Over the Christmas break, our children were given creative homework tasks linked to the history of Sunderland, including a visit to the River Wear, researching glassmaking and looking into the area's mining history. Since returning to school, our children have been taking part in a local history study across all year groups.
Year 3 have been investigating shipbuilding on the River Wear. The children have shared some great stories about relatives who worked there and they have created some superb 3D models as part of their creative homework!
With all the new knowledge the group have, the children were able to create an information text about the history of shipyards. They have also located the Wear on a map and managed to describe its geographical features, sketch-mapped the Wear to locate shipyards and drawn pictures of shops which were built along the river.
Meanwhile, Year 4 have been learning about the importance of pottery in our local history by researching lustreware and replicating images of lustreware.
Year 5 have been studying Venerable Bede and glassmaking in the region. They started by considering Bede's life in the Anglo-Saxon era, creating a timeline of key dates. The children also had the opportunity to handle some pieces of locally made glassware before drawing their own versions of stained glass windows.
The children in Year 6 travelled back in time to learn about coal mining, particularly looking at the Wearmouth Colliery. The group looked at the terrible working conditions that children previously faced working in the mines. Year 5 also discovered that the Stadium of Light is now positioned on the site of Wearmouth Colliery and that the Davy lamp shines all year round to remember those who sadly died in the mine.
All of our pupils have enjoyed discovering more about the history of our local area and are looking forward to sharing their knowledge with each other!