Folens: Everyday People & Everyday Lives, by Paul Turner, pub Folens 2008; ISBN: 978 1 85005 429 7 [supporting CD-Rom 978 1 85008 429 7]

Reviewed by Alf Wilkinson

This volume is the first in a series from Folens supporting the New Secondary Curriculum, which takes a thematic approach to KSt3 history. This volume, aimed at Year Seven, focuses on life for ordinary people, from Medieval Times to the end of the C20th.There is also a depth study on Travel and Transport.

The text is immediately attractive to use - plenty of large photographs and pictures, short-ish source extracts, and interesting tasks to do. Throughout the book there are ‘stop the clock' and ‘world link' snippets linking what is going on in that activity with a wider context - one of the key aims of the NSC, although the snippets are so short as to need support to make them effective. Text level is appropriate for Year Seven, and the sheer variety of activities is impressive. I defy any Year Seven - or teacher - not to be interested in the contents and activities. Lots of ‘fun'- type and slightly different content, rather than the standard run of the mill.

The supporting CD has images and text from the book, as well as extra activities - starters, plenaries, some designed to self-mark, as well as multimedia and powerpoint introductions to topics - some of these are more effective than others. All the activities bear the hallmark of having been tried and tested in the classroom, and are ready to run as they are. Some of them are Word documents that you can alter and edit to suit your students. There has been a real attempt to harness the power of IWB in these activities, so if you are beginning to get to grips wit hone of these then you might consider purchasing the CD-Rom too.

Further volumes in the series focus on War; Rule Makers and Rule Breakers; and The Changing Face of Britain. Each of those volumes is also supported by a CD-Rom.

If you are looking for a thematic approach to the New Secondary Curriculum then this text makes a good starting point.