Today some Year 8 pupils from 8SR worked with Miss Hobbs from Creative Partnerships on issues surrounding the Suffragettes, a topic they've been studying in History for the past few weeks. The pupils had to explore issues surrounding women's suffrage through the creation of freeze frame scenes to express key concepts and ideas. From these still images, the pupils were able to expand and develop their discussions on the topic.

But what did 8SR think...

If your in 8SR you need to post a comment by clicking on the envelope symbol at the bottom right of this post. In your post think about the following points: what did you most enjoy about the session? How did the activities help you think about and develop your understanding of the Suffragettes?

REMEMBER THOUGH, NO EMAIL ADDRESSES, PERSONAL DETAILS OR SURNAMES. IN THE 'NAME OR EMAIL BOX' ONLY ADD YOUR FIRST NAME AND FORM NUMBER!

For more information on Creative Partnerships and the project in-school, please read our previous post.

We've just added some examples of 5GB's PowerPoints for their Hidden House History competition to the site.

Click here to watch a sample (Sorry, we've had to change a few bits though!). 

After a short break, we've added a bit more onto the site. In Year 7 we are currently studying the slave trade and a section on the 'Middle Passage' has just been added. To check it out go to 'History? Help!' then 'Year 7 help!' and follow the link.  

We would like to wish members of 5GB good luck with their entry to the Hidden House History run by Teachers TV, The History Channel and Ancestry.co.uk.

The pupils spent a really productive few days exploring the history of our school, our church and our High Street under the expert eye of their form teacher, Mrs Bushell.

The pupils used a variety of sources (including nodehillhistory.co.uk!) and toured the town to find out about the history of our local area. The pupils them wrote up their research into a PowerPoint presentation and we hope to be able to show you some of their findings on this site very soon!

Once again we would like to thank all of 5GB and Mrs Bushell for their hard work. We're sure their excellent skills as history detectives will pay off!

To find out a little more about the competition, go to www.teachers.tv/hiddenhousehistory for a closer look!

The 9th Isle of Wight Festival is nearly here! The  three day festival is currently held at Seaclose Park by the river Medina in Newport. The headline acts this year include Snow Patrol, Groove Armada, Muse, Kasabian, Keane and the Rolling Stones! For a full line-up visit the official IOW Festival site at www.isleofwightfestival.com.

The festival has a long history, from humble roots back in 1968 to the full-on modern money spinning three day festival of today. The early festivals (1968, '69 and '70) very much reflected their era and saw the likes of Jefferson Airplane, T-Rex, Bob Dylan, The Who, The Doors and, famously, Jimi Hendrix perform.

Hendrix and The Doors performed at the now legendary 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. The festival took place in late August 1970 on Afton Down in the west of the island. It is widely acknowledged as the largest music festival ever, greater than the attendance of Live Aid, Woodstock and Rock In Rio. The Guinness Book Of Records has cited its attendance as 600,000, this is just above the organisers' estimate of 500,000. 

The event was, as some described, "magnificent", but there were problems. The site was not particulary suitable and there were questions as to whether an island with a population a little over 100,000 could accomodate over half a million more people. As a result of this and other factors, including the fact that the festival was a commercial disaster, there would be no more festivals on the island until the idea was revived in 2002. The festival has gone from strength to strength and this year a slightly more modest crowd of about 60,000 will enjoy the 2007 Isle of Wight Festival. Let's hope the weather holds out!

For more information on the original Isle of Wight Festivals visit www.ukrockfestivals.com/iow-menu.html    

In Year 7 we have just begun our new unit on slavery and Black history (check out the link on the web links page for more information) and we have begun to discuss the concepts of freedom and slavery.

Freedom is something that we take for granted in our country. Even though many of us at times might feel that we aren't as 'free' as we would like we can certianly do lots of things that some people cannot do.

Thankfully we also wouldn't consider ourselves to be 'slaves' - having to help with the washing up or tidying your room doesn't count!

