Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.

Rosie Sheldrake and Dale Banham here share the results of their desire to use the curriculum changes which are upon us to do something which they had intended for some time. Their modern world study was about war and more war, and they had neglected the social and cultural aspects of the twentieth century. Moreover, they had not exploited a fantastic local resource -in their case, an organised community dedicated to preserving the experiences of Caribbean immigrants to Ipswich. This article shows how, using a locally produced resource on which they collaborated, they were able to teach meaningful local history. It also shows the benefits of the ‘Mantle of the Expert' approach, which was one of the approaches that they trialled. Readers will not necessarily be able to use the same resources (although those in Ipswich might wish to) but might wish to think: is there anything like this where I teach?