History
2024-2025
Our new school year means new History Ambassadors - watch this space for a photo
We are currently training to work with the younger classes to help improve their sense of time and chronology
We are also preparing for Black History Month
Whole school worship - history focus -17.9.2024
Katherine Johnson
How women and black people had to be brave to get the changes needed to make our world more equal.
We can be inspired by stories like this from history to be agents for change in our own families and schools.
We aim to celebrate diversity - and explore how figures from the past can inspire us to make the world a fairer place
2023-2024
Celebrating Lilian Bader
We start the year with the great news that we are winners for the second year running of the Black History Month Competition
Merseyside Police run a competition for Black History Month
Our winning design is on a police van for the next 12 months
It shows Lilian Bader the first black woman to join the women's RAF in World War Two - and a local woman too - who spent her life as an activist for equality.
We have a new team of History Ambassadors
They area already sharing their love of history across the school
They have been trained to work with younger pupils at lunchtime using games and books to help develop understanding of chronology -
Also their noticing and memory skills
We are also working on a presentation for Black History Month
The Invictus Games 2023 - Dusseldorf in Germany
Year groups took time to highlight these games - part of our history - linked to remembrance - showing diversity
Leading worship for Black History Month
We focussed on Ruby Bridges - being inspired by people from the past who dared to do things differently -
to make our world more just
Royal Visit
War Memorial Centenary
Staff and pupils were part of this very special day
They welcomed Princess Anne
to the rededication of our town's magnificent
war memorial
We remember the past - to help make the future better
We support local events linked to history
This one links to diversity too
Polish Day at our local arts centre
History Ambassadors
visit war graves for remembrance
History Ambassadors search our local area to learn about history - to share with the rest of us
History clues in our local cemetery - remembrance, a lifeboat disaster and Jewish graves
Post boxes - this one is over 70 years old - from King George VI's time
Thank you to our History Ambassadors
who have been visiting classes to share their expertise on the Romans
This pre-teaches the younger classes and
acts as a revisit of prior knowledge for Y5 and Y6.
Holocaust Memorial Day January 2024
Our History Ambassadors led our class worship on this – and in the rest of the junior classes
We linked in British Values – how we live where we are free and where our laws promote respect and tolerance.
We learned about Southport’s connections to events in the 1930s – Jewish refugees who were welcomed here – people who welcomed them
Our local Jewish cemetery
We thought about how the Bible teaches us to love – to show kindness especially to those who are far from home
Time Traveller's History Club -
Marking the 50th anniversary of Sefton
We did so many things -
see below for the pages of the Sefton brochure for our school
Trip to The Walker Art Gallery
Several of us had never been to an art gallery before
We loved the architecture of the building - and the library next door
We took time to look at all the incredible buildings in that part of Liverpool
We had learned in school how Liverpool became rich from the slave trade
In the gallery there were new paintings to draw attention to links to the slave trade and to get audiences to question what art should be on show
Some of our favourite parts of the trip are in the photos below
History is not just about the past - it is our present day too
Refugee Week June 2024
Year 6 took part in an online workshop with The Anne Frank Trust
It featured the novelist Tom Palmer who has written about refugee experiences across time
This workshop focussed on the stories of Anne Frank and a Danish woman called Henny.
We are also using the picture book – The Arrival to explore refugee experiences more
We have listened to the French song – Mercy about a baby born on a boat at sea during a refugee journey.
This is all part of our developing respect and tolerance.
History Ambassadors
take their Victorian Play
to other classes
They spent time sharing and exploring artefacts
The Olympics and Paralympics are coming to France this Summer!
As part of exploring the history behind this global event we are all taking part in this online assembly
which also celebrates diversity
Our election 2024
We gave historical background to this - we had whole school votes and class votes - where pupils created their own political manifestos
The results are in for St Philips!
All our candidates did a great job
The constituents listened to them very respectfully
The vote was done in an organised fashion with election officials checking it was done correctly.
The ballot was counted and verified.
