Naunton Park School Project
In the 2023 summer term the Cheltenham South Town History Project partnered with Naunton Park school to study how the Bath Road shopping area has changed over time. Following a preliminary meeting with the teachers, Mrs Walls and Mrs Staniland, we visited the year six classes with a slide show of vintage photographs of the street and asked the children to find out more about its history, as well as who was trading there now. The teachers then produced the following teaching plan for term 5.
Mrs Walls explains:
"As part of the KS2 History curriculum, children are required to carry out a local study. The Year Six staff at Naunton Park liaised with Stuart Manton and together came up with the idea of looking at their local High Street, Bath Road, to see how it had changed over time. Our work began by looking at how the area had changed dramatically from being a rural area to how we know it today. We then looked at shopping habits and how they had changed from the Victorian times to the present day. We invited local residents into school who shared their memories of The Bath Road from their past and the children really enjoyed hearing stories first hand as it made it more real. Each child was then given a specific shop from The Bath Road and using The Cheltenham South Town Website, and by visiting and interviewing the present day shopkeepers, produced a poster all about their shop detailing what it had been in the past to what it is today. It has been a fabulous topic which both the children and staff thoroughly enjoyed which is obvious from the work the children produced and the knowledge they acquired."
"As part of the KS2 History curriculum, children are required to carry out a local study. The Year Six staff at Naunton Park liaised with Stuart Manton and together came up with the idea of looking at their local High Street, Bath Road, to see how it had changed over time. Our work began by looking at how the area had changed dramatically from being a rural area to how we know it today. We then looked at shopping habits and how they had changed from the Victorian times to the present day. We invited local residents into school who shared their memories of The Bath Road from their past and the children really enjoyed hearing stories first hand as it made it more real. Each child was then given a specific shop from The Bath Road and using The Cheltenham South Town Website, and by visiting and interviewing the present day shopkeepers, produced a poster all about their shop detailing what it had been in the past to what it is today. It has been a fabulous topic which both the children and staff thoroughly enjoyed which is obvious from the work the children produced and the knowledge they acquired."
Some of the fabulous posters produced by the children are reproduced below.
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The project was a great success and we now have a great amount of new information to process over the coming months to add to the shop commentaries. Thank you to everyone involved including the children, teachers, parents, shopkeepers and local residents.
Below are some of the photographs of Bath Road taken by the Naunton Park children in May 2023.
Below are some of the photographs of Bath Road taken by the Naunton Park children in May 2023.
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