Medium-term plan: What can we learn from life on the Home Front?

The medium-term planning for this learning enquiry about life at home in the Second World War has key sustainability themes running throughout. On the Home Front, people had to live within their means, making do with rationed food and other items, mending what they already had to make it last longer and responding to the campaign to ‘Dig for Victory’ by growing their own seasonal produce.

Linked to the principle of Diversity, the learning enquiry set out in this medium-term planning explores the different roles that contributed to the success of the collective war effort at home, emphasising the importance of each.

In addition to its strong links to National Curriculum History content, this learning enquiry draws on knowledge, understanding and skills from across the KS2 programmes of study for a truly cross-curricular learning experience. In English, there are opportunities for creative writing through diary entries and descriptive texts, as well as non-fiction writing as the children create a job description for an ARP warden and produce a leaflet for the Dig for Victory campaign. Each writing focus has a linked grammar and punctuation skill which allows students to apply their understanding of the technical side of writing in their compositions.

Through the Art and Geometry elements of this medium-term planning, there is a focus on portraits of faces that capture the emotions of those who lived through the war.

The Great Work for this learning enquiry sees children use seasonal, locally grown Dig for Victory produce to prepare soup to share with grandparents, WW2 veterans and elder members of the local community at harvest time. This also provides an opportunity to learn from a generation who may have their own memories and experiences of war.

This enquiry is linked to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 Responsible Consumption and Production.