Thank you to all the year 6 pupils involved in the different roles
Joint last - with 1/8 of the vote each =
Reform and Conservatives
In 3rd place - with just under a quarter of the votes = Labour
In 2nd with a slightly higher proportion = The Green Party
1st = Liberal Democrats with over a 1/4 of the votes
Year 6 Class Election
These are some of the posters for the manifestos they created
2022-2023
We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded the Gold Quality Mark for our history provision - with special mention being made of our History Ambassador scheme.
Year 6 have been learning about
Lily Parr
One of the famous Dick, Kerr Preston based women's football team - active before teams of women were banned from the league
Year 6 - have been learning about local figures for the theme of
Black and Proud
Here are some of the entries we are sending to the Mersey Police Black History Month
competition this year
Year 6 are preparing for their trip to the International Slavery Museum in Liverpool
We have been learning about
The Atlantic Slave Trade
About the legacy this left here
About inspirational figures like
Harriet Tubman - disabled after a head injury
Our own local Edward Rushton-
blinded on board a slave ship
Year 5 are working with the Anne Frank Trust this week
Voices for Equality
History opens our eyes
To the diversity of the past
Here are some famous neurodivergent inspirational figures
Here are just a handful of scientists with 'disabilities'
Below is a list of some political figures who have had - still have - diabetes
And here are some of the most famous mathematicians in history - all with some 'disability'
History Ambassadors help out in Year 1
Taking a Victorian role play to help pupils explore seaside holidays in the past
History Ambassadors playing their part - helping the Southport Townscape Heritage Project develop new educational activities
Using their history detective skills to investigate a diary from 1862 in which a group of people travelled from Yorkshire to holiday here.
Bringing history to life through drama
Pupils worked in groups to write a script to share knowledge of an era in history.
They had to co-operate and share idea and then get into character to act them out.
We all enjoyed it and learned so much.
The past was not a place of equality - we can make better futures - we can be inspired by people in the past who were brave enough to change things for the better .
We had our own
Rainbow Equality Day
History is a window into the past that helps us live better lives today - Y6 learned about the terrible treatment of Alan Turing and how our laws have changed
Eurovision is coming to our City Region - Liverpool
See below for links to some of the history behind this exciting event -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0f0p0r5
Never in our lifetimes - an historic event -
The coronation of King Charles III
Watch this space to see how we celebrate this event of national and international significance
Our History Ambassadors do a range of exciting tasks in school
Since September they have run sessions for
Remembrance and Holocaust Day -
and also supported our younger pupils as Chronology Buddies with lunchtime activities such as The Town
They also run our anachronism competition which are outside classrooms.
Their next challenge is to support Year 4 in their study of Saxon times - by dressing up and visiting them as Saxon re-enactors.
Thank you!
Half way through the year and here is a flavour of what has been going on in history across the school
From Reception class looking for clues at a crime scene
Y1 following clues to find the dinosaur egg
Y2 examining artefacts
Y3 making Stone Age jewellery
Y4 making and using their Roman shields
Y5 visiting the Egyptian museum
Y6 being the first school to experience the new local history play at The Atkinson
And much more!
February Half Term Atkinson History Challenge - see the document below!
SO many children and families took part in our History Atkinson Challenge during February half term!
Getting out into our town and learning more about it.
Year 3 are the class winners.
See our display in the hall
New for 2023 -
creating resources to share with other schools and for trainee and early career stage teachers
See examples below
Holocaust Memorial Day
Our display and leading activities across the school
Remembrance
we have been taking history out of school and into our homes and local area - some of us even on holiday in places like Wales!
Here is just a small selection of the results -
talking to relatives and visiting war memorials
Making sure that we show respect and gratitude for those who have served to protect our
British Values
Remembering our queen - a huge moment in history - recognised around the world.
See below for how we marked this significant event
History Ambassadors are recruited from Year 6 pupils who choose to apply because of their love of history.
Our History Quality Mark Assessor was very impressed with the range of roles they take on.
They -
design and lead class and whole school worship
create competitions
act as experts and assist learning in classroom
work with younger pupils at lunchtimes as Chronology Buddies
See below for our new team
Black History Month
We are very excited this year - one of our Year 6 pupils won the Merseyside Police Competition for BHM this year.
