Using Local History with a Primary School History Club
When I became History Subject Leader at my previous school, my first priority was raising the profile of the subject. In addition, I was also aware of the need to strengthen the school’s local history focus and realised that a History club would be a perfect way to tap into this and offer pupils the opportunity to explore relevant local history outside of the taught curriculum. Furthermore, I was aware that the creation and consistent running of a History Club would serve as excellent evidence towards achieving the History Quality Mark, (awarded by the Historical Association) which the school eventually received in March 2019.
Initially, the club was held at lunchtimes in the Autumn Term, with two different days allocated for KS1 and KS2. However, a lunchime slot proved somewhat impractical; sometimes children didn’t come, they would forget or, due to conflicting commitments, I would have to cancel the club and reschedule. Moving into the following Spring Term, I decided to move History Club to after-school, which immediately proved a step in the right direction. The new after-school slot meant that more pupils were able to attend, attendance was much more consistent and this, in turn, enabled a better-focused and structured approach to topics.
Next, I set about wanting to excite the children about their local area and so the first sessions were dedicated to exploring the history behind the name of the school’s town, Grays. Together, we learnt that Henry de Grey, a courtier of Richard I and King John, was granted the land in 1195 by Richard. Following this,the children then created their own portraits and coats-of-arms for Henry de Grey
After this, I made a trip to Thurrock Museum, fortunately very close to the school, and came across a display on Alfred Russell Wallace, a colleague of Darwin, who lived in Grays for several years. Coincidentally, Wallace’s self-built house in the area, The Dell, lent its name to the road where the school’s campus for EYFS and Year 1 was based. Consequently, I was very excited by the potential of exploring this topic in History Club, as it made excellent cross-curricular links with Science and an opportunity for pupils to explore a very interesting and relevant local topic.
After introducing the children to make their initial enquiries about Wallace (who did they think he was, what might his significance have been to Grays? etc.), I was very fortunate to find and show an excellent paper-puppet animation (The Animated Life of A.R. Wallace by Flora Lichtman and Sharon Shuttack, 2013) on YouTube, which engaged the children wonderfully and helped to develop their learning and understanding of the narrative of Wallace’s life. From here, the children created their own timelines to identify the key significant events in Wallace’s life and career. The children then moved on to creating their own pop-up storybooks, aimed at younger readers, on the life of Wallace.
The children were highly engaged by the topic, whilst the outcome (pop-up storybooks) was also something different and exciting for them, which they proved to be highly capable of in creating. Strong cross-curricular links with English, Art and Science were in place and, in producing and writing their storybooks, the children were exposed to and applied a wealth of new vocabularly (naturalist, evolution, natural selection) in their own writing. All this proved to be strong evidence when it came round to applying for the Quality Mark.
Towards the end of my time at the school, I took the History Club pupils to Thurrock Museum for their “A Day in the Life of a Curator” programme. This was an excellent visit as the children were immersed in exploring local history through a range of practical activities — exploring the galleries, handling
and making enquiries about objects and artefacts, touring the Museum’s archives and helping to identify and catalouge items.
Running an after-school History club is a fantastic step for the History Subject Leader. Where possible, use of local history is also an excellent way to further deepen pupils’ historical understanding in the primary school, with links and trips to local museums offering exciting opportunities for enrichment, for both the pupils and the status of the subject within the school.
