Beyond the classroom: a site visit with GCSE History B students
17 April 2025
Richard Kerridge, History Subject Advisor
One of the great pleasures of my job is talking to lots of teachers. During one conversation with Ashley Lewis, Assistant Principal at The Morley Academy, I was invited to accompany his Year Ten historians on their annual History Around Us (HAU) site visit to Temple Newsam near Leeds. It was an opportunity I was delighted to take.
The History Around Us unit
The HAU unit is part of our GCSE History B specification and was designed in partnership with the Schools History Project. The SHP’s core principles are that history in schools should:
- be relevant and meaningful to young people
- involve enquiry
- build knowledge
- be broad
- include ‘history around us’
- be accessible and life-enhancing.
In particular, the fifth principle aims to generate an interest in, and knowledge of, the local historic environment. And this means that as the weather begins to get better, our thoughts can turn to that summer HAU site visit.
“Visitors Touching Objects will be Locked in the Cellars”: Temple Newson as a HAU site
Fuelled by a splendid vegetarian breakfast at the Full Monty Café in Morley I made my way to Temple Newsam and met with Head of History James Aitken and his coachload of Year 10 pupils. I was assigned to Group A and away we went.
The excitement is palpable. As the students descend the steps of the coach and look up at the beautiful Tudor-Jacobean house you can feel the air of expectancy – this is going to be a very different school day.
Now, Temple Newsam is owned and run by Leeds City Council but it was first built by one of William the Conqueror’s rich barons, Ilbert de Lacy. It went by the name of Neuhusum or New Houses. How do you try to teach one-thousand years of a site’s history in one day?
Team Morley break down Temple Newsam’s history into five periods in order to make it easier for their students to visualise what happens. During the visit all five periods are highlighted and spoken about in the same way they would be in the classroom. James told me that it was crucial that the excellent guides at Temple Newsam are made aware of the language teachers use at school so they can use the same terminology during the visit. This synchronisation between school and site is key, and very much in evidence throughout the day. Clearly there has been some pre-visit work.
Students are armed with a work booklet designed by Morley staff; they complete this during the visit. The booklet has photographs of the site and key questions to help focus students’ minds on the important information. For example, in my second session students were asked ‘what changes did Sir Arthur Ingram make to the house?’ As you can see, these questions are concerned about changes to the site and the reasons – a clear reference to criteria (c) and (f) in the specification.
Three areas of focus
While all five time periods are summarised, it would be impossible to look at them all in depth, so three areas provide the main focus of the day: a Tudor tour, a session looking at the key changes to the house, and a focus on the domestic arrangements.
The Tudor tour focuses on the layout of the building during that period. Thomas Darcy (Lord Darcy under Henry VII) built the existing house between 1500-1520. It was part-house, part-fortress at the time, and was the largest house in Yorkshire. Students were able to see some physical features of the site such as the diaper pattern of the bricks. James and the guide were able to refer to the physical features and what students could learn from them that might help tell the story of Temple Newsam. Clearly, there was a nod to exam questions, but this never got in the way of telling a story about the building.
The house went through several owners who made key changes to its layout and internal design. Our second session dealt with this. Here we can see how new owner, Sir Arthur Ingram, made changes in the seventeenth century. The earlier use of the diaper brickwork is used to show the differences between the west (where diaper brickwork is evident) and the north and south (where it is not). Once again, we were using physical features of the site to help understand what was going on.
After lunch we finally get to the dressing up box! I mean, the focus shifts to the domestic arrangements of the nineteenth century, when the property was used for farming and mining. By looking at the domestic arrangements in the house, we can understand more about beliefs, attitudes and values in the house’s history. The students were given the chance to wear some of the servants’ clothes.
You can see Sophie dressed as the housekeeper, who would have been in charge of the other women working in the house and responsible for the household linen. She would have earned £15 a year.
James wears the outfit of a footman, who earned £6 per year greeting visitors to the house. It was important that he created a good impression on visitors, hence his expensive-looking uniform.
At the end of the day there was a final debriefing, where James and his team brought together the main threads of the day. Clever questioning teased out the key points and made them relevant to the specification. James told me that once back at school the students go through their workbook to fill any gaps and have an opportunity to ask further questions. History teachers at Morley all have to have a good knowledge of the site in order to do this. It shows how this specification was created to give equal weighting to all units, thus raising the importance of local history.
Final thoughts
It was clear that the bond between school and site was very strong and a vital part of the success of the visit.
Afterwards James told me that most of the pupils will go back at least once before their exam. Leeds City Council allow them to visit for free. Many take their parents and try to give them a similar tour.
From the moment students stepped off the coach, to the moment they returned, this was an enjoyable day. I spoke to many of them during lunch and they all told me that they enjoyed learning outside the classroom, in particular the opportunity to go to somewhere local where history happened. In a community where their parents and grandparents grew up, this link served to strengthen associations with their environment.
These students have a stronger understanding of their place locally and nationally. Isn’t that what we want from our history lessons?
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About the author
Richard joined Cambridge International Assessment in September 2019 and OCR in October 2022. Prior to joining OCR, he taught History for seventeen years. He was a Deputy Head of Sixth Form, Head of Humanities, SSAT Lead Practitioner as well as writing and contributing to textbooks and exam-board resources. He has presented at the Historical Association and Schools History Project Annual Conferences and for Keynote Education. Richard is very proud to be an Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association. He enjoys being with his family, friends and two dogs.
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