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Exploring the lives of individuals from the past is helping pupils at Fernhill School and Language College make sense of history’s big issues and key concepts.

Staff at Fernhill School and Language College have always tried to help learners relate to history by ‘meeting the ancestors’. Richard Arkwright introduces pupils to a unit on the Industrial Revolution. The experiences of rural people in Hampshire protesting in the 1830s are seen through the eyes of the unknown Mason brothers.  Therefore teachers were delighted to see that the new programme of study for history gave them even greater flexibility to introduce key individuals from the past into their scheme of work for key stage 3. As a starting point, they decided to develop pupils’ understanding of key political events from 1900 to 1939 and the turning points of World War 2 through an enquiry into whether Winston Churchill deserves to be regarded as the greatest ever Briton.

Topping the poll

A BBC poll of the 100 greatest Britons proved an engaging starting point. In this age of celebrity, did the pupils know what the public’s top 10 looked like? And who was voted into the top spot? Some of them guessed it was Winston Churchill, leading neatly to a critical evaluation of whether he deserved such an accolade.

Having recapped some of the key events of World War 2, the pupils listened to two of Churchill’s speeches to the House of Commons: ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ (May 1940) and ‘we will fight them on the beaches’ (June 1940). They also looked at a Low cartoon from 1945 entitled ‘Britain’s greatest ever wartime Prime Minister’. At this point, when asked to vote whether Churchill was the greatest Briton they agreed unanimously that he was.

The teacher then directed the pupils towards events that helped them see Churchill in a more ambiguous light. Research into his career from 1900 to 1939 revealed a very different man who made a number of mistakes and spent many years in the political wilderness. A closer look at the important years from 1940 to June 1941 showed that although Churchill raised the nation’s spirits during this difficult time, very little happened that could be regarded as a victory. Sorting cards summarising the main events of World War 2 into four groups – Allied losses outside Churchill’s control, Allied losses affected by Churchill, Allied victories without Churchill’s influence and Allied victories because of Churchill – helped the pupils to understand the vital influence of the USA and the USSR on the main turning points of the war. As a result, some came to the conclusion that Churchill made little material difference to the Allied victory.

When a final vote was taken on whether Churchill deserved to be voted the greatest Briton of all time, the class was split. Whatever their standpoint, pupils were able to use their new knowledge and understanding to justify their view coherently. They wrote persuasive letters to BBC History magazine arguing the case.

Engagement and rigour

The success of this work reinforced the school’s commitment to helping learners relate to history through the lives of individuals. Tapping into the modern phenomenon of top 100s and focusing on a contentious issue based on interpretation captured their interest from the outset. Historical rigour was maintained through using genuine sources such as speeches and political cartoons and linking these to knowledge of the period to evaluate Churchill’s significance. By the end of the project, the pupils had improved knowledge and understanding of the past and had learnt new critical evaluation and enquiry skills.