Liverpool Bridge Project 2013-2014
Case Study
School: Emmaus CE and RC Primary School, Croxteth Park, Liverpool L12 0JE
Focus: Mersey Beat: The Beatles and their Liverpool home
Curriculum Links:
History (KS1):
Significant historical people in their locality (incorporating changes within living
memory and the lives of significant individuals in the past who have contributed to
national achievements).
Geography (KS1) Geographical Skills:
Use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic
human and physical features; devise a simple map; use and construct basic symbols
in a key.
Context and Objectives:
The initial impetus for the study was to devise a curriculum which celebrates a sense
of pride and belonging in the children for their home city, but which also looks to
Liverpool as a place that has had influence internationally. The importance of the
national and international is one the school has hoped to promote in the new revised
curriculum so the project is part of a long-term strategy for curriculum provision.
In conjunction with the Beatles topic with Year 2 children which this case study
focusses on, Year 1 revamped their Toys topic in a similar vein and Year 6 restructured their World War 2 topic to meet with the above criteria and to fulfil the
requirements of the revised curriculum.
At first, I had hoped the study would focus solely on history, as this is my own
passion, but the topic took on a life of its own as both the children and their families
were enthused by it and it seemed imperative to include some map work and
geographical skills to meet the objectives and do it justice.
The Beatles was quite a natural choice of study as it fulfils all the criteria for
addressing both a local and international link and is also an excellent choice in terms
of giving children a sense of the importance of Liverpool as a centre of culture, both
in the past and present. I had hoped the study would help to forge new cultural links
for our school with other cultural agencies and that it would be a project that would
excite the children and raise their curiosity about their home city.
I had thought it would be an ‘easy’ topic to research, but found that while many
organisations focus on The Beatles, none geared their provision to KS1. The
agencies I worked with were The Beatles Story, The Museum of Liverpool and The
National Trust.
Activity
History Focus:
The topic used an enquiry based approach to explore different aspects of The
Beatles and was the teaching focus for the second half of the spring term. We began
by asking children if they had ever visited Liverpool airport and if they know what it is
called. We then introduced the enquiry: Why is Liverpool airport called John Lennon
airport? Our first lesson centred on John Lennon and gave the children an
opportunity to say what they knew about him and state what they would like to find
out. The children then looked at a slide show of his life and the background to The
Beatles. We examined a range of sources to find out what Liverpool was like in the
1940s and the children interviewed Year 6 to find out what Liverpool was like during
World War 2. Other children focussed on the 1950s and how life had changed and
how teenagers spent their time. Photographs were used extensively as sources of
evidence.
A key feature of the study was to involve parents in research and grandparents as
sources of evidence. This was key to the success of the topic and an important
motivator for the children as the children realised how important their families were
as sources of evidence. It was quite amazing the number of grandparents who had
stories to tell and personal anecdotes and the children researched a chosen Beatle
at home for their homework. We gathered a range of memorabilia, records, books,
prints and photographs for our interactive display and the children have enjoyed role
play and art activities over the course of a term.
Having charted their rise to fame using a range of sources, the children made a
timeline of The Beatles from their early appearance to their break-up. By this stage
we had used the internet, books, memorabilia, photographs and interviews for our
research. It was now time to visit some cultural organisations to bolster our findings.
We visited The Beatles Story on the Albert Dock where the children were given an
audio tour of the museum which took an hour to complete. In the second hour of the
visit the museum’s education team led three mini workshops. In the first, the children
could dress up and role-play visiting a record shop in the 1960s and dance to 1950s
music which had influenced The Beatles. The second involved some fun games on
a giant interactive piano and the third was an art activity, where the children made a
collage of the Yellow Submarine which they took back to school to complete. We
also visited the Pier Head section of the museum, where the children were
fascinated by the Elvis exhibition, but probably the favourite activity of the day was
the 4D cinema, where they got splashed with water!
The above visit was another great motivator in getting the children to refine their
research and present their findings. Initially I had intended for different groups to
research one particular Beatle, but with so much material it seemed more productive
to focus on the journey of the Beatles to stardom and their subsequent success as
individual artists. The children were split into different groups, with each group
producing a slide show of a particular aspect of our study. We returned to our initial
question and children debated whether John Lennon was the most suitable choice of
Beatle for naming the airport.
In addition to a history focus the children learned a dance routine to The Yellow
Submarine in their PE lessons and enjoyed learning a number of the Beatles hits,
including ‘Love Me Do’ and ‘The Yellow Submarine’ along with John Lennon’s
‘Imagine’. We had hoped to compare the songs with contemporary rap beats and
create a Beatles Rap, but unfortunately time did not permit this to happen as we
extended the topic to include a geography focus in the subsequent half term.
Enquiry questions for the historical research were:
Why is Liverpool airport called John Lennon airport?(key question)
Who was John Lennon?
Why were The Beatles famous?
