 6 pupils to the fort as part of their KS2 study of the Romans in Britain. This is the third year running Sue has brought pupils to Arbeia, each year she has been able to adapt her visits to enhance the learning outcomes of the trip. The highlight of the day is a visit to 'Timequest' a recreated archaeological dig which allows pupils to dig up real Roman artefacts, bringing the subject to life. Later in the day the children get the chance to meet Kevin Inkster a real archaeologist to see the processes learned in 'Timequest' for real. Back at Ashley Primary the following day the pupils demonstrate what they learned on the trip by making Roman style pottery, meals and manuscripts.

Roman Dig

Fun games to engage KS1/2 pupils in Viking history

Discover these creative approaches to teaching Key Stage 1/2 pupils about the Viking period. Three teachers demonstrate their inspirational ideas to use in history lesson planning. Placing great emphasis on skills for learning, Tim Browse, Pete Jackson and Alexa Vickery from Headley Park Primary School in Bristol aim to teach primary pupils the skills of a historian so they can transfer these skills to other historical periods. In Viking Comic Strip, Tim asks children to imagine they are different characters during a Viking raid, combining an experiential element with speaking, listening and thinking skills. The pupils act out their role using freeze-frame images depicting a point in the story. They then create a comic strip from their drama using thought bubbles and photographs. In Archaeological Dig, Alexa asks the children to dig objects out of sand, identify and draw them, and decide if the object is really related to the Vikings, based on their knowledge of Viking life. Finally, Norse or not Norse is a fun game in which children have to write a true and a false explanation of an object and present it to the class. Pete asks the pupils to draw on skills of writing and persuasion to build a convincing argument.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

Subjects

> Primary History

> Romans, Vikings and Anglo-Saxons

Ed the Con

Primary Topic Work - Customise your Curriculum: Setting Sail

Roman Dig

Vicious Vikings