Interview with Roberta Wood, 10 April 2010

Abstract

Roberta Wood was born in 1943 in Northumberland and trained as a primary school teacher, specialising in history, at Redland College, Bristol. After a short stint in Birmingham, she returned to the North-East to teach in a small primary school. Throughtout her career, she was interested in fostering the historical imagination of primary school children. She describes the trips to local historical sites in which she endeavoured to give the children an authentic experience. In one instance, when visiting a local ruined abbey, this included forbidding them to take anything in their lunch-boxes which would not have been available in medieval times. She reflects on the changes she has seen in history at primary level during her career from the 1960s to 1990s. Interviewed by Nicola Sheldon