In your lessons you may have looked at a definition of the words 'freedom' and 'slave'. A slave was someone who was legally OWNED by someone else and usually had to work for them. Freedom is the ability to do things, say things and think things freely. Slaves found it very difficult to be able to do the first two easily!

But what are your thoughts? You may have been asked to post a comment by your teacher here replying to the questions

What are the best things about being free? What would be the worst things about being a slave?

REMEMBER the blog rules when you add a post!

• NO email addresses - they will be removed and you will be spoken to in school!
• NO last names
• Only give your FIRST NAME and your FORM NUMBER (for example Jim from 8NW or Mary 8NW) 

To add a post answering the questions above or to read what other people think, click on the comment box or small envelope at the bottom of this post (it should be just down here on the right!). 

Early last term Mrs Moran took a group of Year 5 pupils on one of our regular MAPP days. The pupils visited Brading Roman Villa and it sounds like they had a brilliant time! Even though we don't study the Romans at school, learning about any period of history can help develop our understanding of the past and how we learn about it.

If you went on the MAPP day why not post a comment about what you learnt and what you enjoyed? Also, if you've been to the villa (but not on the MAPP day) why not post a comment as well and let us know what you enjoyed too!

REMEMBER BLOG RULES & BLOG SAFE! If your not sure what the rules are check out the first blog post 

If you want to learn more about Brading Roman Villa visit their website at www.bradingromanvilla.org.uk .  

Mrs Moran has written a little about their day...

KEY STAGE 2 MAPP DAY

BRADING ROMAN VILLA

What did the Romans ever do for us?

On Friday 26th January 2007, Mrs Moran took a group of Year 5 children to Brading Roman Villa for a morning visit. All the pupils thoroughly enjoyed their time at the (newly refurbished) villa and took part in a mosaic making activity.

In the afternoon, the group research the Romans in Britain and rounded the day off with a spot of Latin translation - surprisingly easy once the pupils had got over the initial shock! We learnt that there are many words we use in everyday English that can be traced directly back to Latin.  Words like: hortus = horticulture, urbs = urban, equus = equine. The pupils managed to translate this easily -

Marcus est in horto.

Can you?

The History@Nodehill blog is now available as a blidget from widgetbox.com! You can subscribe and add the blidget to your site for free and keep up to date with all our blog posts! The blidget also allows you link quickly and easily to the main site. You can also subsribe to our RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed by clicking on the RSS feed logo at the bottom of the blog page and following the simple instructions. 

One of the real aims of nodehillhistory.co.uk is to offer pupils resources to help them at school or at home. We've been trying to add elements to our help pages as often as we can and hope to offer more as soon as possible.

Years 5 and 6 can now access hidden movie clips to get them started with their new topics. You have to enter a secret code which your teacher will give you. You may also need to alter some settings on your PC as well - BUT DON'T DO ANYTHING WITHOUT ASKING SOMEONE RESPONSIBLE FIRST!

Keep checking back for new content. If there's anything you think would be helpful (and is easy to put on a website) tell your history teacher or use the contact form on this site.

Mr Wiltshire went up to London during half-term and visited the National Archives in Kew to try and find out more about the lives (and deaths) of Mr Glover and Mr Elton. Mr Wiltshire writes...

 "Going up to the Public Records Office (a.k.a. The National Archives) was a really interesting experience. I had tried to do a fair bit of research on the Island, but at I had reached as far as I could go. I had worked out that John Glover had settled on the Island sometime between about 1900 and 1906. He was recorded as a 'private resident' in the Kelly's Directory (a bit like modern Yellow Pages and phonebook rolled into one) of 1906 and I was able to trace him at various points in time by using later editions of Kelly's. At one point he was living opposite the school in Terrace Road. John Glover evidently settled on the Island and made it his home; his name is recorded on the war memorial in St Thomas' Sq., Newport, and his widow was living in Monkton St., Ryde, when he was killed in 1917.

