Introduction

This article explores how working in partnership with museums can help to build the concept of chronology. In 2009 the Education team at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, worked with the Gifted and Talent Advisor at Education Leeds to provide a series of CPD days for teachers, and pupil challenges based on historical and chronological skills.

Museums are ‘real places where learning is based on experiences of real objects' (Clark, 2001, p5). Museums offer opportunities for pupils to investigate the following sources of evidence:

• Original Artefacts
• Replica objects and costumes
• Archives
• Printed materials
• Photographs, film and audio
• Historic settings
• Portraits and Paintings
• Interpretations and gallery displays
• Re-enactments

These very different sources can immerse pupils in a multisensory historic environment and deepen understanding of a period, thereby helping to build chronological understanding of a particular period...