Year 9 War Art...

My Year 9 History group have just finished the First World War unit and ended it by creating their own pieces of war art.

Here are a few excellent examples:



By Frankie K 9EAr



By Hannah H 9EAr



By Sarah B 9JCo

Let me know what you think!

Buy Cromwell's Death Mask-warts and all!

Do you fancy owning the death mask of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell? The above is for sale and could be yours for around £1000! The mask is about 350 years old and shows Cromwell in an exact light-just how he intended! Cromwell was not a fan of vanity in the slightest and insisted that all portraits, even after he expired, were done to show 'warts and all'.

I love History Too!

I have just come across a great website for lower school students aptly called 'I Love History' (many of my students will hear me say that a lot!). The website has lots of great information and links to games, podcasts and other great websites that relate to the curriculum at Swanwick Hall! Unfortunately the revision podcasts for GCSE are no use to our students as they do not cover the topics we study.

Take a look at the website and look out for new content that relates to your lessons!

What have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

Those of you in Year 8 are currently studying 'The Romans'. This is a very famous clip from the Monty Python's Life of Brian, where several rebels are debating what the Romans have ever done to benefit them. Classic!

Bringing WWII to life through ICT...

As it is getting ever closer to the start of the 08/09 academic year, I thought that I had better start blogging about things that my students will be able to use in their historical education.

I thought I would start with one of my favourite subjects-the Second World War! This topic is studied in Year 9, along with WWI and Black Civil Rights.

For those students who like to do their own research on the topics they study at school, you will not go far wrong when using the National Archives Learning Curve website. In particular, I am impressed with the World War II exhibition on the website, which brings learning about WWII to life by incorporating animated maps, hundreds of photographs, film clips, sound files and documents into twenty investigations that take you through all aspects of the war.

For those of you who want to improve your historical skills and experience a very interesting period of History at the same time, the WWII exhibition is definitely for you.