The activities below are designed to get children talking about and recording their own oral histories. This allows them to see that they are a part of history in the making and that history does not only entail large events involving well known people. The theme of ‘school’ is used in this instance, however it can be replaced with other topics that are of local interest and that connect to the curriculum.

To get started get children talking in pairs about their experiences and stories of school – you can use the following ‘headings’ as a stimulus for conversation and these conversations need not be shared:

• How they get to school
• Earliest memory of school
• A funny thing that happened
• A school trip
• School dinners

Again in pairs, get one pupil to conduct a two minute interview. They can ask whatever they like but the other person does not have to answer their questions unless they feel comfortable. At the end of the two minutes the interviewer has to share with the class what they have found out. Swap and repeat. After the interviews are over each pair reflects on which questions made them feel comfortable. What kind of questions were they? How were they asked? As a class make a list of these qualities. Also talk about open questions, where the person being interviewed can give a broad ranging answer.

With these questions in mind, as a whole class or in small groups come up with questions about school life to be asked to other members of the class. These could be grouped into themes such as work, play, food, starting school, leaving school etc.

If the school has dictaphones, digi-recorders or online recording facilities get the children to interview each other using their questions and record the interviews. These can be edited together and shared on the school website or can be used as a basis for writing activities.

Source other people connected to the school who might be able to provide other memories, stories and experiences, for example long standing staff at the school, parents who used to attend the school etc. Invite them into school to be interviewed and recorded or filmed by small groups of children. Again these can be used for further writing activities.

As a class decide how you would like to present and share your school project. This might be in a school assembly, or by creating a special project area on the school website or a wall display featuring photos of the school together with corresponding accounts, stories and memories.