Local Study

The importance of local history for developing a sense of place and identity is emphasised by the National Curriculum. The local landscape and buildings can often reveal a great deal about the use of land and the type of people who lived there in the past. Buildings and landscape can reveal how long a heritage the place has had. Monuments and local heritage or parish records can highlight individual local heroes or provide a window into the lives of ordinary local people in times gone by. How similar or different were their lives? Often, the local picture can also help to reveal the national or international picture.

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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    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.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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  • Using a local historical figure as a stimulus for history in the English National Curriculum

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Editorial comment: Ben Screech indicates how new trainees are being trained to adapt to the opportunities that the Historical, Geographical and Social Studies area of the New National Curriculum offers.

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  • A Local History Toolkit

    Article

    IntroductionIn this short paper you will discover some of the tools for ‘doing' local history. They are based on where I live: you can get similar types of sources from where you live, work or teach. Your main source will be a local library or record office, but there is...

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  • Using Local Buildings

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Whilst there are many obvious historical buildings - castles, Roman Villas and Abbeys these often involve transport costs which may be beyond a school budget. Turner-Bisset suggests: There is also history in ordinary, everyday sites,...

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  • History in the Urban Environment

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. A study of the local environment can make a vital contribution to children's sense of identity, their sense of place and the community in which they live. More importantly, a local study can enable children...

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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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  • Engaging places with KS2

    Article

    Engaging Pupils: An A Level student describes her experience of collaborative working with Key Stage 2.When the students at Thamesview Vocational Centre found out we were working with the local junior school, Riverview Primary, we were quite surprised. We had been working on the Engaging Places project which was a...

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  • England's Past For Everyone

    Article

    England's Past for Everyone was a local history project run by the Victoria County History. Volunteers throughout the country worked alongside authors and researchers to produce a whole range of new resources. From a series of books to learning resources for schools, it sought to bring local history to life.  The EPE project was...

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  • The British Association for Local History (BALH)

    Article

    The British Association for Local History is the national charity which promotes local history and serves local historians. Its purpose is to encourage and assist the study of local history as an academic discipline and as a rewarding leisure pursuit for both individuals and groups. Local history enriches our lives...

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  • Primary History 52: Education and the Environment

    Article

    03 Editorial 04 In my view: Education and the built environment – Dominic Balmforth 06 In my view: Primary history and Engaging Places – Rochelle Whitty 08 In my view: Engaging Pupils: An A Level student describes her experience of collaborative working with Key Stage 2 – Bernice Waghorn 09...

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  • School children work as archaeologists

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Adults find local history fascinating: the minutiae of life in the past and the way a familiar place has become what it is today capture our imagination. But children may be rather less eager to...

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  • Our heritage: use it or lose it

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated. Mrs Markham's influential textbook, ‘A History of England', was first published in 1819 but was still being printed at the end of the nineteenth century. At the end of each chapter is a ‘Conversation'...

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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 creative history curriculum

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated. Do you give in to bullying, stay loyal to your leader, admit your actions, betray your neighbours, challenge discrimination or just keep quiet? These were the issues faced by Year 4 children at East...

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  • Northamptonshire in a Global Context

    Article

    Produced by the Northamptonshire Black History Association and originally published in 2008, this is one of a set of resources for schools offering a more inclusive map of the past that includes an appreciation of Black History within the local, national and global context. The resources provide a range of opportunities to promote diversity within the curriculum....

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  • Primary History 46: Citizenship, Controversial Issues & Identity

    Article

    04 Editorial: history, citizenship and the curriculum – a fit purpose (Read article) 05 In My View: citizenship education in primary schools – Lord Adonis 06 In My View: history and identity – Sir Keith Ajegbo 07 Citizenship, identity and culture: Two Poems – Benjamin Zephaniah and an 8th century...

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  • Introducing history at Key Stage 1: a view from the classroom

    Article

    Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. ‘What are we doing this for?’ I was asked this question as we entered the churchyard to look at the local War memorial. The curiosity and directness of a six year old child is guaranteed...

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  • What was it like to live here in the past? Resourcing the local study

    Article

    Finding sources for your local study can be a challenge, particularly if you are not familiar with the history of the area around your school. Please note: this article uses the Images of England website which has now closed down. The images can still be found via the Historic England website. This...

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  • Planning a Victorian School Day

    Article

    Learning is more engaging and better retained when it is contextualised and when it appeals to a variety of learning styles. How better to bring history alive, than by having it invade children's school environment and transform their everyday experience? Getting away from predominantly auditory learning, the printed word and...

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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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