Pupils completed a local project alongside their National 4 History qualification. Pupils studied WW1 in Scotland, looking at reasons for men signing up, life in the trenches and the impact back home. We then took this further by investigating life in our local area of Lochgelly. We visited the local War Memorial, used online websites such as ‘a street near you’, walked around the local area, explored primary sources and conducted an activity using the local War Graves. We were also lucky enough to have a Historian from St Andrews University call in to speak to us.
Bronze
3-6
14-15
September – November 2020
How the project achieved the sections of the award
Plan
Alongside our National 4 History WW1 topic we decided to look more at the effects of the war on our home town of Lochgelly.
Investigate
• We researched online using a ‘a street near you’. This allows you to look up the soldiers in your street/ surrounding area that died during the war.
• We studied primary sources – pictures/ letters and secondary sources – extracts from books
• We asked people at home if they knew anything about WW1
• Participated in a zoom call with St Andrews University Historian Derek Patrick who is local to Lochgelly and he told us some interesting facts about local men
• Investigated primary sources and watched videos about the conditions in the trenches local men would have experienced.
• We looked at local stories in the newspapers from WW1 and annotated these
• Annotated a poem written by a man from Lochgelly writing about the War
Engage
• Visited our local war memorial
• We participated in a local war graves exercise
• We used ‘a street near you’ to find out local names of soldiers who had died in our streets (we then went to visit some of the houses when visiting war memorial)
• Using our artistic skills, we created trench shoe box displays.
Inspire
We have created a notice board in the library and have also shared what we have learned with other history teachers and students
Reflect
Comments from pupils reflecting on project:
“Getting someone to drive the mini bus and people being off” – due to poor attendance it stopped us visiting the war grave on the first occasion
“The weather it was cold when we went for our memorial walk”
“It achieved its aim we learned more about our local area”
“It was interesting to learn about people that lived in Lochgelly”
“I have learned to look at the local History around me more”
Quote:
I have really enjoyed running the Heritage Hero Awards alongside the National 4 unit. Investigating our local area makes a more engaging course. Running this project during a pandemic changed some of our plans but I would definitely run this again next year, inviting in local speakers to the school and exploring outside in the community more.
Teacher
Lessons learned:
Project overall worked well. Attendance issues was the real problem.
The benefit of using the Heritage Hero Awards
I think the awards will inspire the children to take an active role in the conservation and preservation of their local history. The certificate helps reflect their achievements and gives them a sense of pride.
This will be presented by the Schools Head Teacher in a Certificate ceremony which will boost self esteem and confidence.
Highlights:
We were lucky to have a call with St Andrews University History Professor Derek Patrick, who is Local to Lochgelly himself. He told stories of local troops.
We found out that on average more men died from Scotland than Wales and England. We learned that wages were a main reason men signed up to War, they were wanting a change of job as many had been miners for years.
Case study compiled by
(Pauline Abbie – History Teacher at Lochgelly High School in Fife)
With thanks to
(Thank you to Historian Derek Patrick from St Andrew University for speaking to our pupils and Bentary Heritage Group for their wonderful local online resources)
More information on this project can be found at:
(@MissPAbbie)
