Do British schools talk about the small British Isles in history or geography classes?

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Stunning_Anteater537@reddit

Coming from Devon one of the first things we were taught when learning about British geography (not history) is never, NEVER call them the Scilly Isles. Always the Isles of Scilly.

And when I visited later in life, I learned to NEVER say Shetland Islands. Always just Shetland

My kids learned about the Falklands in History at school due to the war we had with Argentina over them in the early 80s. God I feel old...

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Puzzleheaded_Pin2566@reddit

Probably in zero detail. Same for Ireland. Places were considered regarding political, industrial and historical subjects but not the places themselves beyond being simply the location.

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Queasy-Ad-18706@reddit

I don't think Pitcairn Island would crop up in ANY geography lesson about the British Isles.

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ignatiusjreillyXM@reddit

Might do in passing in history - in large part because of the very specific way it was colonised.

I used to love reading the part of their census report.on vehicles on the island, which would state how many wheelbarrows were there

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asymmetricears@reddit

Basically zero when I was in school (1996-2009).

I'd expect the Falklands may be the most likely to come up, but in history class due to the 1982 war.

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GooseyDuckDuck@reddit

The Falklands would have been covered in Modern Studies.

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Breakwaterbot@reddit

Wait until you hear about General Studies.

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dualdee@reddit

I had that at AS-level, and I don't even remember what it was.

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itsableeder@reddit

I did General Studies AS level, and by "did" I mean "went to the pub while that lesson was on"

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GooseyDuckDuck@reddit

Yep, when I was at school it covered government structures across the globe, current political setup in the UK etc. it was more of a geopolitical studies class.

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Time-Mode-9@reddit

History?? That was current events when I was at school!

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Breakwaterbot@reddit

Alright Grandad, time to get you back to bed.

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abfgern_@reddit

My GCSE (2017) covered the middle east up to Kuwait and the First Gulf war...

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Ha, we're basically the same age and can confirm nothing like that came up. I didn't even really know much about what the Commonwealth was apart from the fact that the Commonwealth games were just Temu Olympics.

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fireeyedboi@reddit

Absolutely no mention of the falklands when I was in school 1989-2003.

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newbris@reddit

The Commonwealth isn’t a set place or part of the British Isles fyi. It’s just an ever changing friendship club of independent nations.

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batch1972@reddit

Skara Brae, Anglesea and falklands war in history.

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Foxtrot7888@reddit

Geography wasn’t really about countries, it was more about physical features (glaciers, rivers etc), different environments (swamps, mountains etc), or human geography (tourism, towns having central business districts and suburbs, etc).

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JimDixon@reddit

Funny, when I studied "geography" in US elementary school, it was all about countries and cities, and especially about identifying countries on maps. They'd give you an unlabeled outline map and you'd have to write in the names of the countries. I hated that part. All I remember was: the Eiffel Tower is in Paris, the Coliseum is in Rome, Big Ben is in London-- that type of thing.

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stevekeiretsu@reddit

when was that?

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JimDixon@reddit

1950s and '60s.

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Shadow-Inversions@reddit

Most British school kids wouldn't know anything about the Pitcairn and probably Falkland islands. And being honest, probably not the others you mention either, nor Anglesey, Isle of Man and plenty not even the Isle of Wight.

But you know, they (and most adults) also wouldn't know about lots of little towns around the country, these are just locations in the same country and not inherently noteworthy for being islands.

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Known_Confusion9879@reddit

We studied Wales and the North East. Still can't pronounce the Welsh names. London was useful as I went onto living there for ten years and already knew the general way around.

Most of the history repeated Ancient Egypt to 1066 and a little into the Plantagenets, I changed schools. In the fourth year covered Tutors until 1st World War and Russian Revolution passing through American independence and civil wars. A lot on the Commonwealth and not just though the eyes of the British.

It seems both are now only what is examined. With little to enable students to go out and study more.

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shelleypiper@reddit

No, I've literally never heard of Pitcairn until this post.

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Timely_Egg_6827@reddit

That's a real mix of different entities from integral parts of the UK (Shetlands/Scilly) to British overseas territories (Pitcairn and Falklands). We also have crown dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man).

How much they come up really depends on location, subject and time. Shetlands comes up in geography due to oil industy. Orkneys in history due to Scapa Flow if did the world wars. Falklands - well I went to school while war was on so yes it was covered.

Pitcairn really only hit the public awareness let alone schools due to the sex scandal.

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Jingsley@reddit

I am 56 and TIL that the Pitcairn islands exist.

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Dull_Banana5349@reddit

You haven't seen Mutiny on the Bounty?! You need to, it's a classic. Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson, Dexter Fletcher.

I find it in recent years that I may have a distant relative who was on the Bounty and set adrift with Captain Bligh. I need to find out how we're related. He's got the right unusual surname but I've not connected the dots yet.

