Tudor times

History

Primary

Drawing on a project-based approach to teach about Tudor values

Jen Ager, a Year 5 teacher at High Hesket Primary School in Cumbria, immerses her class in a week-long project looking at Tudor values. Exploring the period, the class handle Tudor artefacts, listen to accounts from Tudor sailors, and fire their imaginations by going out into the Cumbrian countryside to empathise with exposed explorers. The class cook and eat sailors' food hard tack, and learn about the nutritional value of weevils. Jen provides plenty of original sources for the class to analyse in this fully cross-curricular lesson, and even invites an expert from London's National Maritime Museum to visit her classroom, via a webcam.

KS2 History - Exploring Tudor Values

Exploring a cross-curriculum approach to teaching primary history

Expert in primary history Dr Hilary Cooper discusses a cross-curriculum approach to learning with Jen Ager, who recently applied the approach to teach about Tudor values. Dr Cooper, of St Martin's College in Ambleside, is an academic researcher who works collaboratively with many schools, and Jen Ager is a primary teacher with a PE specialism who is teaching history. Having observed her lesson on Tudor values, Hilary discusses the strengths and challenges of the cross-curricular approach. Through analytical deconstruction of Jen's Tudor lesson they look at key issues, including teaching approaches, historical thinking, questioning, time management and values. Did Jen's lesson successfully bring the subject to life?

KS2 History - Exploring Tudor Values - Analysis

History and technology come together in this lesson on Henry VIII

Deputy head Simon Botten has a unique and ambitious way of teaching his class about the wives of Henry VIII. He sets his students the task of researching, scripting and recording a short video clip in about an hour. He creatively adapts the QCA Scheme of Work to meet with the interests and abilities of his Year 5 pupils. He divides his class into six groups and allocates each group one wife to study. Working to the tight deadline of one lesson, each group is asked to research, script and film their own Tudor-style newsreel, which will then be presented to the rest of the class. This lesson incorporates the use of ICT at three levels: firstly by using an interactive whiteboard to allow Simon to set out the lesson objectives; secondly by using the internet for research, and thirdly through the use of small, user-friendly digital cameras to record the newsreels. Key points: Pupils use the internet and video cameras during the history lesson Simon Botten gives us the background to his ambitious lesson plan Are the students more engaged in the technology than in the history?

KS2 History - The Tudors using ICT 1

A review of the effectiveness of the previous history lesson

A review of KS2 History, The Tudors using ICT Historians Dr Penelope Harnett and Dr Michael Riley, assess and critique deputy head Simon Botten's methods of teaching his Year 5 class about the wives of Henry VIII. The lesson was not only ambitious in concept, but also had to be achieved within a strict deadline of one hour. Whilst the experts support much of the idea behind the lesson, they question whether the timeframe and use of ICT distracted the children from the historical facts. The programme shows good examples of how IT can stimulate and support work in the classroom, for instance: how the whiteboard may be used to structure and resource children's learning, when best to use video cameras, and how to use laptops for research. The programme raises interesting questions concerning curriculum balance and support. Key points: History versus technology: are they a successful combination? Two experts review the effectiveness of the lesson at each stage Pupils get to grips with cheap handheld video cameras

KS2 History - The Tudors using ICT 2

Year 5 pupils make the most of nearby Pendennis Castle

Pendennis Castle is a stone artillery fortress, founded by Henry VIII in 1540, sitting high on a headland overlooking Falmouth and just a short walk away from King Charles Primary School. Year 5 pupils from the school are making the most of the local landmark to kickstart a project about the Tudors. In this programme, they visit the castle to take part in a series of activities devised by English Heritage. The visit includes a workshop with a costumed interpreter who steps back in time and into the shoes of a Tudor lady. We follow the pupils as they get their hands on an assortment of artefacts that Tudor children would have used.

Local Landmark

A KS2 class create their own music compostition in one lesson

A Key Stage 2 class compose a Tudor fanfare on the recorder as part of a music lesson linked to a larger history project, in this cross-curriculum lesson planning idea. First, teacher Jessica Foster demonstrates on the piano what a fanfare sounds like and the pupils discuss what a fanfare would be used for. The pupils are given a very tight structure from which to work from in order to keep the composing very simple and therefore achievable in one lesson. By only allowing three notes and four bars of music the pupils remain focused on the task. In pairs or small groups the children take their recorders and compose a Tudor fanfare. At the end of the lesson the pupils perform their fanfares in front of the whole class. The class discuss whether they achieved what they intended and what they would do if they weren't limited by just the recorder and only 15 minutes to compose the whole tune.

Primary Music - Tudor Fanfare

A Year 5 class learn the value of primary sources for history

A Year 5 class visits the National Archives in Kew and Henry VIIIs Palace at Hampton Court, to learn the value of primary sources for the study of history. The National Archives has one of the largest collections in the world, with priceless documents spanning 1000 years of British history, from the Domesday Book to the present day. The class, from Stanley Junior School, are shown original documents from the court of Henry VIII and learn more about Tudor life and times. They prepare props and rehearse a play written for the King. The pupils travel to Hampton Court Palace next. After visiting some of the state apartments and studying contemporary paintings of the king, they stage an authentic performance of the play in the Great Hall.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

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