Bringing it Home
As part of my new role as Education & Outreach Assistant at the Heritage Hub, I’m currently working with the team to develop an exciting primary and secondary schools project based on the local experience of the First World War.
We aim to add to schools’ existing work on this subject, by using items from our collections to create a set of resources that emphasise the felt experience of the War within communities and individuals in the Scottish Borders.
The resources will use a variety of creative learning approaches to foster learners’ empathy with these experiences. And, they’ll be mapped to Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes to assist schools in their development planning.
Our extensive collection of local newspapers (we hold 25 titles on microfilm) is already proving a rich seam of insights, as columns during the First World War are particularly poignant with pages filled with profiles, and often photographs, of casualties.
The twin focuses of the project are to look at how the conflict affected communities and at why it is important to remember. Our resources will support schools in delivering Curriculum for Excellence, principally by promoting active remembrance.
As the Hub’s resources possess such a unique local dimension, there exists an exciting opportunity here to engage learners through a ‘start local, think global’ approach to their studies of the War.
To this end, we’d be delighted to hear from anyone who possesses letters, diaries, postcards and photographs relating to Borderers who fought in the First World War.
We’ll acknowledge all contributions and guarantee safe return. Please do contact us if you’re able to support this valuable project.
Posted by: Keith
