Respect for all: Who are the British? (Investigating the Norman Conquest)

This activity was used with pupils in key stage 3, year 7.

Context

This activity took place in a multi-ethnic inner city school that had already developed good practice in teaching black history and in contextualising British history within the wider world. However, there was a sense that more teaching about diversity within Britain was needed and that all children needed to be challenged to think about their cultural identity. As a result, the department looked for opportunities throughout their key stage 3 scheme of work to investigate the bigger questions 'Who are the British?' and 'What does it mean to be British?'.

Aims

• To reflect on what it has meant to be British in the past.
• To debate what it means to be British today.

Activity objectives

• To learn that movement and settlement of peoples are recurring features of history and to learn about how different groups and events have contributed over time to British society and culture.
• To investigate the Norman Conquest.

This activity relates to the schemes of work unit 2 , 'How did medieval monarchs keep control?'.

Activity description

The activity was carried out in the first half of the autumn term of year 7. It formed part of the induction of the new year 7 pupils to the culture of the school and, in particular, to the history department. It also acted as a bridge between the history curriculum at key stage 2 and that at key stage 3.

The teacher prepared a large timeline that started in prehistory and came up to the present day. The title of the timeline was 'Who are the British?'. Drawing on the pupils' own knowledge and, in particular, their history curriculum from key stage 2, the teacher began to put brief information onto the timeline about migration into and settlement in the British Isles over time.

As a whole the class was able to contribute knowledge about the settlement of Romans, Vikings, Anglo-Saxons and Celts in Britain. Some were able to use their own experiences and understanding of late twentieth-century movement and settlement of people to contribute to the timeline.

The teacher used the contributions to focus on relevant vocabulary and specialist terms, such as 'migration', 'invasion', 'settlement', and 'conquest'. Terms and their meanings were displayed near the timeline and the difference in meaning between particular terms, such as 'conquest', 'invasion' and 'migration' were discussed.

The teacher used resources and questioning to reinforce understanding of diversity within groups as well as between groups. To begin with, the class focused on the Romans. They used maps of the Roman Empire and pictures of Romans (including an illustration of black Roman soldiers on Hadrian's Wall) and Roman artefacts to identify diversity within the group known as 'Roman'. Some pupils had carried out work at key stage 2 on stereotypes of Vikings and this was an opportunity to introduce the concept of stereotyping into this activity.

The class then used a range of resources, including pictures of the Sutton Hoo ship burial, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Milton Jewel, and the Faversham Jewel, to establish the diversity of society and culture in the British Isles before 1066. Pupils annotated the artefacts to point out pagan and Christian influences, Saxon and Celt influences and tribal differences across the British Isles. Trade links with the Red Sea, India, Byzantium, France and Italy were also inferred from the artefacts.

Having established the diverse nature of society and culture in the British Isles before 1066 and the contributions of different groups over time to this diversity, the pupils moved on to find out about the Normans and why William wanted to conquer England in 1066. Images from the Bayeux Tapestry were selected and used to infer the story of the Norman Conquest. For example, the panel showing a woman and child leaving their burning house was selected to highlight the different and varied consequences of the conquest for people living in the British Isles. Vocabulary such as 'sanctuary' and 'refugee' were introduced and discussed within the context of the Norman Conquest.

The pupils went on to investigate how William kept control of England. The impact of the 'Harrying of the North' was also used as an opportunity to learn about some of the consequences of invasion and migration. William's failure to control Wales and Scotland was used as an opportunity to convey that the Norman Conquest had a different impact on life in different parts of the British Isles.

Commentary

The timeline was an effective device to help pupils make links and connections between events over time. However, the teachers were concerned that it might not be a sufficiently coherent learning experience and, consequently, their evaluation will focus on how to enhance the coherence of such a long-term development study.

Within the activity there are clearly many opportunities for history teaching and learning to contribute to citizenship education. In the future, the department plans to build on this activity by enabling pupils to apply their knowledge and understanding of British identity in the past to debate questions such as ' What does it mean to be British today?', 'Do you have to be born in Britain / live in Britain / have a British passport / speak English / have a particular religion, and so on?'.

There are also many opportunities for history teaching and learning to contribute to literacy. In future the department intends to plan work on history and literacy by examining how the English language has developed because of migration and settlement. More specifically the department plans to focus on words from the Vikings and Normans that have become part of standard English.

Resources

The history schemes of work can be found at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes
The online national curriculum can be found at www.nc.uk.net

History introduction

All subjects and activities

Respect for all introduction

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