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KHS on the Western Front Association podcast

At Kingham Hill we are developing a passion for history among our Third Formers with a unique approach to studying the First World War.

In what we call an “integrated approach”, our pupils study the Great War in depth in their history lessons, following a curriculum devised by our resident military historian, Gareth Williams (who also happens to be our Head of Languages).  They put the specialist knowledge gained in these lessons to good use in their Digital Literacy classes, where they use a range of primary sources available online (the National Archives, Library Archives Canada, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and our own digitised archives).  Their aim is to piece together the “story” of one of the men on our war memorial in Chapel.  In so doing, our aim is to have the pupils experience the highs and lows of archival research: our Librarian and Digital Literacy specialist, Donna Saxby, encourages them to develop methodical techniques for trawling through war diaries and census returns, supporting them as they deal with the numerous “dead ends” which such research entails.  The pupils then piece together their research and present it to a panel of teachers, who give individual feedback.  The best work is then presented to the Cheltenham and Gloucester branch of the Western Front Association by the pupils themselves.

In addition to these two specialist-led courses, the pupils all go to France and Belgium for a week in order to continue their research in the field.  Our unique approach to battlefield touring means that the pupils learn about the War through following the story of their chosen soldier.  We are committed to ensuring the battlefield tour is neither a sight-seeing trip nor a procession of cemeteries: we get to the heart of the subject by walking the ground the men fought over in order that the pupils might understand at least something of their experience.

In this podcast, you will hear Gareth Williams and Donna Saxby explaining how our “integrated approach” works and the rationale behind it.  You will also hear some of the pupils themselves talking about the breakthroughs and frustrations of their own research.

To hear the POdcast, CLick here

June, 2022