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Primary education

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Year 1 class are doing WW1 as their main topic next half-term

38 replies

ZucchiniPie · 31/03/2015 15:24

Has anyone else's Year 1 child been taught WW1 as their main topic in class? I'm slightly appalled that DD, who doesn't even turn 6 till June, is going to spend six weeks focusing on something that surely is going to raise some very difficult questions. I realise they can draw poppies and talk about the Xmas Day Truce, etc. but it won't take much scratching beneath the surface to bring up some issues that, frankly, I'd rather she didn't have to confront just yet - the senseless killing of millions of young men and no remotely easy way to explain what it was for, even if she could understand the geopolitics. I just think 5/6 is too young and just because it's the centenary doesn't mean that they should be taught it in this way (I wouldn't necessarily object to them doing a couple of lessons on it, but this involves WW1 being the theme of all their learning for weeks on end.)

Anyway, my other question is how to make the best of this, unless there's a way of getting them to change the topic (slim chance, I'd have thought). DD is supposed to do her own research over the Easter holidays so any ideas about how to go about this in an age-appropriate way would be very much appreciated. I notice that the Imperial War Museum's schools programme only starts with KS2, so even they are not encouraging younger kids being taught this in school.

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Hulababy · 31/03/2015 16:48

BBC Bitesize has some resources for Key Stage 1 covering WW1: www.bbc.co.uk/education/topics/z4mxsbk

Might give you an idea of what they might cover.

More here:
www.hamilton-trust.org.uk/browse/theme/key-stage-1/poppies-people-and-pets-key-stage-1/95214

Infact, there are few sites if you google. The teachers will know their classes pretty well be now and it will be pitched at their level.

toomuchicecream · 31/03/2015 18:17

I bet it's a whole school topic and the year 1 teacher is tearing her hair out trying to work out how to approach it. If it was me I'd focus on the home front using the BBC stuff and what life was like for the children who were in this school then. I'd also ask the children to bring in photos of relatives who were alive then (not just in uniform) so it could be related to their own family history. Then I'd do some stuff on food and rations, clothing and music - sing some songs, finishing with why it's important we remember. I reckon that I could get 6 weeks out of that without too much mention of the nasty stuff

Ferguson · 31/03/2015 19:09

I am not sure that children really relate to the horrors of many things taught at school: The Crucifixion; the Fire of London; the Black Death, etc.

And if they see any TV news, there are some things almost as bad going on EVERY DAY even now.

GCCPrimary1 · 31/03/2015 19:12

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vvviola · 31/03/2015 19:22

DD1 (when we were in NZ) did a fair bit about ANZAC Day when she was in kindergarten (so aged 4). There are plenty of books, in NZ at least, that are at an appropriate level for younger children (animals in the war, home front etc). She wasn't remotely phased by it - but then she's been traipsing around WW1 cemeteries with us when we lived in Belgium since she was 2.

Like a PP said, there's quite a lot that can be done about that time without really getting into the heavier stuff. Music, Homefront, artwork, what schools were like then.

Even now at 7, with many years of two WW1 buffs as parents plus the stuff she has covered at school, DD1 knows there was a war, lots of people died, some people were very brave (we had a conversation about the Victoria Cross as a result of a museum exhibit), there were some very brave nurses and where it happened - but there has never been any further investigation of "the horrors" or inappropriate information given to her. She has been to many cemeteries and remembrance ceremonies too.

fixyouplease · 31/03/2015 19:27

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hels71 · 31/03/2015 19:50

I have worked in two schools who have had whole school topics on ww 1 recently. The younger classes focused on what life was like in Britain 100 years ago rather than details of the war.

mrz · 31/03/2015 20:31

I would imagine the teacher will focus on a famous person/s or life then compared to now but as vvviola has said the majority of young children take these things in a very matter of fact detached manner and aren't in the slightest worried by plague, crucifixion, war and pestilence. ,

Hulababy · 31/03/2015 21:24

Children cover a lot of potentially horrifying and gruesome history - great Fire of London, plague, Tudor life, etc.

I suspect it will focus on life at home, esp in their local area, during the war especially for children. And they will probably select a famous person from those times to study too.

Obviously the other curriculum areas outside of history will cover other aspects - geography could be local area of parts of Europe; English could be stories from that time especially ones aimed at children, etc

Pikkewyn · 31/03/2015 22:22

Our school did this in term 1 KS1 did Animals in war and focussed on animal heroes like Sgt. Stubby.

AuntieStella · 31/03/2015 22:29

There's always Horrible Histories - Frightful First World War.

