Historical Enquiries and Interpretations

Transition Training Session 1

By Author: Dr. Michael Riley. Web Editor: Simon Brown, published 15th March 2011

This is the first of 5 sessions arising from the 2005 KS2-KS3 History Transition Project:

Please note: these resources pre-date the 2014 National Curriculum.

Historical Enquiries and Interpretations

Dr. Michael Riley started his session by showing a Key Stage 1 history reader called Orphan Mary. It told the story of a Victorian mill girl who injured her finger on machinery in a weaving shed. The story ended happily. Dr. Riley explained that when he had told the story to a Key Stage 1 class, and asked their opinion of it, a six year-old girl exclaimed: "That's rubbish! The accidents were much worse than that - people trapped their hair and their arms!"