Writing from experience

The business of ‘experiencing' history is in as healthy state as it is possible to imagine. In a recent straw poll of primary GTP trainees in the Oxford-Bucks partnership over 80% cited drama, role play or similar inter-active experience as being the most memorable feature of learning history in the primary school. Whenever I visit schools I invariably see displayed on walls accounts of trips to Victorian schools or Tudor kitchens where children have been actively participating in the historical setting. In school too, Civil War soldiers, Air Raid Wardens and even Inca kings can be found in ever-increasing numbers. What can be something of a disappointment, however, is the way in which these memorable experiences have been utilised by teachers. All too often the ‘story of the day' is a predictable and monotonous chronology of writing...