At the end of my prehistoric archaeology workshops, teachers often say to me that they have learned as much as the children have. Of course, they may just be being polite, but after further conversation, it transpires that many teachers are, in fact, learning alongside the children they are teaching. After even further conversation, it becomes apparent that they might just appreciate a bit of a helping hand.
So, with this in mind we (my archaeologist husband and I) have set about writing overviews and summaries of the period, from the Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age) all the way to the end of the Iron Age and the arrival of those pesky Romans (what did they ever do for us, eh?). I will be posting these over the coming months, along with links for further information and ideas for teaching and fulfilling all those Learning Objectives on the new Primary History Curriculum. I will even throw in some cross curricular links.
Now, this may come a little late for those of you who have already started or indeed finished teaching the topic for this academic year, but we will keep it updated so that it will be useful for years to come and, even if a new government gets in this year and starts messing around with the curriculum again (will they ever leave it alone?), some of you may want to continue teaching prehistory. It is of course a wonderful topic to get your teeth into and, as someone said to me only yesterday, there are so much cross-curricular links it’s wonderful!
I will be starting this week with the Old Stone Age, also known as the Palaeolithic. Watch this space…