History

History trip to Berlin August 2012

This summer the History Department and a group of 30 girls from Years 11 to 13 embarked on a trip to Berlin. We spent a fantastic five days visiting a variety of fascinating historical sites. We started the trip with a tour around several key sites that gave us a flavour of the history of Berlin in the days of the Nazis – we visited the site of the famous Nazi book burnings (Bebelplatz), and toured the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and the impressive Olympic Stadium. We were also able to get an excellent sense of the wartime experience for ordinary Berliners with an insightful and revealing tour of intact bomb shelters. In the second half of our visit we concentrated on the history of Berlin as a divided city, and looked at the impact of the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. The city has retained many of the features of this period in order to commemorate these difficult years, and we spent a fascinating morning at the Stasi Prison – a shockingly intact example of the treatment of prisoners and attempted defectors in East Germany – as well as visiting the famous (and very crowded!) Checkpoint Charlie, and the far less crowded but no less interesting Nordbahnoff ‘ghost station’.

While the subject matter of the sites visited during the trip was not exactly light hearted, it wasn’t all serious study, and we had an excellent time. We enjoyed weather that was almost too fantastic, and spent a lovely afternoon taking a boat trip along the Spree.

It was an excellent trip, and we hope to hold it again in the future!

Year 8 Connected Curriculum D-Day

I am speaking to you from S3 in the maths block. This morning Mr Nicholl handed Year 8 the final note stating that unless he heard from them by registration this morning, that they were prepared at once to join him in his code breaking quest, a state of war would exist between the houses. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking was received and that consequently this year group is at war.

Tension was high as Year 8 battled ferociously with encryptions.  Houses clashed as rivals attempted to gain entrance to our secret lairs where mathematicians worked furiously, solving complicated Python problems. We plotted and planned and double bluffed, reliving the dilemmas that Britain would have faced when deciding where to invade occupied France. We endeavoured to produce fully functioning radios, with some people claiming to have succeeded in hearing Hitler’s broadcasts…

As D-Day loomed, we furiously crammed our brains with the knowledge we would need for the ultimate test. The test of all the skills we had amassed on this intensive training course. We could almost hear the bombs ringing out as we tramped back inside, our brains aching. Our suffering was insignificant in comparison to what the Allies would have endured when crossing the channel, knowing full well that they might never return.

Line upon line of soldiers dressed in real RAF suits, headscarves and bomber jackets marched proudly into the Lecture theatre for a speech from our General, Chris. He was very impressed with our war efforts and told us all about what it’s like to be more involved in code breaking at a higher level of expertise.

We fought valiantly and were victorious, a state of peace has now returned to Year 8. Never was so much owed by so many to so few, so thank you to all the teachers involved for making it such a memorable day!

Year 9 History Trip to the Black Country Museum, Dudley

It was a cold but – luckily! – sunny day in Dudley for our trip to the open air Black Country Museum, which celebrates the industrial heritage of the Black Country.

The museum staff greeted us attired in authentic 19th century garb, and proceeded to lead us through a well-organised day, giving a really good taste of the different aspects of life and work in the Industrial Revolution. Girls were able to experience life in the coal mines, with the slightly alarming but authentic touch of carrying torches set to give the exact dimness of candle-light. We were also given a taste of the difficulties and dangers involved in canal work, including girls attempting to move a 40 ton barge with only the power of their legs, and saw the difficulties and injustices of life for female chain-makers, learning the life story of an 89 year old woman calling for a pension so that she could stop working. It wasn’t all doom and gloom, of course, in the sooty industrial world – girls were also able to get a literal taste of life in the 19th Century, with genuine beef-dripping chips, candyfloss and sweets eaten at the Victorian fair.

Julia Wood History Prize, 2010

Congratulations to 2010 leaver, Olivia Elder, who has been awarded second prize in the Julia Wood History Essay Competition awarded by St Hugh’s College, Oxford, in association with History Review.

Olivia entered an essay on the events leading up to the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 – a subject she had also written about for a staff-performed pantomime assembly earlier in the year to mark the 350th anniversary of the return of the Stuarts. This is a fantastic achievement for Olivia, and is the second year running that an OHS historian has won this prize. Olivia is about to start a degree in Ancient and Modern History at Corpus Christi, Oxford.

Let them eat cake: Sixth-form historical cake decorating competition

It is a fact universally acknowledged that OHS girls are very good at making and decorating cakes. In recognition of the Year 12′s enthusiasm for this traditional art, the History department organised a historical cake-decorating competition at the end of the summer term.

All of the entries – which included a spectacular Viking long boat, a beautifully-painted Mao cake, a recreation of Stalin’s industrial city of Magnitogorsk (complete with mud huts, Stalinist propaganda posters and Siberian snow) and a 3D recreation of the Ditchley portrait of Elizabeth I – were very impressive. After much contemplation and serious cake eating, the prize was shared between Ellen Judson for her DItchley cake and Miriam Zegeye for Magnitogorsk.