I had felt a connection with John Glover. I had tantalising glimpses of his life and his world. I could trace his movements, sort of, across the Island and I had a picture of him taken with him as the proud coach of the school football team in 1913. I also knew, from reading an old history of the Nodehill site schools written in the 1950s, that John Glover had taught history and the connection seemed stronger. I wanted to know more. I knew that, for the time being at least, census records from 1911 were out of bounds and that as he was originally from Leeds that I probably woundn't be able to track down a birth certificate. The best option seemed to be finding his service record. That would involve a trip to the National Archives.

The archives are housed in a huge, modern, glass and concrete building. I stayed with a friend in Kensal Green and caught the 'overland' train to Kew Gardens. As it rumbled over the Thames, the archives loomed above the river and peered through the trees. I had to go through a complicated process of applying for a reader's card and had to pass through alarms and sensors. The notes I had brought with me had to be stapled together to prove that they were mine and to prevent people from trying to smuggle out original documents.

I had to go to the micofilm room. The records, originally in paper form, had been transferred onto thousands or numbered microfilms since World War II and were now housed in row after row of beige metal filing cabinets. The process to get to look at the documents involved looking up a series of numbers and going to the correct cabinet. Eventually, I found the films I needed and carefully threaded the plastic films into a microfilm reader.

It was a interesting feeling going to the archives and trying to find out information about someone I didn't know and that I wasn't related to, but to whom I felt an odd empathy and connection. I didn't know if anyone remembered him today or if he left any children or grandchildren who may still live locally. I just wanted to find something.

Unfortunately, I found nothing. Absolutely nothing of John W.E. Glover, Gunner, Royal Garrison Artillery, No. 353711. I searched every possible file, folder, reference and microfilm. Nothing. The German Luftwaffe had destroyed nearly 60% of WWI records with an incendiary bomb. The other fragments of record, carefully copied on the film, clearly showed the stains of water and fire damage. My journey with J.W.E. Glover appears to be over.

I felt absolutely gutted. I feel sad still. I wanted to find something and to be able to know as much as I could about the man I had come to feel as if I knew. It was a strange feeling in that I was so helpless. We live in an age where information is at the touch of a button. We cna find out what happed when and where, we can even see what is happening across the world as it happens. But I couldn't, I can't ever, find out anymore about John Glover and his story.

I wanted to be able to answer lots of questions. When did he sign up? Who were his next of kin? What may have happened to his widow, Amy? Did he leave any children? How did he lose his life?

There may be other ways to try and complete the picture. I may be able to find out what his artillery battery was doing on the day of his death. The 3rd Battle of Ypres had begun around that time and he was buried in a cemetary just outside the town. I could also see if there is anyone still living on the Island (or indeed in the UK) who may remember of be connected in someway to him. It just makes it that much harder to fill in the missing parts of the picture.

I had been in the archives all day, way past the time I had intended to stay and I was supposed to meet my friend in a pub outside the gated to Kew Gardens. It was about 4 o'clock and the archives closes at 5 on a Friday. I turned my attentions, horribly to say, half-heartedly towards trying to find out about Frederick Elton, the second teacher from Nodehill. 

At first he was harder to track down and I couldn't seem to find anything. I asked a lady at the help desk who typed his name into the achive database. Success! Frederick Elton had been given a temporary commision in the army at the outbreak of the war in 1914. That meant his service record, including his service record form his days in the T.A. before the war had been preserved. It seemed that officer's records had been saved from destruction during WWII by being placed in a different building. I would, the lady explained, be able to order and read the original 90 year old documents. It takes about half an hour to order the documents from the repository. I waited. At 4.45 I went to my allocated reader's locker, 14G, and there they were, a stack of dull coloured papers wraped inside a light brown folder. I went to my seat in the reading room and sat down and carefully opened a document that had been officially 'closed' and and untouched (apart for the insertion of a white and green plastic treasury tag to hold the papers together) for at least 80 years. In the pile of documents, I had the story of the life and death of 2nd Lieutenant Frederick J. Elton in front of me..."      

