Sue and Gail reflect on the making of the Local Area Resource
Sue Carter, Assistant Head at Redhills Primary
By a pupil at Redhills Primary
and encourage other schools to explore their local environment
As told to Sarah, Curator of West Exe on 6 November 2008
Sarah: So how do you feel now the resource is ready to launch into the world?
Sue: You and I feel a great sense of achievement. I feel that it's been a great journey and a great experience. The collaboration working with the museum has been enriching and I think that's a very positive thing for other people to take up. Teaching is a very busy life and to take on additional things you are adding to your work load, but I don't think it's felt like that. What we've got out of it in the end has been really worth while, not only for us but for the children and for the community. And I would say to other people it's been a really good thing to do and if you get the opportunity become involved, and do it. It has been so rewarding.
Gail: The two of us working together, we've gelled together and thrown ideas around. We're both interested in history and we both worked in the same year group. Working together to develop it helped us.
Interest sparked off in the community
Gail: And the interest that it's sparked off in the community. Maybe if more people are aware of the website we might get even more feedback. It would be nice to collect things to add to it. That would be just great. People's personal recollections. The stigma is taken away which is how B remembers her father, who really thought the workhouse was an austere place to live in. It was only when he got older that he would talk to her about it.
The mum who lives in part of the workhouse now said "I can see now why our rooms are the shape they are. Obviously the main structure has stayed the same. We've got a very long corridor with the rooms going out. It makes sense now."
Rewarding for all the staff involved
Sue: It's been exciting looking at those primary sources, looking through the boxes.
Gail: And saying to you [at the museum], "We'd like such and such." and then finding that it's there.
Sue: It's also the opportunity to talk about something that you're really interested in with like-minded people. We sort of found the workhouse, didn't we, and it kicked off from there.
Gail: And N, who wrote the drama script, feels it as well. She said to me, "I've never done anything like this before. " Both TAs were really pleased that their names were on the webpage and N said "I rang my mum and showed her, and she's really proud of it." And her mum's made all the mob caps and aprons for the children to wear for the performance so it's become a family thing too.
Sarah: And I think both Kate (RAMM Access Officer) and I enjoyed the mirror of what you're saying. We're working with original material all the time but to see your skill in translating difficult original sources into something children can connect with has been great.
Sue: It's a two way process. We have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Children have told their parents
Gail: What's also happening is with the parents. One of the parents came in and said, "Actually I didn't know what it was and I've gone round and really looked at it now." The grandfather of one of our TA's used to live in the workhouse and he used to talk to her about it. It's made people think about what's on their doorstep. We've had parents coming in, haven't we Sue.
Sue: The children have gone home and talked to their parents and their enthusiasm has involved the parents.
Gail: Some of them have gone home and looked on the website. And one of the TAs said "I went on the site and looked at the map." She said, "I didn't realise workhouses were that shape. You can really see." And she was amazed. It's raised peoples awareness and really got them thinking
Enriching the QCA objectives
Sue: It's produced opportunities for N, who's very good, and has written the play. To do drama but also to contribute to the curriculum. It [the play] is an enrichment, it is an additional thing, but actually it's feeding into the whole of the learning, the whole of the QCA objectives.
Gail: The children have got a real feel for it. You have to keep going over things but suddenly something will spark it off. That particular year group do find that whole concept of time very difficult.
Sue: We were thinking back, weren't we, about when the letter came inviting us to get involved. Gail and I had the interest in the history and we do the local area, but we weren't entirely happy with what we were doing. We thought this is a great opportunity for us to make it more interesting so that's why we started off. I think on a personal level as well we've got so much out of it
Gail: Yes we have.
Chance to work with specialists and original sources
Sue: Because we got to visit the Devon Record Office and look through all the original documents.
Gail: And work with people who are specialists. Phil [Planel, the professional researcher employed by RAM to help on the project] came in and set us off looking at different things. We wanted a visual Jackdaw Pack, and Sue said the other night "I think that's what we've actually achieved", with a lot of your help and you making it happen
Sue: That's where the partnerships come in. We've all been very enthusiastic about it. Its all been very interesting for all of us and we've all had that enthusiasm and we've all got different skills that have come together to make the end product. When we look at it we can't quite believe how it started off and how we went along the journey and that's the end result. How good it looks and now, with Gail trialling it, how effective it is.
What the children make of it
Gail: There are some bits that need to be fine tweaked.
[Note: The resource is now refined as a result of the trialling]
With older children I would use all the extracts, but with younger children choose one extract and really go in depth. The one about the school room or the one about nursing babies. The plans for the houses and the workhouse plan have gone down really well, they've really thought about that. If I did it again rather than try and use all the extracts I'd choose one and really focus on the differences between their school room and our schoolroom because they really came up with some fantastic ideas.
The idea about the fire when they started to think about why there was a fire in the room: B, one of my less able children sat there and thought about it, then he suddenly said "How do you get a fire in a wall?" And he looked at the classroom wall and said "I haven't got a hole in my wall for a fire. But you'd need a chimney. The y must have had chimneys in the workhouse." The class wanted to go out and have a look and see if there were any chimneys. That's genuine 'Then and Now'. We got a lot of that.
Also the lock up - the 16 year olds being in the lock up. We talked about cupboards. K said "I remember getting shut in a cupboard when I was little. We were playing a game." And I said, "What did it feel like K?" He said, "It was dark. I wasn't scared because my mum came and found me quickly." And he said "I think I would have been scared if mum hadn't come." The extracts are hard but a lot has come out from the actual quality of the primary sources.
Getting everybody involved
Sue: The other great thing is how visual everything is. Being able to just click on it and it being on the screen. The maps on the screen are a great resource, being able to flick from one to another and see what's changed.
Gail: They really thought about the actual plans of their homes and the plan of the workhouse. That's come through. Getting them to think about what the rooms were used for then and now.
Sue: One of the great things is that now it's become bigger than teacher - class. It's the TAs who've done the play and so they are now part of the process. They own that part. And that I think s a great example of working together, being inclusive, getting everybody involved.
Making the learning real
Gail: There's a cross-over between the different elements. When we were looking at jobs we came to oakum picking and one of the children put her hand up and said "I know what that is. I have to do that in the play. You have to pull rope out and it cuts your fingers. I wouldn't want to do that." The drama is helping them think about what children did in the past.
Sue: I think what its doing is it's making the learning real, and its coming to life. The workhouse is only there, over the road, and we see it everyday and one of the children lives there. Sometimes history is a bit abstract. You're talking about it and you're looking at pictures. The great thing about doing the project in the community you are in is that they are actually seeing it. They can go and touch it. It makes it easier to absorb. It's coming to life for them.
Gail: The buzz that the children are getting out of it is great!
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