Teach Primary Issue 18.2

• How could we use a school logbook as part of a local history unit or as part of a wider theme of changes through time? • How does the information from the logbook fit with other sources of information available to us? • What does the logbook tell us about local, national or global events, such as celebrations or newsworthy happenings? the children are going to think about cause and consequence: it’s important to point out to them that consequences can be positive as well as negative. The logbook tells us that on the 29th April 1942 the school was closed after a severe aerial bombardment. In groups, task the children with identifying three consequences of the bombing from the records available to them. They should be able to discover the following: • The school was closed so that it could be used as an Emergency Feeding and Rest Centre. • When it was repaired and reopened, the school operated a double shift system, with the pupils from St Barnabas attending in the morning What happens when the alert goes off during the day? (The children are taken to the shelters.) We have fire drills in school now – how would it feel to have to do it for real and go out to shelters? Some of the entries are written in black. They tell us that some of the pupils were doing exams. Do the children think that exams should have gone ahead? 3 | THE BAEDEKER RAID The second logbook entry is taken from the end of April 1942. We know that this was when the main so-called Baedeker raid occurred. The raids were named after the German guidebook to British historic cities, and were undertaken in retaliation for the British bombing of the city of Lübeck. For this part of the lesson, • Look at photographs of your own local area from a significant historical period. • Use maps and the internet to find out more information. • Go on a local walk – what evidence is there, for example in buildings, of the impact of events from the past? Walks are a fantastic way of hooking the children’s interest and encouraging them to ask and answer questions about an area they are familiar with. • Old photographs and maps help to present things from a different point of view. For example, seeing pictures of the destruction caused by air raids can have more impact than reading about it in a logbook, and maps can give a better idea of the scale. • Pupils can record what they learn from each type of evidence, e.g. photographs can show that buildings had their windows and roofs broken. • You may also be able to access the logbooks from this time for your own school, and adapt the lesson accordingly. If they are not stored at school, they may have been deposited in a local archive. EXTENDING THE LESSON and those from Poppleton Road school using the building in the afternoon. • Many children were absent from school due to extensive damage to property in the area. What do the children think an Emergency Feeding and Rest Centre was, and why was it needed? Why wasn’t it needed for long? Was this a long-term consequence or a short-term one? What do pupils think happened to Poppleton Road school? Why might it have been bombed? (It was very close to the East Coast mainline railway and also the sugar beet works, which were strategically important as Britain couldn’t get imports of sugar cane at this time.) How do the children think the pupils from both schools felt about sharing a building? Why do they think the junior children went back to school before the infants? Why would children be absent from school if property had been damaged? Where might they have gone? This task helps children to understand that one action – the air raid – can have a number of consequences, and that these can last for varying amounts of time. Some consequences, such as using the school as an Emergency Feeding and Rest Centre, were short lived. On the other hand, the damage to local houses took much longer to be repaired, and there are still gaps in terraces today where houses were never rebuilt. Rachel Bruce is a primary school teacher in York who is passionate about local history and reading. She is an Historical Association teacher fellow and subject leader. “This task helps children to understand that one action can have a number of consequences” USEFUL QUESTIONS www.teachwire.net | 77