Using the idea of 'freedom' to make connections between history and citizenship

Big ideas, making connections, citizenship, thinking skills. We were nothing if not ambitious in our planning for this unit for a lower attaining Year 8 group at Langley School in Solihull. Having identified the big ideas which could underpin a dialogue between history and citizenship and make the connections between the two meaningful, we settled on freedom – an idea with powerful resonances for both. Everything in our scheme of work contributes something, more or less explicitly, to understanding the idea of freedom.