Work In Schools

A big aim of the Witness Project has been to bring oral history into the classrooms and history education of local pupils.

We have worked with secondary schools across South Yorkshire to develop interest in local history, and to provide lessons and guidance about different ways of learning about the past.

In after-school clubs and during history lessons, students and staff from the History department have run interactive, hour-long lessons from students at all ages of the secondary school curriculum, with pupils developing skills in interview technique, the role of memory and emotion in history testimonies, and critical awareness of the world around them.

Providing our own voice recorders, we have set pupils tasks of interviewing friends, teachers, or family members on broad themes, such as 'Childhood' or 'School', and have been inspired by the wide-ranging and fascinating results. We hope to present pupil interviews online, furthering our archive of Sheffield and South Yorkshire voices and histories.