Budding historians went the extra mile last week when asked
to collate primary sources of information demonstrating their life achievements.
Mrs Stratton’s Year 7 class are learning all about the
differences between primary and secondary sources, and how to infer accurate
information from them. This understanding will support their studies in the
years to come, as analysing the quality and validity of differing historical
accounts is a vital part of the subject.
The class learnt that primary sources are original documents
or physical objects created during the period being investigated, while
secondary sources, such as textbooks or journals, interpret and analyse a
primary source. For prep, the boys were asked to collect primary sources about
their own childhoods, for their classmates to analyse in the next lesson.
Mrs Stratton was hugely impressed by the effort the class
put in, with boys producing mountains of awards, documents and photographs as a
record of achievements in school, music, sport and several other domains. Some
pupils brought in evidence of their siblings and pets, while Ben Ferguson even
supplied his (expired) passport. The group also enjoyed looking at historical
artefacts including an army helmet from World War II.
Working with a partner, the boys were then tasked with
writing a paragraph analysing the available information. With this, they had created
a number of reliable secondary sources!