What are The Beatles doing now?
What do our sources tell us about The Beatles?
Geography Focus:
We began by listing the types of places Beatles fans might visit when they come to
Liverpool. We then examined the Liverpool Map produced by The Beatles Story,
showing the key sites in the city associated with The Beatles. When we visited The
Museum of Liverpool we undertook some fieldwork on the Waterfront and used a
map to identify the buildings. This linked with the ‘Best Buildings’ workshop we
attended at the museum which was adapted for a Beatles focus to suit our topic. We
also explored The Beatles Gallery during our visit, each group completing a Beatles
Quiz on the section of the Gallery they looked at in depth. We stopped at the
childhood homes of John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr on our journey
back to school.
Following our trip, we used Google earth to help us trace our route and the children
located the areas visited with coloured sticky dots on a map. This was a great
opportunity to show the simple compass directions and to use locational and
directional language (city centre, near, far, further, waterfront etc). We also had a
chance to discuss our findings about land use and traffic on the Waterfront. In
addition to Ben Johnson’s Cityscape, the children had opportunities to look at
several aerial photographs of The Waterfront and to name some of the buildings.
They then made their own maps of the Waterfront using a key. For some children
this was a concrete representation using LEGO and for others they cut out buildings
from a map and recreated their own Waterfront map.
The culmination of the topic was to produce a leaflet for Beatles fans visiting
Liverpool, informing them of some of the sites they could visit associated with The
Beatles.
Enquiry questions for the geographical research were:
Where do Beatles fans visit when they come to Liverpool?
How is land used on Liverpool Waterfront?
What does the Liverpool Museum tell us about The Beatles?
Where did our Magical Mystery Tour take us?
Where can Beatles fans visit in Liverpool to find out about The Beatles?
Art focus:
In addition to participating in the ‘Best Buildings’ workshop and completing collages
based on a Beatles theme suing templates produced by Liverpool Museum, the
children had a wonderful opportunity to work with the artist Holly Langley for two
days, producing a mural on the theme of Liverpool – home of The Beatles.
Impact and outcomes
The evaluated of the project has been based on the work the children produced
throughout the term and the knowledge, skills and understanding they displayed both
from a historical and geographical perspective. The feedback from the children was
very positive throughout (see quotes below) and they will complete an end of topic
evaluation. We are inviting parents to school before the end of term for a Beatles
Open Evening where the children will share and present the work they have done.
Primarily the project has given children a sense of the amazing city they live in and
what it has to offer. They also have a sense of Liverpool as a centre of culture and
the role The Beatles and the 1960s had to play in developing this. They have also
become aware of Liverpool as a tourist centre.
The cultural partners I worked with had either geared their venue to older children or
adults and in the case of The National Trust needed at least 3 months’ notice to
facilitate a visit to the childhood home of The Beatles. I needed to produce resources
that were accessible for younger children so had to do extensive research and
rewrite materials for younger children. I needed to be very clear about the focus of
our study and the ability of the children.
Next steps
I would certainly book the trips well in advance to ensure the trips were timed to fit
best with the progress of the topic in school.
I realised when we did our fieldwork that the children didn’t know that Liverpool is a
city or what a city is. Next time I will do lots of work with maps and atlases, naming
cities and countries of the UK prior to looking at Liverpool city.
We plan to run this topic again in the coming academic year and are in the process
of rewriting and tweaking some of the resources and writing a scheme of work for
both the history and geography focus. I definitely wouldn’t look at life in the 1940s
but in the 60s. We purchased some 60s costumes and CDs and the children have
loved finding out what Liverpool was like at this time from places they visited and
from grandparents.
Towards the end of the topic the children used the Book Creator app on iPads to
write about The Beatles. I would introduce this much earlier next time to give them
an opportunity to showcase their knowledge.
It’s a fabulous topic to include music, art and dance and I’d hope to work with
someone professionally to develop at least one of these aspects with a different
focus next year.
Supporting materials
Quotes from staff and children:
“If I had to choose one topic that would stimulate and enthuse the children along with
encompassing a diverse range of history and geography skills from map work
fieldwork to using primary and secondary sources, it would be The Beatles” Tracey
Martin (colleague)
“I loved looking at the Cityscape in Liverpool Museum and seeing The Three Graces
from the big window” Evie Year 2
“The 3D cinema was great because the chair shook and we all got wet. I still had
bubbles on me at the end of the show” Miller Year 2
“Going on the trips was fantastic because we learnt a lot about The Beatles, but it
was great fun and using the headphones in The Beatles Story was exciting.”
Michaela and Joseph Year 2
“We loved learning The Beatles hits and working with the artist was so exciting.”
Caitlin, Gabi and Ella Year 2
“The best thing was dressing up in John Lennon glasses and trying on the 60’s
costumes” Faye Year 2
“My favourite activity was painting the yellow submarine with the artist.” Mikey Year 2