AQA GCSE Normans Historic Environment 2022 Castle Acre Lesson 1-4

Set of lessons looking at the 2022 Historic Environment unit looking at Castle Acre Priory.

I taught these lessons very recently (June 2021) and was delighted with how they turned out. I have a fairly low-ability GCSE group and the knowledge and understanding my group gained from the tasks and the info was very encouraging (and made the hours of work on these lessons feel more worthwhile!).

Lesson 1 focusses on giving the students an understanding of the key characters behind Castle Acre: William de Warenne and his son…William!

As always we are guessing with what they will ask about in the exam for this question but rarely do they give so much background information on individuals unless it is key to the study so I have chosen to start this unit of lessons by focussing on these key characters - I will then build on some of the themes (such as the ruthless nature of William de Warenne and also his personal faith) in future lessons and link them to the reform of the monasteries and to the Priory itself.

Lessons 2-4 then concentrate on what I think the question will be around (can’t see how it can be much else!) and building knowledge around the different factors involved in this question and answer. There are tasks focussing on each of the 4 factors I have thought up. By the end of the 4 lessons the students should have a good knowledge of the Warennes and their reasons for building Castle Acre, including key features of the priory itself. They will also have an understanding of how this fits into the wider context of Norman reform and control as the question normally concerns an action of the Normans generally, requiring the students to then link in their specific site info.

At the end of lesson 4 I have had a stab at predicting the question the students will be asked - there are two possible questions here, I am intending to revisit this study with the students in Year 11 and write a model answer to at least one of these questions.

Lessons use short focussed tasks supported by answers and extra information. I have also tried to include several links to previous knowledge (such as primogeniture, William II and Henry and monastic and religious reform).

The lessons make use of the support material provided by AQA. I haven’t attached here due to copyright but it is freely accessible on their site. I heavily edited these to make them more accesible to the students while still trying to retain the key information. I also make reference to an A3 sheet in lesson 4 - I used the diagram provided by AQA of the priory, as explained on slide 16 of Lesson 3/4 in ‘notes’.