My Wiltshire will add another Blog post giving details of what he found out about F.J. Elton at the National Archives very soon. It is hoped that we can, with the National Archives permission, make copies of documents from the file available on-line for our Year 8 pupils.                  

We've just added links to some really excellent BBC interactive content. BBC.co.uk has some really superb history content and by following the links listed on the web links page you can check them out too! We've added a link to the BBC's interactive British timeline and WWI movie player which explores 6 key themes using reconstructions, animations and audio. Don't forget to check the rest of the BBC history pages out either, just follow the links further down the web links page!

Following on from a previous post, we've been able to find out a little more about the two former teachers who were killed in action during WWI.

John W.E. Glover was a teacher at the Newport County School when it first opened in 1907. Originally from Leeds, records show him living in the town in c.1906 and he was living in Terrace Rd near the school in 1910. By the time of his death he was living in Monkton Street in Ryde and perhaps travelled by train each day to work. He died aged 37 and left behind a wife, Amy. He died on 28th August 1917. He was a Gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has an online certificate of rememberance for Mr Glover - www.cwgc.org/search/certificate.aspx?casualty=451167. J.W.E. Glover has his name recorded on the War Memorial in St Thomas' Sq.

Mr Elton has been harder to trace. His initials are difficult to read in the teachers pay ledger, where our research started. Unlike J.W.E. Glover his name isn't recorded on the War Memorial. This is perhaps because he only began teaching at the school in 1911 and may also suggest that he hadn't built up local connections to the island before he left for the war. However, a possible candidate is Frederick John Elton who was 24 when hed died in late 1915. This is certainly around the right sort of time as he had stopped being paid by early 1916. Elton was from Southampton and like Glover was in the artillery, though he served as an officer. His online certificate can be viewed at www.cwgc.org/search/certificate.aspx?casualty=143714.

Mr Wiltshire will be visiting the National Archives in Kew very soon and hopefully he can gather more definitive and detailed information!  

For the last half term or so of Year 8 we will be starting a new unit  looking at the First World War. This is a really good opportunity to begin looking at a topic which many pupils will continue to look at in Year 9 at High School.

However, we want to make sure that we take a slightly different angle towards the topic and so we've decided to examine the conflict through the life and deaths of two former teachers at Nodehill.

If you didn't know Nodehill Middle School is the oldest continually used educational site on the Island and was actually once two separate schools (if you want to know more check out the   'our school history' section). In 1907/9 the Newport County Secondary School opened and occupied the building which is now our upper (KS3) school and the school offices.

In those days the school was quite a bit smaller that today(!) and only had around half a dozen teachers. However, two teachers, Mr Glover and Mr Elton, both enlisted and lost their lives during the war.

Hopefully, nearly one hundred years on we can remember their lives and sacrifice by learning about WWI through their experiences. To help us, we'll be using the Commonwealth War Grave Commission's website. Get a head start by going to www.cwgc.org. When we're ready we can give you the details you need to search the records to find individual details for Mr Glover and Mr Elton.

Why not have your say on your favourite period of history!

Use the new polldaddy.cm poll at the bottom of our home page to choose your favourite. Results to be published soon. 

Part of the reason for setting up this website was to learn new skills, as well as providing lots of great information and help for the staff and pupils at the school. We've recently added some widgets to the site to make it a little more interesting.

The widgets were collected from widgetbox.com and can be added to most types of blog or website using the html format. So far we've added a map showing where Newport (and the Isle of Wight!) actually are and a counter counting down to the start of the Isle of Wight Festival (isleofwightfestival.com ), where the Rolling Stones are playing on the Sunday evening! The festival is a really brilliant event and even though there are about 60,000 people there, you can bet that you'll bump into one of your teachers or pupils!

