Derbyshire School Project Activity Day
The Derbyshire school project is led by Orlinda Dias of the Derbyshire County Council, working closely with a History Advanced Skills Teacher. Pupils from both The Bolsover School (secondary) and New Bolsover Primary School are involved in the project which aims to explore the life of people in New Bolsover in the 1900s (mining community).
The Year 9 pupils (ages 13 – 14), in suitable costume, were placed at relevant houses and interest points around New Bolsover village. They had previously researched the people that lived at these houses, and so ‘adopted’ their characters, who were interviewed throughout the morning by the Year 5 pupils (ages 9 – 10). The primary school pupils and teachers/assistants also dressed up.
In small groups, the primary school pupils moved around New Bolsover village to interview the characters (teacher; priest; quarry-owner; pony-driver; mineworker). The ‘interviewers’ asked the characters about themes such as sport/leisure, housing, alcohol laws and schooling. Through EPE funding, the primary school purchased recording microphones for the interviews. The audio recordings will be used in the final part of the project, where all the pupils will receive IT training from Derbyshire County Council. They will then develop their own webpages and upload images and audio files about the whole project and information about their local history.
The pupils have already enjoyed a visit to the National Coal Mining Museum (Wakefield, West Yorkshire), and census research sessions with local librarian support. The pupils also received role-play/interviewing skills training, in preparation for their activity day.
Orlinda Dias commented on the ongoing success of this project: “Thank you again for working with Derbyshire - it is a joy to work with young people engaged with their learning and supported by the adults in the schools and in partnerships beyond the schools.”
