Success in the Making

Herstory: how we brought women’s history to life for primary pupils

May 10th, 2011 with No Comments

Jonathan Everingham, History subject leader at Millfields Primary School in Hackney, writes about how pupils marked Women’s History Month this year.

On 31 March we held ‘Herstory Day’ during which the whole school celebrated women in history. Teachers dressed as Suffragettes and led a march around the playground to champion the rights of women. Special assemblies were held and each class chose a famous woman to study in depth.

It was the first time we have celebrated Women’s History Month at Millfields and as History subject leader I was excited to be introducing a new idea but at the same time I did worry that the boys would not respond to learning about women’s history.

We had ran a poster campaign for a month beforehand building up the intrigue and interest as to what HerStory could be and within minutes of the posters going up there were groups of children crowding around them, all eagerly discussing what they could mean. This meant that by the time the actual day arrived there was a buzz around the school, all excited to find out more!

The responses from children, parents and teachers have been amazing, with everyone expressing their enjoyment of the day. Many parents have reported that the children came home talking excitedly about the woman they had discovered that day and were sympathising with the struggles and stories that they had heard. The general concensus was that the day had brought history alive and really reinvigorated a subject that is often hard to get children excited about!

Thankfully, the day proved equally popular with boys as it did with the girls and the written and creative work produced was outstanding. The work was used to create the pop-up Millfields Museum of HerStory, a temporary exhibition that enables all children to share the stories and has been enjoyed by all who have visited. The museum has ensured that the stories of so many brave women live on for all to see.