This part is mainly for parents or teachers.
Our site is aimed at giving young people, and any others who wish to join in, more knowledge about the world they inhabit. There is no defined age
range. If pushed, I would say age 5 to 13 but older children can easily use it and the youngest can do so with adult, or older sibling, help.
We want to create,
within those who follow us, an infectious desire to learn. The material we upload can be used in a variety of ways and will, hopefully, encourage people to
actually become part of the whole learning process. There is, however, no specific or prescribed way to make use of our site. We provide the necessary tools
for you to build the learning machine. To be absolutely honest, as one teacher involved in the development of the site said to me, if you can't find parts to
both motivate your pupils and make their learning more fun and also more meaningful, you may be in the wrong profession.
This is the position as at the beginning of 2021 with information about our future plans.
SECTIONS ALREADY ON THE SITE
THE WORLD
These pages are to introduce our followers to the various countries around the world. They give a brief but interesting introduction to these
countries. Information is geared, in part, to what might interest young people but, for each country, identical topics are covered so comparisons are easy. We use
a lot of statistical data represented in different ways and, as such, it achieves our aim of a cross-curricula project. Children can be encouraged to make
comparisons between countries that we do not and decide how to represent their findings.
Each diagram is uploaded to the site as a jpg file and so can, individually, be saved by the users. This, we hope, makes producing comparative data
not only easier but also a little bit more exciting.
We will update all figures currently on the site in May and June 2021. We would welcome any suggestions with regard to
adding/deleting any categories.
TIMES PAST
England's history has been divided into 24 separate time periods. Within each period, except the first one, there are 3 parts:-
A timeline and narrative, the timeline of which is divided into various calendar years which can be clicked to read more about the events in that year.
A series of hoots, “written” by Owlbut in his own style, and showing everyday life in the chosen period. He covers homes, clothes, food, daily life and culture for each period.
A story about the period, for which we are asking our followers to submit a drawing or picture, the best of which will then appear with the relevant story. Each story has an audio version too.
YOUR TURN
In this section we have set out various projects that can be done by young people from all over the world. Their finished work will then appear as a
link to a genuine school site.
The projects cater for all age groups and all levels of learners. There are those to be done on your own and those to be done with others, the ones
most likely to be done in a school situation. Two more highly topical projects will be added in August 2021.
Each project has instructions and information on how to submit it plus, where applicable, some examples of work done previously.
With the projects we also want to involve the older generation, apart from me, in our site and one project in particular hopes to achieve this aim.
We are well aware that teachers may need time to integrate these projects into their programmes of work and so we will not upload any projects or links
until September 2021 although there is nothing to stop you putting the work on your own school site before then.
SECTIONS TO BE ADDED BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 2020 AND JULY 2021
EXPLAINING HISTORY AND LOOKING AT THE ENGLISH COUNTIES
In order to maintain some new material on the site each week, we have two new uploads. Both will appear by 6pm on a Friday night, the timing
chosen following requests from some teachers to allow them time to prepare work for the following week. The first of these uploads will be a video podcast
introduction to a period of our Times Past section, added chronologically and the dates can be found here.
Once these finish, at the beginning of May 2021, we will then update the figures for the countries in The World section. The second upload will take our followers
on a virtual journey through the counties and metropolitan boroughs of England, with some information and fun facts about a new county, or set of counties,
each week and these will be found on our English counties page.
SECTIONS TO BE ADDED BETWEEN SEPTEMBER 2021 AND JULY 2022
EUROPE IN DEPTH AND MEET THE OWL
With there being no chance to plan, organise, and carry out our proposed real journey through England in 2021-22, we have looked at new ways to
maintain an active, developing site.
Starting in September 2021 we will use a similar format to our journey through English counties to take you on a journey through Europe. More is
explained on our Journeys page along with a list of dates and countries. It will then be our intention over the three academic years from September 2022 to cover
the other continents.
Secondly, again starting in September 2021, we will have, via our Club pages, a chance for schools to join a live chat with Owlbut (and Richard) each
week. Final details of this are still being worked out and these will be revealed as soon as possible, certainly by Easter 2021.
