Term 5 - History

Every time we start a new history topic, we think about where the civilisation or events are located in history - how far or close they are to other events we have studied, and what else was happening in the world when these events were taking place.

This term, we are learning about the Kingdom of Benin. Year 6 worked independently to organise themselves and their timeline cards into BCE and CE events, eras and civilisations, and then ordered themselves from the earliest date to the most recent. They showed excellent partnership and resilience in arranging the events and creating a living timeline! 

We were particularly interested to learn that the Kingdom of Benin roughly overlapped with the Tudors, especially as when we last talked about the Tudors (in Year 5), it was in the context of the rise of European Colonialism. We have explored this topic a little more in literacy lessons, learning about the Benin Bronzes and calls to return them to Nigeria. Our opinions on this are varied, and several children have reformed their initial opinion since learning how the bronzes were acquired. Watch this space for some persuasive writing about the Benin Bronzes, which will be coming soon!