Pupils at Ormiston Park Academy have been involved in a unique project to research their own royal roots, as well as their school’s royal roots, in celebration and preparation of witnessing the royal wedding in 2011.
It all started when the news broke that Prince William had proposed to Kate Middleton. The next day, a number of students began asking their English teacher a number of questions about why this wedding would be so important for the British public.
It was then that the Head Teacher Tess Walker learnt what this class had been studying, that she then asked them to research into whether they had any ancestral royal history and to delve into Ormiston Park Academy’s royal site history.
The past few days have seen the young people working with professional historians to form a ‘Young Roots’ research team with the objective of producing a DVD that will help them to understand and share the story of their British royal roots, and their school sites royal roots.
Those taking part had the opportunity to be involved in workshops looking into the school’s history, delving into the historic garden society archives, finding out that OPA site use to be the principal building in the parish, seat of the Barrett-Lennards.
The pupils looked at re-enacting historical events that link directly to the lifestyle of royals during the period of when OPA existed as the seat of the Barrett-Lennards and also drafted letters to be sent to Buckingham Palace as to whether the name of their school could ever be re-named after their royal
history.
Generally the objective of these few historical lessons was to encourage the pupils to take an interest in history and the monarchical based news that will flood the media in the coming months.
Headteacher Tess Walker said: “Everyone worked really hard in these historical sessions and it was a pleasure to observe the interest shown
from our multi-cultural students, some of which who are new to living in a country with a monarchy,”
“I am extremely proud of the dedication and enthusiasm of the students. I am inspired every day by these pupils and the way that they want to take initiative to research into the community they spend every day in.”
