Bringing history to life

09 September 2009

Key moments in history have been brought to life through dramatic performances and captured for use in the classroom. 

The new DVD support materials developed by OCR - one of the three exam boards that make up the Cambridge Assessment Group - in partnership with The History Squad, have been created for the new 2009 GCSE History specifications.

The History Squad delivers powerful historical performances for both education and entertainment purposes to help teachers bring history to life. Feedback from teachers indicates that The History Squad's performances help students develop analytical skills, stretching and challenging their learning by providing a dramatic and accurate representation of the often complex social, political and economic forces in play at key moments in history.

The five 10-15 minute films are available for free viewing or to download to the school's virtual learning environment or other system at OCR's website.

There are five short films contained on the DVD:

  • The SS Major
  • The Nazi Nurse
  • The Elizabethan Lady
  • The Master Gunner
  • Weapons and Surgery 

The films are not intended to be a standalone resource, delivering learning, but to support teaching practice by allowing teacher's to access The History Squad's unique content and integrate this into their lessons. The films will seek to capture the core of The History Squad's performances, providing rich and engaging content that can be used in conjunction with supporting activities and resources that will be developed in conjunction with the films, to support the teacher's delivery. It is not intended that these resources are to be used exclusively to deliver a lesson which is made clear in the DVD's accompanying notes.

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