The other widget we've added is from bunnyherolabs.com. We've adopted a purple monkey called Stephen. You can make him swing about and feed him bananas if you like. You can find him at the bottom of the history games page. By the way, in answer to a question we've been asked, no you can't feed him until he gets fat and stops moving!

You can also visit C.C., Mr Peace's rabbit on his blog at www.nodehillenvironmental.typepad.com/take_the_weather_with_you. We've put a widget for Nodehill's Met Club Take The Weather With You on our homepage. We haven't put one for Nodehill's Maths, Re and French blogs because we haven't got the room! Perhaps we'll rotate them every so often. You can find links to these brilliant blogs by following the link on our homepage to the main school site and then going to the blog page.The French blog is run by Mr Dale, who is leading the way in blogging and podcasting for education. You can visit his cutting edge blog directly at www.nodehillfrench.typepad.com. Blog safe!

PS. If your in 8SR and are wondering what happened to Horace the fish, we're afraid he got flushed down the toilet!

As it's the end of term   I thought we'd add a bit of information which we found out when we were discussing the guillotine and the French Revolution today.

Did you know...

The guillotine was invented by a Dr. Guillotin as a 'humane' way of killing people! It was introduced in 1792 and became the official method of execution during the revolution and beyond. However, from the very beginning, people thought that the recently chopped off heads were still blinking and moving their lips after execution!  

Then a boy in 8SR mentioned the story of a famous chicken who lived for 18 months after having his head cut off. We looked it up on the internet and found the story of Mike the head-less chicken! Mike was a minor celebrity during 1946 and 1947 in Colorado in the United States and helped people forget about some of the hardships at the end of World War II. 

Who says that history isn't interesting. And remember, it's not just kings, queens and criminals who have lost their heads!

If your in Year 7 you'll probably need to be doing some research on Robespierre for your assessment. Remember the focus of your assessment is 'Did Robespierre deserve his death?'.

You could search the internet for sites and online encyclopedias. You could even use an old-fashioned book to do your research. You might have an encyclopedia at home and you don't need to be a member of the library to go in and make some notes from one of their books.

A good place to start would be following one of the links on this site or trying an online encylopedia like wikipedia - just remember that sometimes the information on theses sites isn't always reliable or accurate. Its probably best to use a good old-fashioned book anyway! If you'd like some more help why not try out our first entry on our help pages. Go to 'History? Help!' then 'Year 7 help!' and follow the links.

We've just added the first of a series of information pages on key topics to help you with your history work. The first topic to be added is for Year 7 on Maximilien Robespierre. The focus is on the key question 'Did Robespierre deserve his death?'

Hopefully more will be added to the History? Help! area ASAP and we'll try to make sure there is something for each year group very soon.

If you want to take a look use the menu on the left to go to 'History? Help!' then on the sub-menu go to Y'ear 7 help!' and follow the link.

Hope it helps!

After a little bit of a break, the website will hopefully be going live very soon! Mr Bailey will add a link from the main school site to nodehillhistory.co.uk. 

Hopefully everthing will run smoothly and we can add things to the site on a regular basis. Any problems drop us a line using the contact page to let us know.

We've just added the History? Help! section to the website and put some key bits of imformation in it for you to download if you need to. There is a copy of our school level descriptors, a list of connectives to help with your writing as well as information on how to write brilliant answers in history.

We hope to add more homework and study help as soon as we can!

Welcome to the History@Nodehill blog. Here we'll try to keep a record of all the things we do in the history department at Nodehill across the year. We can't promise to add things everyday but we'll try to keep it as up to date as possible. It's really important though that if your a Nodehill pupil and you want to add a comment you FOLLOW THE BLOG RULES:

• NO SURNAMES
• NO PERSONAL OR SCHOOL EMAIL ADDRESSES

Only give:

• FIRST NAMES
• FORM NUMBER

So you could   post a comment   from   PETER 8NW

Please make sure you follow the rules!