Page 10 - Bloxhamist 2017-2018

ACADEMIC

HistorY

The year got off to an exciting start, when the department
welcomed 25 primary school pupils to Keep Calm on the Home
Front, a Second World War themed workshop. Pupils prepared a
cooked lunch using original Second World War recipes, and toured
the Crake basement, allowing them to see where boarders sheltered
during the war. During the tour, they were shown the original
Firewatcher’s Diary, kept by the member of staff and prefect on fire
watch, which included reports of German aircraft flying over the
village on route to their devastating bombing raid on Coventry in
1940. The highlight of the day was the visit from the Oxfordshire
Home Guard- a living history group who brought a range of
original artefacts with them, including weapons, communications
equipment and a Willys jeep - all of which pupils were able to
handle. We would like to extend our thanks to Old Bloxhamist Ed
Brooks (Eg 97-04) for bringing the group in.

Bloxham historians have continued to be of Versailles and the Musée de l’Armée at insight into how the human geography
active both in and outside the classroom. Les Invalides, before seeing Napoleon’s of the area made the Ripper so difficult to
The First, Second and Third Forms took tomb at the Dôme des Invalides. The final apprehend, and why crime was so endemic
part in their usual visits to Kenilworth day included visits to Sainte Chapelle and in Whitechapel in the late 19th century.
Castle, Edgehill battlefield, Broughton Notre Dame, as well as the Conciergerie,
Castle and RAF Halton. Meanwhile, Sixth where prominent prisoners including In the Summer Term, 12 Lower Sixth
Form historians ventured further afield, Marie Antoinette were kept before their students visited the exhibition Charles
on two new trips: over February half term, execution during The Terror. Our thanks II: Art and Power at the Queen’s Gallery
students in both the Lower and Upper go to Mr Batten for his fantastic tour in Buckingham Palace. This was a great
Sixth enjoyed a hugely informative study guiding, and to Madame McCaffrey, for opportunity to explore their A Level
tour to Paris, to complement their A Level her expert local knowledge. period study in depth, and see how
studies. The first day saw students take Charles used art to glorify the restored
a walking tour of Paris, seeing a range of Fourth Form historians also went on a new monarchy and reinforce his position as
sites associated with pre-revolutionary, trip, visiting Oxford and London as part of the rightful king.
revolutionary and Napoleonic France their GCSE crime and punishment course.
including the Place de la Concorde, the Students first visited Oxford Castle, to see Outside of the taught curriculum, Upper
site of the Tuileries Palace, and the Church inside the former Oxford Prison, which Sixth student Dylan Patel represented
of Saint-Roch, the burial place of the closed its doors in 1996, before heading the school in the Oxfordshire heat of the
Enlightenment philosopher Diderot. On to London for a Jack the Ripper tour of Historical Association’s Great Debate
the second day, they visited the Palace Whitechapel. The tour offered a fascinating 2017. Tasked with answering the question:
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