Ryders Hayes School

Whilst training as a teacher, I worked as a museum demonstrator for the Ironbridge Gorge Museums, at Blists Hill Victorian Town, a living history museum based in Telford, Shropshire. This helped to develop my interest in teaching local history and its significance. I enjoy helping children to understand the story of their local area and helping them to look for clues that help them to piece together a picture of their local history e.g. using street names or football teams. I then enjoy helping them to make the links between this local history to national and global history.  

The Local History Teacher Fellowship has been a really insightful course that has opened up a number of opportunities for me to explore. I have really learnt to look beyond the obvious and have begun to really appreciate the rich history of the area I live and work in, and how it has contributed to national and global achievements. This has prompted me to look more closely at how and what we are teaching as part of local history – the Spitfire was manufactured locally and the leather industry in the area was world renowned. The knowledge and having ideas is really useful, but the course, through its reading and collaboration with others, is helping me build a toolkit into how this can be implemented. I am now beginning to develop an interest into the development of transport in the West Midlands from manufacturing the Spitfire to Sunbeam Motor Cars – plenty to inspire me, the children and resources!

Matt Flynn, History Subject Leader at Ryders Hayes School, West Midlands