Last Chance! We have a number of Westall's War teacher's packs which are available to History and English departments on a first come, first served basis.
Please send a cheque for £5.00 payable to Gateshead Council to:
Peter Hepplewhite
Tyne and Wear Archives Service
Blandford House
Blandford Square
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4JA
On 3 May 1941 a public shelter in the basement of Wilkinson's lemonade factory, North Shields, was destroyed by a direct hit from a single German bomb. 105 people died, the worst wartime incident in the North of England.
One of the rescue party was the father of young Robert Westall. By the 1970's Robert had become a best-selling children's author and many of his books are inspired by his wartime experiences.
This multi-media project is the result of a successful bid to the DFEE Museums and Galleries Education Programme. We seek to encourage cooperation between history and English departments in years 7-9 and to support the implementation of the literacy strategy at Key Stage 3.
This is achieved by the analysis of fiction and non-fiction texts, linking Westall's exciting novel The Machine Gunners with supporting archival material from the Home Front. An exciting additional aspect is provided by the recollections of over a dozen survivors and relatives of casualties. Westall's War is radical in the presentation of education materials in printed and ITC formats.
The Project has 3 elements:
1. Westall's War CD-Rom: aimed at Year 7 (11+) children and above.
Designed by Sheila Graber Animations Ltd, the disc is fully interactive and contains all source archival material, sound and video files, interactive games, quizzes and tasks, and the teacher's pack. It also includes the database of victims taken from the official records of those killed at Wilkinson's.
2. Teacher's Pack
History and Literacy notes with high quality archive document facsimiles, maps, photos, leaflets....
Compiled by Peter Hepplewhite (Westall's War Project Manager: Tyne and Wear Archives Service) and by Kathleen Pearse (Key Stage 3 Consultant, Gateshead LEA).
Each Secondary School in the 13 Local Education Authorities in the north east of England has received a free copy of the CD-Rom and Teacher's Pack.
Online Notes
The Project history and english teachers' notes are now available online.
Teachers' Notes: Year 7 Literacy Links - PDF 1.73MB: 54 pages
Teachers' Notes: History - PDF 847K: 20 pages
3. westallswar.org.uk weblog aimed at a general audience interested in World War 2, local history, Robert Westall etc
Designed by Peter Bolger, Gateshead Grid for Learning Manager.
Database programming: John Hudson and Daniel Bolger.