See below for how we are kick starting this important month
Year 6 attended a premiere at The Atkinson - a fabulous play about Southport's history - We loved it!
'Beyond amazing' was one comment.
We learned so much in such an entertaining way.
Afterwards, we visited the Monument - our town's war memorial- to pay our respects in the lead up to Remembrance in November.
2021-2022
Our first History Ambassadors of the new year!
ready to be active citizens of our community - promoting history around the school
History Ambassadors designed Christmas cards - inspired by the first Victorian ones - to sell to family and friends to raise money for charity.
History Ambassadors Autumn 2021 –
back helping the younger pupils as chronology buddies
Classes learning how to play 'histingo' - a game to develop the vocabulary and understanding of chronology.
Making knowledge stick and making connections with prior learning.
Black History Month
For the second year, all classes undertook activities on this important theme.
History helps us to understand the present - and to challenge it!
Remembrance2021 (1).mp4
The remembrance display we did for one of our local shop windows
With poetry, art and family photos and memories
Some of our history prize winners for the Autumn Term 2021
History Ambassadors in action again - working as Chronology Buddies
Some were spotting anachronisms, some were working on their own personal timelines – comparing being 11 to being 4 or 5 years old
History ambassadors led worship –
sharing what they had learned from their visit to our local cemetery.
Christian Value of humility – the example of Southport resident Ruth Harris who opened her home to Jewish refugees over 80 years ago.
British Value of mutual respect and tolerance – celebrating diversity
- choosing to be kind
We painted remembrance stones – stones are a Jewish tradition of remembrance.
We chose images linked to the different persecuted communities of the Holocaust – alongside Jews there were others who were persecuted – Roma, Sinti, disabled people, gay people and Jehovah’s Witnesses. We noted that even today there are groups who suffer because they are different.
History Ambassador Atkinson
and Monument Trip January 2022
We explored the local area on our way to the Atkinson – looking out for evidence from the past like the Victorian iron railings on this bridge and inscriptions on post boxes.
Once there we took a tour through Southport’s history and that of the local area - from the Lunt Meadow Stone Age encampment to World War Two
J. loved the war part of this – seeing the giant gas masks intrigued us – they were for babies!
We also explored the Ancient Egyptian museum – artefacts donated by local Egyptologist Anne Goodison.
For several of us this was the most interesting part – seeing a real mummy and the sarcophagus.
We enjoyed the Art Gallery – we did some sketching and discussed the paintings. Paintings are an insight into history.
This was K’s favourite part because it involved voicing opinions.
The 80s exhibitions took us into our parents’ past.
This was E, K and L’s favourite part – L lead us singing Rick Astley!
Outside we examined our impressive war memorial –
The Monument
We noted the effort and money that went into making it so spectacular – looking like a Greek temple.
We saw memorials to different wars and different groups of people who died from our town.
Back at school - we are creating a half term prize draw treasure trail for our fellow pupils to do
Creating a church trail to do with our buddies
Creating history anachronism competitions for each class
Jubilee Day 25th May 2022
Our theme was now and then - we used the idea of significance to explore the importance of the historic event of the jubilee and other significant events and people.
We learned about our own local history in Victorian times with the History Ambassadors - some of us have ancestors who lived here then - they might have been fisherfolk - richer residents - working as maids and servants - some were there on the night of the Mexico Disaster in 1886 - trying to save lives.
This terrible night had a big impact locally and nationally.
We had lots of fun being creative too - we ended the day with a brass band concert - flag waving to a range of songs like Land of Hope and Glory.
Our snap shots of local history exhibition
History Ambassadors time travelled for parents.
Fisher women told of how hard their lives were
Mr and Mrs Atkinson explained why they loved Southport - so much that they moved here and paid for The Atkinson ( our art gallery, museum, library and theatre) to be built
A maid explained how hard her life was but how glad she was to have work that wasn't in a factory or on a farm - and a room of her own.
Lastly, two fishermen explained how they earned extra money as life boat crew. They described the terrible events of The Mexico Disaster and its legacy here and around the country.
Archive - 2020-2021
Year 6 prize winners for their fabulous history letters and speeches defending The Sioux of North America against those who hated them.