Probably aimed for slightly older children, but you might find stuff in there you could look at together (and then keep the book for later as chances are the topic will come up again)

ZucchiniPie · 31/03/2015 22:38

First chance to log on since I posted earlier today. Thanks for all your replies! Will read and digest now :-)

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grassroots · 01/04/2015 10:05

I was a bit taken aback when ours did this, but none of the children seemed to be even vaguely traumatised. Some of the work they produced was absolutely brilliant. One of the things we did for the research homework was to go along to our local war memorial and have look at each of the names. We picked one or two and then used our local history resources (Museum, County Archives etc) to find out all we could about those individuals. For one soldier we were able to walk around the village and find the house that he had lived in, the school he went to (later used as a recruiting centre) and also where his initial army training camp was. We also looked at newspapers from that era and looked at all the different adverts (sweets, different foodstuffs etc). We found out that one of the soldiers had been in the Camel Corps, and DS was absolutely fascinated by a booklet on how soldiers should look after their camels!

smee · 01/04/2015 13:20

I wouldn't be worried about it. The school must have thought it through. Trust them!

AuntieUrsula · 01/04/2015 18:06

I understand why they might want to do ww1, even though it is a bit strange
to do it with year 1. Hopefully they'll go easy on the gruesome parts and do it more on how the war started, about famous people in it and generally less yuck stuff which is likely but if you are really concerned you should ask your kid's teacher about it. Seems quite new though. When DD1 was in year 1 all they really did was the Victorians!

ZucchiniPie · 01/04/2015 22:56

Thanks all. I'm sure you're right that the school will handle it well, and her teacher is absolutely great so I trust her to do it as well as anyone could. But what I can't quite get past is that question that DD is bound to ask at some point which is, "but what is a war?" or, "Why were they fighting?"

War memorials and poppies are wonderful things but they're about people dying unnecessarily (even if you get into the heroism of defending your country) and I just wish she could have a couple more years of not having to know that happens. I realise there are millions of children even younger than 5 around the world in places like Syria who don't have the luxury of innocence on this subject but I still would rather preserve it where I can!

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SophyStantonLacy · 02/04/2015 12:34

I would not be happy if my Y2 child was doing a topic on war, tbh. They did discuss it around the armistice celebrations, which was fine by me as we remember family members killed in war, but I wouldn't really want to dwell on people choosing to kill each other because they are off different nationalities at the age of 5/6. The difference - as far as I am concerned - with e.g. the Great Fire, the plague etc is that those are gruesome acts of chance/fate...

I have a relative who invented a particular kind of weapon. It was really hard explaining to my children "ah well, he invented something that could kill more people than the other side could, isn't that great?"

VeronicaCaCa · 02/04/2015 12:46

Personally I would prefer my dc (yr1 and yr3) to spend time learning about WW1, presumably covered at an age-appropriate level, than be taught about Jesus being tortured to death for our sins. Which has raised many questions here.

vvviola · 02/04/2015 13:05

When we were asked about the reasons for the war, we just over simplified majorly and said they were fighting over who owned the land. It seemed to be enough for DD1, although it did lead to one or two questions about why the ANZACs were there at all.

In fact our only wobble in relation to WW1 (and bear in mind, we have a house full of military books, memorabilia etc) was when our local museum did a "recruiting station" re-enactment. The actors were outstanding, stayed in character with DD1 the whole time and "misheard" her answers so she was written down as "Alan, aged 26, perfectly healthy, needs some good army meals to get a bit taller and wants to join the Mounted Rifles". Poor DD had a few minutes of thinking she had somehow genuinely signed up for the NZ army!

All the information she has got from us and her teachers on WW1 is certainly less gruesome than the descriptions she got of the crucifixion at school last week.

ZucchiniPie · 02/04/2015 16:24

VeronicaCaCa I absolutely agree with you on that!

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christinarossetti · 02/04/2015 22:02

Is this to do with the new curriculum?

My Y1 ds's class are 'doing' the Great Fire of London' next half term, which his older sister didn't 'do' until Y2.

There are lots of ways of 'doing' a topic - I'm sure that it would be approached very differently in Y1 than in Y6 for example, but it seems a bit of a shame to 'do' something so early that they'd get so much more out of later iyswim.

mrz · 03/04/2015 07:13

No it's not to do with the new curriculum neither is studying the Great Fire of London ... Appears to be school choice

mrz · 03/04/2015 07:17

KS1 history
Lives of significant person
event beyond living memory
Change within living memory
Significant local event

Cric · 03/04/2015 07:21

We did it in ks1... We focused on being along way from home and peace. We looked at flags, poppies, war memorials, letters sent home and then we had a big peace party and looked at all the things that happen to celebrate peace.

PesoPenguin · 03/04/2015 17:41

Not this year, but DS did it extensively in reception last year when it was the 100 year anniversary. He wasn't traumatised and has remembered lots of facts about it ( we were just talking about it yesterday as we passed a poppy display). DS looooves history and gets a lot out of their topic based learning.

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