The settlement at Jamestown was the first permanent English speaking settlement on the shores of North America. It therefore represents

This Jamestown Story Teachers' materials are designed to support the Primary KS2 National Curriculum in the spirit of the National Primary Strategy, 'Excellence and Enjoyment'. It covers all curriculum areas, English, and Literacy, Mathematics and Numeracy, Science, ICT, and specifically KS2 History Tudors/Stuarts by focusing on the English origins of those who grew up in Tudor England and went to Jamestown in 1607. There are also good links to Citizenship, Entrepreneurial education, and for, secondary schools, KS3 History, Business Studies, right up to A level History, Law, Business Studies.

By supporting the National Primary Strategy, ‘Excellence and Enjoyment’, these materials provide teachers with information, ideas and strategies to develop their own teaching plans, especially linked to the stories of individuals already known to children, such as Pocahontas, John Smith, John Rolfe. The material enriches the curriculum and is especially useful for 'Gifted and Talented' pupils.

These resources will help KS2/3 Class Teachers to devise a project on Jamestown 2007 for use with their class in 2006/2007, the 400^th anniversary of Jamestown colony and hence of English speaking America. The story of Captain John Smith and Pocahontas has been used in many films and books, most recently in the ‘The New World’ with Colin Farrell and Q’Orianka Kilcher. Most children will have heard of Pocahontas. But the story of the Jamestown Colony deserves to be more widely known. It gives a wealth of opportunities to explore cross-curricular themes. Some of the material is not available elsewhere and we hope that these notes save you time and effort in planning such a project.

A group of schools has worked with the ARIES Project to produce a set of books, designed for tourists, schools and the general reader, which tell the stories of the central characters in the Jamestown story, Captain John Smith, Pocahontas and Mrs John Rolfe. They also tell the story of the settlement of Jamestown and what happened there over the first twenty years. Teachers may find them a useful resource as they include children’s writing and art work. These books are available from bookshops or through the project web-site at www.captainjohnsmith.co.uk

Reading – there are many books for young people on the Jamestown story. The audience for the ARIES books is both KS2 children and for use by those adults who can be encouraged to be interested in the Jamestown; most KS2 pupils should be able to access the texts, although some may struggle with the less familiar/old words and some will need to have the material read to them – as one journalist said of the book ‘this story should be read to every school child!’

Writing - there are examples of pupil’s writing (printed in italics) in all three books in a range of genres: explanations, narratives, dialogue, commentaries, reports, letters, diary entries. Some are imaginative, many are descriptive. All have been drafted, re-drafted and in some cases edited. They could be used to give pupils examples of forms of writing, as material for establishing NC levels, as material for pupils to comment on and criticise. This also applies to the writing by the adult author and the authors of the leaflet ‘Lincolnshire to Virginia’, copies of which are available free from East Lindsey District Council (01507 601111). The books also raise interesting issues of spelling and punctuation, especially as at the time, there was no agreed orthography (spelling). The importance of checking/proof-reading is well illustrated by two mistakes on the leaflet – can your pupils spot the wrong dates on p1 and p5? There are also proof-reading failings in the books. Adults get things wrong too!

Speaking: included in the pack are the details of a debating competition for Primary Schools to be organised through the English Speaking Union between December 2006 and May 2007 (see below).

Mathematics and Science: perhaps not so easy to find links, but they are there! For example, the use of the information on maps to estimate distances, and average speeds, making a pie-chart of the fate of the first 105 settlers after 6 months, using the stars and the sun to navigate across the Atlantic, staying healthy –diet, scurvy etc. There is a wealth of useful information on the National Maritime Museum website about navigation and exploration. The pack includes information on a competition for schools on the voyage of the smallest of the ships that went to Jamestown in 1607, the Discovery (see below).

Design and Technology and ICT: there are many pupil projects which link with DT and ICT: making models of mud and stud buildings and Algonquian long-houses, baking ‘Tudor’ biscuits, visiting local buildings and looking at brickwork to date them, trying to make quill pens and use them (!), using standard ICT packages to word-process and correct text, to make diagrams, to email text to an ‘editor’, and to establish email links with pupils in today’s Virginia.

History/Chronological understanding: there is a chronology below which could be used to construct a time-line for classroom display; many illustrations could be included. There is a lot of material which could be used to illustrate the NC theme: ‘Britain and the Wider World in Tudor times’, including Tudor schools, patterns of society, everyday life, transport. Although the Jamestown story is Stuart, there are many links to European and World History. If there is a ‘local hero’ from your area, such as Smith for Lincolnshire, Gosnold for Suffolk, Rolfe for Norfolk, Newport for East London, the whole project could be used to illustrate the ‘work of a significant individual’, in a ‘local history study’. At KS3, the material on Algonquian Indians fits the topic on American Indians and there are again many local history options.

Geography: comparing the landscape and climate of England and Virginia; using modern atlases/globes/internet resources etc to identify the area of Jamestown, drawing maps showing the area in the 1600s and today – why is Washington DC so close to the first English settlement in America? How did the coming of the Europeans change the area for ever? How did the Native Americans feel about the changes?

Art and Design: there are lots of examples of pupils’ artwork in the ARIES books covering a range of levels and techniques. Some are the work of individuals, some are group or class projects. There are also many examples of 16^th and 17^th Century art work such as woodblocks and formal portraits. These could be used to discuss using illustrations for different purposes, the quality of the work (even the NC level!), the nature of perspective etc. There are also many photographs, illustrating the different ways in which these media communicate different meanings through images.

Music: there are lots of good Tudor and Stuart tunes and ballads which adapt well for recorders and choirs – you don’t have to use ‘Greensleaves’! The ‘Lord Willoughby’ tune referred to in the first book is also the subject of a duet by Byrd for more advanced musicians.

Physical Education: how about an afternoon of ‘Tudor Games’, using the illustration in the first book? You could even include that very dangerous game, banned by Henry VIII, called ‘foote-balle’.

PSHE: the Jamestown story raises many issues in PSHE, such as the motivation of those who first went to Virginia (greed or faith?), ideas about the land (ownership or given for man’s use?), who were the ‘savages’ (the English or the Virginian Indians?), what is the ‘true story’ of Pocahontas and John Smith? There are many opportunities for pupils to find themes to write about here at many different levels.