A little bit of raiding, invasion then settlement...

What does raiding actually mean? Why did the vikings suddenly decide to switch from raiders to settlers? Students from Year 5G got the chance to experience the concept of invasion, raiding an settlement firsthand...

The Saga of Beowulf!

During Viking Day, the Year 5's had a visit from some Norse Storytellers. They retold a part of the saga of Beowulf...

Storytelling from the Students...

The children in History Club told the story of two myths and fables taken from Jim Henson's 'The Storyteller' series. I have never seen better audience interaction than I saw from these student storytelling pioneers. It has to be seen to be believed!

A Viking Assembly Saga!

Here is the Saga of an awesome Viking assembly from 5R!

Storytelling an an ancient tale - part 1

History Club spent some time practising their Historical tales today. Can you tell which story they are practising?

Mr Kean's Awesome Chronological Card Game!

If you want to learn about dates, events and fun stuff from history while trying to win a game then look no further than Mr Kean's awesome chronological card game...

Passing on the Myths!

History Club are learning the importance of traditional storytelling! Please take some time to watch the following video of an episode from Jim Henson's storytelling series. Next take a look at the video of History Club's first go at telling stories - the traditional way!

 

Art meets DT meets History

Please take the time to check out ,Year 7 student, Jack's videoed recreation of a shield from the battle of Hastings. Just so you know, this shield will actually be used in a full recreation of the battle of Hastings!

Making a shield

What we thought of Pericles and his lesson!

Hello reader,

Here are some comments from the Year 4's based on their experiences of Pericles visit to their class.

The Ancient Greeks - Lesson 7 - The Consequences Game

Pupil Feedback

It was interesting because we knew what it was like to rule a country. (H.T.)

It was exciting because we could lead the land and make difficult decisions. (M.A.)

It was horrifying because all the sacrifices you had to do and also exciting to feel how hard it is to be a ruler. (B.S.)

I found this lesson EPIC and as if it was real!! I want to do it again. (E.S.)

I want to do this type of lesson again soon! (P.C.)

I really would like to do this again! It’s one of my favourite ones! I LOVE DECISION MAKING! (Leiko, who saved Athens, wrote this)

Very good decisions. (T.P.T.)

I liked the lesson a lot. I felt very powerful. (T.I.)

I felt very powerful and guilty. I liked the lesson. (M.G.G.)

I liked it because it was one decision or the other and all the answers are in order like one 2, one 2. (E.A.R.)

I think that we could think much more carefully about our choices. (F.S.C.)

I felt so much guilt by killing people, boats and even whole cities! Being a statesman is incredibly difficult, more difficult than it sounds. (E.R.)

I wanted to do more. (T.T.)

I felt guilty because the choices are really unexpected. (J.J.)

I felt guilty as some people died and made it hard for us to fight. (A.I.)

Stressful, hard, guilty. (M.B.)

I felt guilty because you can not get a vote. (N.U.)

Walk in the footsteps of Pericles - not literally!

Hi reader,

The Year 4's have been studying Ancient Greece and were very fortunate to meet the great statesman (SuperStatesman) of Athens - Pericles. Watch the following video to find out how they walked in the footsteps of Pericles - not literally.

Splendid Saturday Scroll Work

Mr Kean's class got home learning which was slightly different  last week.

SOS Tweets on the Greeks!

Hi guys,

Miss Kaiho, Mr Crummie and Year 4 helped each other out while carrying out research on triremes and hoplites.

Understanding the Holocaust!

Over the previous two weeks, we have been looking at the Holocaust and it's relationship to the Second World War and the Jewish faith. Here are some of the things we found out.

Minecrafting a wall of History!

Today we returned to Minecraft and began to build our timeline of history. Some of our notable historical people, places and events include the omaha beach landings on D-Day, when the leaning tower of Pisa started to lean, Einstein's birthday, the invention of the iPhone.

How did Hitler become so powerful?

Hello readers,

How did Hitler rise to power so quickly? Was it because of the: Treaty of Versailles, Benito Mussolini, The 1929 Wall Street crash, his views on different races? Watch the videos to find out what we thought.

Can you work it out?

Do you have what it takes to work out who the person was and what the facts are from the YouClues in this YouTube Quiz.

A Victorian Monster visits!

The Year 5 students had the great misfortune to experience Master Willis's Victorian lesson! Behold true educational misery!

The Great War wrapped up in a day

Dear Reader,

Year 6 spent the day, last Thursday, finishing off their unit on the First World War. They held their first ever WW1 day. You can find out more about this day by exploring the videos below.

Points of View

Some personal perspectives from people who were around during the Great War!

Interactive Display

Please check out the interactive history display in our classroom.

