St George’s Day: primary resource

This primary resource teaches children about the history of Saint George, the patron saint of England. Discover what this brave Roman soldier was really famous for. What cost the Roman soldier his life? When did real knights exist? What did knights do?

Pupils will learn about the historical and cultural characteristics of knights and what kind of training and personality type a successful knight would need to have in our National Geographic Kids’ Culture primary resource sheet.

The teaching resource can be used in study group tasks for learning about what it takes to become a knight, like the legend of Saint George. It can be used as a printed handout for each pupil to review and annotate, or for display on the interactive whiteboard for class discussion.

Activity: As a class, ask the children to discuss the legend of Saint George. Why might the legend be so different from the true story of the Roman soldier. Which version do they prefer? Why? Pupils could draw a picture of a knight and use the information from the resource sheet to label the different parts of the knight’s armour and weapons. Ask children to work individually, or in pairs, to write a story about a knight for St George’s Day.

N.B. The following information for mapping the resource documents to the school curriculum is specifically tailored to the English National Curriculum and Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. We are currently working to bring specifically tailored curriculum resource links for our other territories; including South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. If you have any queries about our upcoming curriculum resource links, please email: [email protected]

This Culture primary resource assists with teaching the following objectives from the National Curriculum:

2.1 Every state-funded school must offer a curriculum which:

• promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society, and
• prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

National Curriculum Key Stage 2 History objectives:

Pupils should be taught about:

• the Roman Empire and its impact on Britain: ‘Romanisation’ of Britain: sites such as Caerwent and the impact of technology, culture and beliefs, including early Christianity

• a study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066: the changing power of monarchs 

Pupils should continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study. They should note connections, contrasts and trends over time and develop the appropriate use of historical terms. They should regularly address and sometimes devise historically valid questions about change, cause, similarity and difference, and significance.

This Culture primary resource assists with teaching the following Social studies Experiences and outcomes objectives from the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence:

Learning in the social studies will enable me to:

• broaden my understanding of the world by learning about human activities and achievements in the past and present 

• develop my understanding of my own values, beliefs and cultures and those of others

• learn how to locate, explore and link periods, people and events in time and place

Scottish Curriculum for Excellence Social studies Early level objectives:

• I can make a personal link to the past by exploring items or images connected with important individuals or special events in my life.

• I have explored how people lived in the past and have used imaginative play to show how their lives were different from my own and the people around me.

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