The Census 2021 -
and we can be history detectives with the census entries of the past
We all got to look at the census from 1901
for the houses opposite the school
International Women's Day
Commonwealth Day
Both on March 8th 2021 -
here was an overview for everyone
Remote learning - History Ambassadors continues
History Ambassador Debate – Who is the most significant?
Significant means that people have had an impact – their lives have changed the lives of others
Pupils chose the following three figures from the past –
Neil Armstrong, Elizabeth Fry and Rosa Parks
You can see some of what was said in the document below
Remote learning -
visiting the Western Approaches Museum online and live
Remote learning - Marking
Holocaust Memorial Day
We took part in the video worship time below and created our own images of light in the darkness
We learned about local woman - Ruth Harris - who opened her home to refugees on the kindertransport
We reflected on the harm that hatred can cause and thought about our own attitudes and actions to people different to ourselves
Year 6 have produced some great history work this term - here are some of our prize winners.
Getting ready for remembrance 2020
See below for some of our own family stories and some local ones like Lilian from Liverpool - we'd like you to add to them - it is exactly 80 years since the bombing raids of World War Two...there was a terrible Blitz in Liverpool and bombs led to casualties here in Southport.
Create more PowerPoints, videos or simply send or hand in to us a photo and speech bubble so that we can share these stories together during our remembrance activities in school and church.
These are fascinating and moving accounts from Emme and Sam
Our brand new history ambassadors - ready to serve our community!
Congratulations on successfully applying for this role.
Getting ready for Black History Month
Look what we've been doing
Two lockdown history project winners.
They did great work about Victorian times,
finding out interesting facts and considering just how far these times were good or bad times to live in.
Today (15.9.2020) is the 80th anniversary of the
Battle of Britain 15th September 1940
Here are some photos of our relatives who were in the RAF.
In Year 6?
Want to be a history ambassador?
What does it involve?
It involves promoting history around the school.
It involves learning more and then sharing it.
It involves helping organise and take part in competitions, displays, assemblies and/or work with younger children as Chronology Buddies, History Buddies.
It involves wearing a lovely purple badge!
How to apply?
Hand in an explanation in no more than 100 words of why you think you should be chosen for this role. Explain what makes you stand out e.g. what you know or what you have done to do with these area.
This can be done as a poster if you like.
Then use your lunchtimes to use The Street Through Time book to prepare for an interview
Good Luck!
Catching up with a prize winner from just before lock down!
Do you love being creative? Here's your chance to explore stories from war time.
This could be a family story or one from a viewpoint we don't often hear.
The story can be told in one of the following four ways
Poetry, art, speech or song.
See below for details
Southport commemorates VJ Day 15th August 2020
Find out more using the links below
If you have family members or friends who served in any of the conflicts since 1914 we'd encourage you to contribute to the remembrance wall run by the Commonwealth Graves Commission. See the link below
Black Lives Matter.
June 2020 is seeing a world wide movement using this title.
See below for links that help us learn more about the history behind this.
May 12th = 200 years since Florence Nightingale was born.
History is full of individuals who can inspire us and who have a lasting impact on how we live today.
Use the video below to find out more
VE Day is here
Enjoy and remember
Please continue to send photos to me. Thank you to those that already have - it has been great to see your relatives and read their amazing stories.
We want to do a children's relative's video too and we need more photos from you!
We also want photos of what you do today that you don't mind sharing to do a similar thing.
Thank you.
lundd@sps.sefton.schools
See the PPoint below from Emme to find out about her great grandad
Friday 8th May is VE Day!
Thursday 7th is our history day to get ready for this.
See the link below to the online history lesson we'd like you to complete before you choose from the creative activities below to get ready for making Friday special.
There is a KS1 and KS2 version.
Years 5 and 6 should try the KS2 version but feel free to swap to the KS1 version and Years 3 and 4 should probably use the KS1 version... as we haven't been in school you haven't had any background to this.
Worksheets for the online lesson
Friday 8th May is VE Day!
We would like everyone to do something - if you possibly can - to mark this important date.
