For Schools: Victorian News

Broad Oak School News Simulation

See the winning page

Broad Oak School is a two-form entry primary school in East Didsbury, Manchester with 440 pupils. It is situated in a quiet suburb surrounded by greenery but within three miles of the city centre. The school is very mixed socially and culturally. More than 50% of the children come from a range of ethnic minorities and the variety of cultures and faiths represented are all celebrated. Broad Oak has received an International Schools Award for its European work. The school maintains close links with Parrs Wood High School and The City Learning Centre.

The Year Six History National Curriculum is to study the Victorians. This year Broad Oak took part in a cross-phase literacy project with students from Parrs Wood High School. As part of this project, they had to produce the 'leading news page' of a Victorian Tiverton newspaper dated 1885 and the children were fed bits of original Victorian news stories taken from 1885 issues of The Tiverton Gazette via the Virtual Victorians WWW site.

David Knowles and Ghazal Hodhody, both aged 11 years and pupils at Broad Oak Primary School produced the winning page. Commenting on their project they said "We did the paper as part of our Victorian project. We have studied the Victorians in class and have been on a number of trips to find out more about the way they lived. Making the front page was very educational and helped in our understanding of the topic."