Matthew Faulkner is Deputy Head at Summer Fields in Oxford and the brains behind Roll Out History. From the Big Bang to Brexit, this self-adhesive historical timeline shows the key dates as they happened, one after the other. It is perfect for children starting out in History, or for adults who are just getting a little rusty, this 5 metre roll makes sense of it all.
Each event is described with a date and a short explanation, plus a beautiful illustration from award-winning artist Fiona Macpherson. Stick it on a wall or round your room, and you will never confuse your Vikings with your Saxons, or your Tudors with your Victorians, ever again!
We love ours – it is a great conversation starter and perfect look at during bath time!
Whilst Matthew is not working incredibly hard looking after the prep school aged boys (which has a reputation of being a highly academic school (3 Kings Scholarships to Eton last year) but in fact takes boys of all abilities, he is looking to tell parents and children alike about the concept behind Roll Out History.
How Did It All Begin?
When Matthew was aa boy at school, he had a brilliant History teacher who gave the boys lists of dates to learn. It was on one side of A4, very closely typed and completely without any cartoons of pictures or other gizmos which are on handouts these days. There were probably about 75 in all, with a test every week, and by the time he left he had pretty much mastered them. Today, even if he knows absolutely nothing about something, he find it very useful at least to know when it happened.
His first teaching job was at Notting Hill Prep in London. The lovely Headmistress (Jane Cameron) allowed him to commission a timeline to go snaking all round the school. It had artists, great buildings, battles, inventions, kings and queens and various other things.
The idea, and I think it worked well, was to show in physical terms how events related to each other in time. If you remember that The Spanish Armada was by the light switch, then it must have come after the invention of Printing (above the fire extinguisher) and so on!
Having seen it in school, he then thought that it really needed to be available for children to put in their bedrooms.
He luckily discovered that it could be printed on self adhesive paper. The first run was done in China, but they are now printed in Dorset, UK!
It is aimed at children mainly, though I suspect that most adults really need one too!
Matthew’s Favourites
Website : Summer Fields
Shop : Lush
Hotel : The Yurt we rented on Lake Coniston last year
Restaurant : The Hive in Burton Bradstock
Holiday Destination : Aldeburgh, Suffolk
Parenting Tip :
Focus on making your children resilient – whoever they are, they will need the tools to deal with disappointment in later life
Five Ways To Get Your Children Interested in History
1. Get them talking to their grandparents about what life was like when they were young
2. Read quality historical fiction (such as The Roman Mysteries, Bowmen of Crecy, The Free Frenchmen, Boy in the Striped Pyjamas)
3. Visit all the Cathedrals and Castles you can. Pick up postcards and leaflets and stick them on a History Wall in your house.
4. Go to the Chalke Valley History Festival in June- one of the best possible days out, even for non-history buffs.
5. Put a Rollout History Timeline on your wall!!
We have and we love it!
Buy Your Roll Out History here
No Comments