Minecraft again!

Would you like to see how the Historical Monuments are coming along?

Guess Who

Take a look at the following YouTube video and try to research/work out who the famous person from history is. Next, use the clues on the different slides, to work out/research the facts associated with this famous person.

Good luck!

Second Slam!

Another class had a go at the first World War Socratic Slam. Check out round Three's debate. It really is worth a watch!
 

WOW - Now these are History Stories

everybody should read!

World War One's Morning Narrative!

Hello reader,

Here is Josh's magnificent short story from our recent unit on World War One. Josh also designed a reading comprehension to go with it which we will be using in one of our morning sessions.

More Terrific Trenches!

Top Trench Design!

Here are some photographs of trenches which were made at home.

SOCRATIC SMACKDOWN!

That's right ladies and gentlemen - Socratic Smackdown! If you aren't familiar with this concept of discussion/debate style lesson then please follow the Institute of Play link. This activity was recommended by a very creative and innovative colleague of mine named Tom Kean. Essentially, the idea behind the lesson, is that the children take part in a team debate based on a particular theme. In our case the theme was 'Who was responsible for starting World War One?' Why don't you take a look at the video and see if you can decide who was responsible for starting the Great War!

Who started WW1?

In Year 6, we have been looking at which nation was ultimately responsible for starting the First World War. Here are some of the different nation's questions and responses to the questions posed (answers which were researched by the different groups/nations).

Britain
  Austro-Hungary France
  Germany Russia

Assembling the GFOL

Here is a link to a presentation for a Year 2 assembly on the GFOL. Please take some time to check out the awesome videos (using a green screen) which demonstrate the incredible fun and learning the Year 2's are having with this unit!

The Great War on stage

Today, we were privileged to witness a truly magnificent WW1 assembly by Y6B. It really was brilliant!

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Here are some of the magnificent newspaper articles from our English unit on WW1.

Thoughts on the Treaty

Some of our thoughts about the decisions concerning the Treaty of Versailles...

Choices, Choices...?

If you had to make one of these choices which would you choose?





Was the treaty of Versailles the catalyst for the Second World War?

Breaking the Code - Central Power Style!

In maths, we had a go at trying to break the Field Marshall Haig's code. Can you break it? You have to find the common factors for the numerator and denominator in the fractions. For the fractions sums you have to multiply the denominator and numerator by the number in the brackets to find the appropriate equivalent fractions.




Here is the coded letter.







Here is the cipher for the code.

A = 4

E = 5

F or L = 2

R = 10

S or i = 7

M or T = 3

O = 6

C = 6/9

G = 5/20

H = 7/14

N = 12/15

P = 42/60

U = 27/72

W = 3/9

Y = 21/27

MInecraft Mania

We have started using Minecraft Edu in our term 2 History club and I think it is fair to say that it has started very well. Here is a short taster video but there will almost certainly be more to follow...

Waging WAR!

Below, you will find some presentations about the various weapons of war used in the First World War. Taking a closer look at these weapons gave us a better idea about the extraordinary lengths the different sides would employ to kill enemy soldiers.

We also looked at some of the damage these weapons caused and discussed the terrible effects they had. 

Putting together World War 1

Hello reader,

Year 6 have spent the past few weeks putting together World War 1 research packs. Please take some time to look through their research ideas and thoughts.

Japanese battle history rediscovered!

On Friday, two of our budding Year 6 Historians gave a lesson on two famous battles from Japanese history. Here is a taster of how they made the experience interactive for the participants!

Letters from Mum

Hello reader,

Imagine if Edmund and William's mother had the opportunity to send a letter to her boys. Maybe they would look a bit like this...

The Young Sassoons...

Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon...and here are some more...

Battle Blog Post

Today Year Six spent some time analysing the Battle of the Somme. We watched the following videos then decided to create some stop-motion videos about this 5 month battle. I think it is fair to say that we had very mixed success with the stop-motion videos; however, it was still a valuable learning experience and one we hope to trial again.

 

Stop-Motion videos about the aspects of the Battle of the Somme

Trench Foot Reading

Today, we spent some time in the snow trying to recreate the feeling of the soul sapping cold and gruesome mud from the trenches.

Popplets with Perspective...

Hello Reader,


Here are some Popplets with our thoughts and ideas about the book my brother's war.



One of our reading group also brought in an actual gas mask from World War 1.



Photographing Time!

Chronology is a difficult thing to understand, so we spent some time trying to identify different time periods including the era that was World War 1.

Here is a video of some of the discussions we had about the various different photopacks.



Why don't you try to have a go at guessing which time period these photographs belong to. Can you find any photographic evidence which identifies a particular period in time?