So, where do we start if we haven’t a clue about Local History?
Unlike all other areas of study Local History has no real prescribed content. If you live in the middle of a new town, then your locality is quite different from that of a school sited in the shadow of a great castle. Wherever you are, your environment and its story will be different, and there is no way in which we can write a general prescription that will suit all regions.
Are you going to approach local history as one block of study or as several? I spent some time last summer working with the SLT at Ringwood Junior school. Their enlightened approach to curriculum planning saw them opt for a local study in every year group, some longer than others. Y3 tackled the changing High Street looking at the buildings’ change of use. Y4 looked at the impact of the railway, while Y5 placed the school, in its historic context. Y6 investigated what the local war memorial told us about Ringwood during the First and Second World War. Local studies often generate some excellent cross-curricular work and I would urge you to exploit the links with