It is 75 years since the six years of World War Two came to an end in Europe
VE = Victory in Europe
11am is a national silence in remembrance
3pm is a national thank you ‘toast’
We are being encouraged to have our own at home parties
To learn and sing along with We’ll Meet Again
So…maybe you could join in with the ideas above and/or
Make some union jack bunting?
Or party hats? /plates?
Design a peace logo or decoration to put in your window?
Write a poem? Record a song?
Bake a cake? Decorate a cake?
INTERVIEW an older relative who remembers the war?
Please send us lots of photos of what you do so that I can put
them together into a St Philip’s VE Day 2020 video to show when we are back in school and maybe put on the website
See below for more about Southport's VE Day in 1945
Photos from the Southport Visiter and an account from them of what happened
Five years ago The Southport Visiter gave this explanation
Tuesday, May 8, 1945 was a warm day, and crowds were out everywhere. At 9pm a speech by the King was broadcast and it seemed people everywhere wanted to listen to it at outside venues rather than inside their own homes.
The Southport Visiter published that day led with the headline ‘End Of The War In Europe’ with the subhead ‘To-day is VE-Day: The King Broadcasts Tonight’.
The ‘paper said: “This is VE-Day - the day that has been awaited with such great expectancy. The news has been received with profound thankfulness.”
Tuesday and Wednesday were declared public holidays.
The Southport Visiter suspended publication of the Thursday edition to give its staff the preceding days off.
People had been busy preparing for the festivities.
The Visiter said: “Up to a late hour the finishing touches, including those at the Town Hall and the Municipal Buildings, were being applied.
“The traders rose to the occasion admirably. The flags of the principal United Nations were fluttering everywhere.
“The streets in the centre of the town and in the outskirts too presented a gay picture with their profusion of flags and bunting.”
Church services were held across town with Mayor Cllr J Barnes attending Christ Church at midday.
Midnight music and dance licence extensions were granted. The Southport Special Constabulary Band played in the Floral Hall Gardens and in the Municipal Gardens on Lord Street.
There was non-stop dancing in Cambridge Hall on VE Night and the following night led by Billy Bevan’s and the Southport and Birkdale Postal Military bands.
Southport had never seen celebrations like it
Sefton libraries are posting digital local posters
Please send photos of any relatives you have who took part in any way during World War Two.
They don't have to have been soldiers or pilots. They might have been children during the war. You can send photos of them from then or ones showing what they look like now. Even better if you can include a sentence about where they were and what they did.
Please send any photos and stories you have so I can include them here on the website
lundd@sps.sefton.school
Here are some of my family photos.
My Mum was at school when the war started. The 'new normal' for them meant rationing and blackouts but much of life carried on as normal. She went on walks in the Peak District with her school and played tennis with her friends. She did a degree at the local university. You can see her graduation photo below. She became a teacher and went a long way from home to teach in a school in Devon where they were desperate for teachers because the men had gone to fight in the war. She was just 21. Most people did not have phones then and her family waited anxiously to hear by letter that she got there safely. She loved her time there and kept in touch with her 'old scholars' until she died.
You can see my dad in the photo with the shire horses. He was a farmer which was a 'reserved profession' (key worker) so he did not have to join the army. He was a sheep and dairy farmer and did not usually do any ploughing. He is ploughing in the photo because farms were asked to grow food as well.
My uncle trained to be a pilot and took part in Operation Manna exactly 75 years ago this week. This involved dropping food from planes to help feed people in Belgium and The Netherlands.
My aunt was at school for most of the war. In the photo she is wearing a brooch to show that her brother was in the RAF
Ms Lund
Big Picture News
Here's some history about what VE Day is all about ...it is from The Historical Association
Watch our Queen as a mechanic during the war
Horrible_Histories_-_The_World_War_Two_Girls_Song.mp4
Horrible Histories song - RAF Pilot Song - CBBC.mp4
Lots of ideas for activities from Twinkl
- Address: St Philip's Church of England Primary School,
- Hampton Road,
- Southport,
- Merseyside,
- PR8 6SS
- E-Mail: admin@sps.sefton.school
- Telephone: 01704 535737