Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to 2014.

2014 is going to be another big year for historians, especially WW1storians,

Whenever I think of anniversaries or commemorations, I am drawn first to military history.  Clearly many historians are going to focus on the centenary of the First World War in the next twelve months.  However there are other special anniversaries that reflect major social, political and economic changes across the globe.  These include -

• 70th anniversary of D Day
• 200th anniversary of Napoleon's surrender to the Allies and the start of the Vienna Congress
• 30 years since the miners' strike
• 90 years since the first Labour PM
• 25 years since the Berlin Wall came down

Obviously there are many more and equally more important anniversaries before New Year comes round again, but these are just a very select few which reflect my specialism and preference for modern history.

Also 2014 is going to be a pivotal year in British politics as there is a crucial European election in May as well as Scotland's referendum on independence in September.  These results will shape Britain's politics, her relationship with Europe and the rest of the world for the next two generations.

My contribution to these commemorations will be infinitely small.  Over the next twelve months the History Department at John Hampden Grammar School have planned the following events -

1. February : we will be taking our Year 9 students to the Army Museum in Chelsea,
2. March/April : our Year 11 students will be studying the end of the Cold War and asking themselves who was the most responsible - Gorbatchev, Reagan, Thatcher, Kohl, Pope John Paul II or the Hoff!
3. May : the whole school will have a vote in the JHGS European election
4. June : our Lower 6th will start their A2 course on Superpower Relations 1944-1990 which will focus on the Cold War before 1945 and the controversy surrounding the timing of D Day
5. October  : we will be taking 72 boys on our annual IGCSE Residential Visit to the WW1 battlefields and cemeteries including the areas of Arras, the Somme and Ieper
6. November : we look forward to welcoming representatives from a Belgian school as part of our involvement with the national commemorations and the new Memorial Garden in London.

My aim (and hope) is that everyone involved in all historical commemorations, both inside and outside JHGS does so objectively and dispassionately.

Happy 2014