2nd June 2010 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A National campaign called ‘Sing Up’ has been launched to try and help students (and anyone else!) to learn and remember more about the history of Britain. The idea is that a songs are easy to remember once sung, and Jan Faulkner, a composer, has written a number of different songs about important events in Britain’s history.
In a recent survey it was found that nearly half of adults in UK don’t know that the Romans built Hadrian’s Wall, or that Nelson won the Battle of Trafalgar, and one in three don’t realise that Charles Darwin was English. Kate Williams who is an historian and the presenter of ‘Timewatch’ said that the results suggest that “the facts that make up the historical fabric of our country are in danger of being lost“.
The plan is for students to sing the songs when on school trips to visit particular historic landmarks such as Stonehenge and Canterbury Cathedral, for which songs have already been written. There are also songs for Vikings and their longboats, and Roman bathing habits. Teachers can download the songs from the web, and a special school bus will shortly commence a tour around the country to allow students to participate in the ‘singalong’.