Beech Hill brings history to life

Beech Hill brings history to life

Beech Hill Primary, in West Denton, successfully secured funding from the Community Foundation / Schools North East collaboration to start a project that enabled a ‘hands on’ approach to history.

The project provided history themed workshops for pupils from Year 1 to Year 6 by visiting local museums, allowing students to dive into practical history and learn from experts how the past is interpreted and constructed.

Community Foundation

The project was funded through a partnership between the Community Foundation and Schools North East. The partnership behind the funding began in 2021. Schools North East teamed up with the Community Foundation to make over £100,000 of funding available for schools in Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, Northumberland, North and South Tyneside.

The funding aimed to embed cultural capital through outdoor education, physical activity and sport. Funding was provided for projects that focused on providing a broader enriched curriculum to support students in-school learning, raise levels of pride and appreciation of the region, and develop cultural capital within school settings. 

Beech Hill enrich their curriculum

Beech Hill received nearly  £4,000 from the funding to allow them to engage with cultural enrichment opportunities and workshops. Some of the students that took part in the workshop were identified as Pupil Premium students who had limited opportunities to experience events like these outside of school.

All students were fully engaged by the workshops/trips through the amount of resources and novel experiences they received.  The main focus was History – but a trip to the York Dungeon for Year 6 demonstrated the magic of theatre to the children too. Additionally, the Dance Through the Decades workshop, aside from History, had links to PE, music and culture.

All workshops linked to topics that the children had been studying. For example, Year 5 had been studying changes to Newcastle before and after WW2 and the WW2 workshop deepened their understanding of this. Students had a greater appreciation of the different types of history that exist e.g. cultural, military, local, national and learnt about how historians construct the past and how memories of the past are preserved.

Initial Project Breakdown

• Year 1: Toys from the Past: 

This session aimed to show the pupils how toys had changed over time, what different materials had been used to make them and how they can be made. The pupils got the chance to handle real toys from the past and present and sort them into different categories.

• Year 2: Ship building:
  This project linked to Year 2’s local History topic, this workshop explained how shipbuilding has always been important in the region and in this workshop they explored why. The children got the chance to explore the different jobs in a shipyard and explore some of the ships displayed in the museum. 

• Year 3: Stephenson’s Rocket: 

Linked to Year3’s Victorian topic, Students explored Stephenson’s Rocket and the story behind this famous locomotive. They discovered the science behind steam engines, learnt about the Rainhill trials and investigated Rockets rivals.   

• Year 4: Blitz workshop:

Children discovered why this area was targeted by German bombers and investigated how the government tried to protect the people of the North East. This session linked to their existing WWII curriculum.

• Year 5: Building Bridges: 

This project linked to their local History topic, children studied some of Newcastle’s most iconic bridges and then investigated the best ways to build a bridge.

• Year 6: York dungeon: 

This activity linked to Year 6’s Viking topic. They planned to take the children to the old Viking capital of Jorvik, giving them a walking tour of the city and a trip to York Dungeon.

CASE STUDY: KS1 dancing through time workshop

The dancing workshop, booked using funds from the grant, had a successful and positive impact on Beech Hill’s KS1 cohort. It helped the children examine the way dance styles have evolved over time and gain an understanding of dance’s cultural context. 

They also explored British culture through movement. They were able to celebrate the reign of Britain’s longest serving monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. Finally, they developed teamwork, confidence and performance skills during the workshop. The Platinum Jubilee celebrations last year meant that lots of links could be made during and after the session for the children to understand the huge changes that the country has undergone both culturally and socially. 

The school reported that to improve this kind of event in the future, children would be given more time to explore the themes and links made within the session and perhaps have multiple sessions to gain a deeper appreciation of the themes. If implemented in another school, Beech Hill recommends teachers prepare a classroom-based session beforehand, exploring cultural change in Britain, to prepare children for the workshop. 

CASE STUDY: Year 4 Roman workshop

The Roman workshop was able to capture the imagination of those students who were not as engaged with the history curriculum. Seeing history ‘come to life’ really helped some students come to terms with the Roman empire and how culturally and socially different they were. 

During the visit, a soldier arrived, as he did nearly 2,000 years ago, wearing his full armour and carrying his marching pack (impedimenta) when his legion invaded Britain in 43 A.D. 

All equipment worn, shown and demonstrated is copied from actual archaeological finds. Children explored a variety of aspects of Roman life from the soldier’s perspective: Where he came from and why he joined the army; what he had to learn to be a soldier; what was all his equipment for and why he couldn’t shop at Tesco; why they wanted to conquer Britain; how the Romans defeated the Britons and squashed the rebellions of Queen Boudicca.

CASE STUDY: York dungeon trip

The York dungeon trip provided immense cultural capital for Beech Hill’s KS2 cohort. They made the journey to York via train – for some of our students, this was the first time on a train. The school took a short walk around York, pointing out places of interest such as the famous York Minster. 

The dungeon itself was both memorable and thrilling for their students; it tied in perfectly with the Crime and Punishment topic they had delivered in school. The children were keen to carry out research on the famous highwayman, Dick Turpin, upon their return to school and it opened up discussions on the nature of how punishment has changed over time, including the purpose of punishment.

Ongoing Resources and Progress

Staff were introduced to new resources that can be used in future History lessons. Experiences and resources used in the workshop were discussed in subsequent lessons too. Engagement in History was monitored in school through progression in the subject through formative and summative assessments. Children identifying places of interest in their local area will also be a factor.

Enriching Curriculum

Chris Zarraga, Director of Schools North East added: 

“Well done to Beech Hill for such a creative and wide ranging use of this funding and enriching their existing History Curriculum. The Community Foundation Funding has really helped give schools in the region an opportunity to expand on their teaching and provide richer and deeper experiences for students. We love when the schools involved send us their case studies and we get to see how much of an impact the project has had on their students.”

Beech Hill School is a Schools North East Partner School. If you’d like to find out more about our Partner School Programme click here.

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