You Are Here
Lees Primary School
Margaret Mc Millan Primary School
This was a
year-long linking project between two schools, beginning with the
children focusing on their own identity and sharing this
information with each other through emails. Following this,
these two primary schools researched their own family history and
settlement, finding out about how they came to be in Bradford, what
journeys they had taken and why their families decided to settle
here. They then spent a day together at Bradford Industrial Museum
using the “You Are Here” exhibition to research the patterns of
history and settlement across the Bradford district from 1800 to
2007. For the first activity they worked together to develop a
timeline of Bradford, looking carefully at who came to Bradford,
when and why they came and which special objects they brought to
the culture of modern Bradford. They then worked with a drama
artist to produce a timeline of Bradford using freeze frame and
movement.
For the second
activity the children found out about the different games children
in Bradford played in the past. They then had an opportunity to
play some of these games, e.g. Victorian street games like Diablo,
Marbles, Skittles and Hopscotch.
Through working on the activities, the
children began to understand the bigger picture of how modern
culture in Bradford has evolved over many years of settlement. They
soon recognised that on some level everyone comes from somewhere
and were able to relate this to their own and family members
experience. This enabled them to create positive links and gain a
new level of understanding of the children they were linking
with.
“It was really nice to find out my friend’s mum was born in Ireland and moved to Bradford like I had moved from Bangladesh!”
Year 4 child – Lees Primary School
“The day really made my class think about their own heritage and opened up lots of opportunities, for them to ask questions at school and at home. After the day they enjoyed bringing in objects like the objects they had seen in the exhibition”
Year 4 Teacher – Margaret McMillan Primary School