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GnaphaliumUliginosum@reddit

The UK Overseas Territories are particularly unknown to most folks until they pop up in the news, and even then are rapidly forgotten - I bet plenty of people have forgotten about (or were too young to know about) the Pitcairn scandal, and even then would only have a vague idea of where it is or why it has a link to the UK. The air bases on Cyprus have hit the news recently due to the RAF's use of them to support genocide in Gaza, Gibraltar comes up occassionally around EU/Brexit issues, and Chagos/BIOT was in the headlines due to legal issues over the USAF base and handing sovreignity to Mauritius.

There are 14 UKOTs, each with their own set of challenges and issues and are mostly a thorn in the side for the UK government for a range of issues from international diplomacy to ongoing financial support to tax havens and corruption. The military bases are the only ones HMG sees as an asset, alongside the Antarctic territory to keep a declared interest in the event that the Antarctic Treaty is ever re-negotiated.

The situation with the Commonwealth is also complicated - it used to come up when the Queen visited one of them, but now it's likely to only be in the context of more countries leaving. Though the link to the UK seems useful to Canada whilst the US is being beligerant, as evidenced by the King's opening of their parliament. Like the UKOTs, many are small islands scattered around the different oceans and very far from most people's thoughts or even basic geographic knowledge.

On nomenclature, the 'British Isles' refers geographically to the archipelago which includes Great Britain and Ireland and all surrounding islands - Scilly, Man, Hebrides (inner and outer), Shetland, Orkney, Lundy, Wight and many others. This includes the UK (comprised of 4 nations), the Republic of Ireland and at least one semi-independent 'Crown Dependency'. The Commonwealth and UKOTs are therefore not part of the 'British Isles', arguably neither are the Channel Islands.

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Infamous-Sherbert-32@reddit

O level history (1972) WW1; A level history (1974) Tudors and Stuart’s; O level geography (1972), I mostly remember physical geography and climate.

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Hazza_time@reddit

Some rock formation on the Isle of Wight was used as an example of erosion in geography if I recall correctly

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notacanuckskibum@reddit

Geography classes were mostly about physical geography, glaciers, barrier islands, ox-bow lakes…

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anabsentfriend@reddit

I seemed to do a lot about siting imaginary factories for A-level. It bored me to tears. I only took the A-level because it had two field trips.

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livvyxo@reddit

Yeah geography was this for me in the naughties. History was the tudors, after that ww2 maybe?

I dropped both when I was 14!

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dwair@reddit

I spent a couple of weeks studying the history of Lundy which is a small island at the mouth of the Bristol Channel.

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Employ-Personal@reddit

It’s an Archipelago, which is traditionally considered a geographical whole, Pitcairn and the Falklands are not included anymore than, until recently, the Chagos.

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SuperSpidey374@reddit

I don’t remember these being mentioned during my school life, apart from the Falklands once or twice in history when I was 16/17

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dayofthe_misanthrope@reddit

My history syllabus in secondary school was exclusively WW2 and related world politics. (Exciting stuff I know) I was about 40 when I learned the Channel Islands had been under nazi occupation.

Take from that what you will.

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Breakwaterbot@reddit

The main ones I remember were WW1, Hitler's rise to power, Crime and Punishment through time and the England Ireland conflict. Oh and the history of local canals.

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Razhbad@reddit

If you study the Civil War then the Isle of Wight will almost certainly crop up because they imprisoned the King

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cochlearist@reddit

I thought Isle of Wight because of the Mary Rose, but that's probably because I was a kid when the Mary Rose was raised so for a while it was one of the most famous ships.

I imagine that's no longer the case.

Lots of naval history involves the islands if you're doing the Spanish armada and stiff, but apart from that and some mentions in ww2 there's not loads to say.

Lindisfarne gets a mention i suppose. Anglesey if the druids are mentioned.

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Razhbad@reddit

I think because the Mary Rose itself is in Portsmouth that gets it more

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cochlearist@reddit

Yeah, but the story of it's sinking was everywhere at the time, that's why the Isle of Wight popped into my head when I read the question.

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ExtensionRound599@reddit

Lol. Grear Britain has over 4000 islands. Plus a set of island territories in other parts of the world. This OP is trolling.

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Livewire____@reddit

Oh, we talked about the small isles all the time.

My Geography teacher talked about them so much we used to call him Mr Eigg.

Then there was the field trip to Rum, the shindigs on Muck, and I got lost on the way to Galmisdale.

We spent so much time talking about them that we completely skipped those two Biggie Wars, the Hologram, the Clod war and that Career thing.

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Yorkshire_Roast@reddit

It probably depends on where you live and go to school. I went to school in England and I have to say that a lot of our education is very England-centric. We barely learned anything about Scotland, Ireland or Wales. We learned NOTHING at all about the Channel Islands, Isle of Man etc.

I was incredibly surprised when my dad told me that "The Nazis invaded the Channel Islands" during World War Two. I've been doing research into this for a work project and what those people went through should be more widely known but it isn't.

