The role of personal and family history
Personal and family history provides an ideal starting-point for the exploration of the past. These studies should
- enable children to establish their personal positions in time, become aware of the history of the immediate past and so facilitate the gradual development of a sense of the past
- make children aware of some of the major relationships in their families, especially their own links to parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles
- help children to explore instances of change and continuity in their own lives and those of others
- equip children with the language of time, e.g. old/older, young/younger, before/after, then, same/different, etc.
- provide opportunities for the examination of a range of simple evidence about their own past and that of their immediate family
- gradually help children to see that the incidents, memories and evidence of their own past are of value and interest and so make the exploration of the past real and relevant to them
- encourage the co-operation of the school, parents and wider community in the education of pupils in a meaningful and beneficial way.
EXEMPLAR 9 - Myself and my family (first and second classes)