With the summer break stretching forth its welcome hand and the final lesson with my lowband Year 7 class looming, I wanted to ensure that the enthusiasm and dedication that this class had shown throughout the year was kept alive over the holiday period. We had been studying the Norman castle-builders, with the class physically demonstrating their commitment by building model castles during a two-week project homework. In our final lesson I wanted to use these models. I decided to focus on the notion of historical difference – Norman building sites and building sites today. But how to communicate the concept of historical difference in an accessible, yet powerful way to children with literacy problems?