Local History

Local history provides rich opportunities to engage children in their immediate local area and understand their own history and how history contributes to a greater overall understanding and bigger picture. In this section you will find articles, guides, and resources to enable you to make local history meaningful.

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  • Introducing local history: the Fusehill Workhouse Project

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Master and Mistress of the Workhouse refused to talk to any of us as she was adamant that nothing she could remember would be very interesting! Of course disappointments like this have to be accepted and...

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  • Planning for local history

    Article

    Editorial comment: Barbara writes from the viewpoint of a classroom teacher facing the challenge of ‘Doing local history' for the first time.

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  • Saltaire: Planning for an effective learning experience on a living site

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. In the autumn of 2009 I agreed to contribute to a project looking at how Saltaire village, Bradford could be developed as an educational site. This is a very popular site visited by many local schools,...

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  • Oral history - a source of evidence for the primary classroom

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. To help children develop a more rounded awareness of historical understanding, they should have the opportunity to examine different types of evidence. The National Curriculum states that, "children should recognise that the past is represented and interpreted...

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  • 'Doing Local History' through maps and drama

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Editorial note: John Fines produced two case studies of Local History for the Nuffield Primary History Project. One on them is published here for the first time.

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  • Pride in place: What does historical geographical and social understanding look like?

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. ‘Some primary schools are like the High Street in many of our towns. I can predict what I will see before I go through the door. What I want to see is something that gives me...

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  • Hearts, Hamsters and Historic Education

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. This is a reflection on a project, set up with a variety of different thoughts about education in its widest sense. Or, to put it another way, a primary school teacher's record of a unique...

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  • Learning what a place does and what we do for it

    Article

    Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated. Why teach children about architecture and the built environment? Because they shape the future and because they already change our architecture and define the public realm everyday through their actions. Learning about architecture and the built...

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  • Dealing with the dead: Identity and community - Monuments, memorials and local history

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Death is one of the most sensitive and controversial issues that teachers encounter, linked inextricably as it is to identity. I think it sometimes escapes our attention that, as teachers of history, we constantly deal...

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  • The Leeds Community History Project

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. The Nuffield Foundation-funded Leeds Community History Project brought together schools and older community members in the creation of community archives. It focused on articulating, valuing and recording the older generation's memories and knowledge. Its overarching...

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  • Research the history of the fire service in the local community

    Article

    Jayne Pascoe, third year BEd trainee teacher describes the use of the fire service in her assignment on 'exploring an aspect of local history'.

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  • How do we ensure really good local history in primary schools?

    Article

    Primary History regularly contains articles from teachers who have taken some aspect of their locality and turned it into a really good activity. Hundreds of OFSTED reports as well, comment on really good practice in local history and children and their parents (perhaps, even more the grandparents) have got caught...

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  • Some teaching and learning strategies

    Article

    The history of the community is an important aspect of history in both key stages but is rarely something that can just be taken off the shelf. Wherever possible, local history should be used to link different periods of history. The specific Key Stage 2 unit should be an investigation...

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  • A treasure trove of local history - how to use your local record office

    Article

    In her article in Primary History No 21, Jayne Woodhouse highlighted that the study of history needn’t be all about national events. Essentially it is a series of stories, often about ordinary people and their ordinary lives, which can be built up from the evidence available in archives and artefacts....

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