Heritage Education

© Ismar Badzic

I have unique expertise in teaching young people and adults about Sheffield’s heritage.  I was born and brought up in Attercliffe in the 1950s, and I’ve taught in secondary schools for over thirty years and lectured to extramural adult students for even longer.  I’ve run residential tours in the UK and the USA and led walking tours and heritage bus rides in Sheffield, particularly in the Lower Don Valley where I grew up.

I can provide schools, academies and colleges with –

  • presentations about Sheffield’s history, buildings, popular culture and dialect
  • tours, on foot or on wheels, to sites that capture the imagination including locations where modern industry carries on the traditions of the Steel City
  • contacts with libraries and archives, historians and other experts, and people who remember Sheffield when it was different to what it’s like now
  • teaching materials, suggested reading and moving-image footage that makes the mainstream curriculum locally relevant

I’m in a position to provide quality learning experiences to save busy teachers from committing preparation and administration time alongside their other priorities.

I welcome opportunities to discuss with curriculum leaders ways of enriching the heritage-education content in schools and colleges within the city boundary, in the classroom, in fieldwork and in conjunction with libraries, museums and other speakers.

The hyperlinks below lead directly to specific subject-focused topics and other background information.  If they seem useful, please pass them on to appropriate colleagues.

In consultation with curriculum managers I can offer linkage between specific subject-areas and the wider curriculum and the heritage resources available in Sheffield museums, libraries and archives.

Here are some examples of possibilities to enrich classroom and fieldwork experiences for students from Key Stage 2 to beyond Key Stage 5:

History:

  • influence of powerful landowners –
    • 6th Earl of Shrewsbury and Mary, Queen of Scots
    • Dukes of Norfolk
  • contrast between water-powered light trades and steam-powered heavy steel
  • transformation of rural settlements into urban suburbs
  • radical politics – Samuel Holberry, Sheffield Outrages, Edward Carpenter
  • Labour movement

Geography:

  • population-change, housing clearance and migration (19th to 21st centuries)
  • transport development – turnpikes, waterways, railways, motorways
  • environmental pollution (cf, Science & Technology)

Science & Technology:

  • coal and iron mining
  • iron and steel manufacturing
  • non-metallurgical manufacturing – eg, glassworks, brickworks
  • non-ferrous metals manufacturing – eg, Sheffield Plate, stainless silver
  • environmental pollution (cf, Geography)
  • utilities – water, gas, electricity, telecommunications

Field-work opportunities:

  • Doncaster Street Cementation Furnace, Shalesmoor
  • Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet
  • Shepherd Wheel, Whiteley Woods
  • Kelham Island Museum
  • Magna, Templeborough