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Ok-Blackberry-3534@reddit

The experiences of the Channel Islands during WW2 are pretty widely known, but when you've got 1000 years of history to get through in a couple of hours a week, 5 years on a tiny part of British territory can't really be part of the core. You spend the rest of your life learning British history if you're interested.

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vctrmldrw@reddit

We learned NOTHING at all about the Channel Islands, Isle of Man

I mean, fair enough. Neither the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands are actually British territories. They're crown dependencies, but entirely self governing.

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Classic-Hedgehog-924@reddit

You might learn the Channel Islands were occupied by the Nazis in WW2, or the Isle of Man housed interned Italians. Falklands would be covered if you were doing the Thatcher years in History, but not everyone does the same History topics.

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OllyDee@reddit

If they’ve had some kind of major historical significance then yes, they will be discussed.

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Timely_Egg_6827@reddit

We did a bit on Portland Island due to doing Hardy in English. It is often so random.

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vctrmldrw@reddit

There's about 2,000 years of recorded history in this country. Very little of that time was uneventful.

In the few years you have at school, doing maybe 4 hours of history per week, it's tough to cover much of it in any great depth. You could choose a decade at random, do an entire university thesis on it, and still not cover half of what happened.

Geography is as much about topography and geology as it is about learning where stuff is. You will learn to read a map, which covers you in that regard.

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Crookfur@reddit

As you might have picked up by now history teaching varies a lot in the UK, plus even the national ciriculums tend to be some what modular at secondary school.

If you are scottish and get a medieval specialist some where between s3 and s6 you'll get a good bit on Ireland, the hebrides and Orkney and Shetland as they are pretty important to the whole wars of indepence and the consolidation of Scotland.

The Hebrides and inner west coast islands will also have popped up if you covered the clearances at primary school or in S1/2. You might also have had a look at the general location of the Scottish islands at primary school and had a good laugh at Rum, Eigg and Muck.

Falklands and commonwealth stuff wouldn't be touched as as thats "modern studies"

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CuriousThylacine@reddit

the Falklands

Someone get this person a map.

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Necessary_Umpire_139@reddit

No, you get taught about physical geography, not political geography.

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Available-Ear7374@reddit

Our history goes back thousands of years, only so much can be covered, here's a very partial list:

Post ice-age settlement

Land Bridge swept away in Tsunami

Early Farming

creation of stone age sites (i.e. stonehenge, burial mounds etc)

Hill Forts created

Celts arrive

Roman Invasion

Christianity Arrives

Dark ages / Vikings & Danegeld

1066

Lordship of Ireland

Magna Carta

Peasants revolt.

Black Death.

Wars of the roses

Reformation

Beginning of Empire

Creation of the Union

Civil War

Industrial Revolution

WWI

WWII

Loss of Empire

etc etc

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Historical_Pin2806@reddit

I was at school through the 70s and 80s (mainland UK, in the Midlands here) and we did little about the channel islands or the Orkneys. However, we did a LOT on The Falklands, due to the war.

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Acrobatic-Pudding-87@reddit

Being from the south we certainly covered the Isle of Wight in geography class and it also came up when we learnt about the Spanish Armada as a major engagement was fought off the island’s coast.

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Foreign_End_3065@reddit

In what sort of context are you imagining them being discussed?

History is generally taught in ‘topics’ such as, say, The Vikings, The Normans, WW1 and WW2, and so on. So if the places have any significance to the topic being taught, then yes. If not, then no - unless you live in one of those places, when you’ll likely learn more about its local history.

Geography is also topic based, and is going to be more about physical landmarks and so on rather than detailed information on specific countries.

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Dennyisthepisslord@reddit

We hardly touched on Northern Ireland and Ireland in the 90s/early 00s let alone smaller islands

Stuff like the Isle of Wight might get a mention as that's where Queen Victoria died but that's about it

We hardly touched on the British Empire ket alone small islands nearby

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SnooStrawberries2342@reddit

I learned more about Perkin Warbeck and Jethro Tull than I did about the British Isles or the Commonwealth.

There was no mention of the islands you mention. Unless either of the Princes in the Tower took holidays there?

(This was in the 90s, maybe it's improved)

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Hopelassie@reddit

I live in Orkney and in Orkney and Shetland schools there is a lot of references to Vikings, the Neolithic and the role of Scapa Flow in the naval history of both world wars but where I grew up in Yorkshire I don’t remember any references to them.

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TheRadishBros@reddit

Falklands may come up in the context of the war, but otherwise the only time you’d see the minor islands mentioned might be if there is a particular geographic formation or something that is of note.

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kilgore_trout1@reddit

Not particularly that I remember apart from I think we did something about an prehistoric civilisation on the Orkneys. Also I was at school in 1997 and went to school with plenty of military kids so we did quite a bit on Hong Kong at that time as it was the handover to the Chinese.

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