Ipswich’s Maritime Story: Connecting Learners with Place

Launch Event: Ipswich’s Maritime Story – A Place-Based History & Geography Resource for KS2

Taking place in the historic Custom House (completed in 1845 and once the administrative heart of Ipswich’s maritime trade), this event marks the official launch of Ipswich’s Maritime Story—a new, free local-history scheme of work developed as part of the Ipswich Heritage Harbour Project.

Designed for Key Stage 2, the fully resourced package offers high-quality historical enquiries rooted in Ipswich’s waterfront and maritime past. It is particularly valuable for History Leads, while also providing strong, purposeful links to Geography, supporting place knowledge, map skills and understanding of human and physical features.

Drawing on photographs, artworks and archival evidence from the Ipswich Maritime Trust, pupils are supported to investigate how the waterfront has changed over time and why Ipswich developed into a significant port. The scheme shows how local history can be used to deepen geographical understanding, including how location, rivers and trade shaped the town’s development and global connections.

The scheme has been created by Dale Banham (History Teacher, Education Consultant, Author and Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association) in consultation with local historians, community curators and primary teachers. It is fully aligned with guidance from the latest Ofsted History subject report.

While the content focuses on Ipswich, the pedagogy and teaching approaches are easily transferable, supporting schools to develop their own place-based, hyper-local studies rooted in their local context.

During this session, you will:

• Explore how the scheme aligns with recent Ofsted guidance for high-quality history teaching
• See the scheme modelled in practice using active learning strategies
• Discover creative, meaningful approaches to combining history and geography, including:
• • Using images to tell the story of Ipswich’s river (chronology and place)
  • Mapping the journeys of local explorers such as Thomas Cavendish and Bartholomew Gosnold (historical significance and map skills)
  • Interpreting photographs, maps and paintings to explore Victorian work and leisure
  • Creating an interactive waterfront tour using the built environment and augmented reality

Attendees will also gain exclusive access to opportunities that reduce barriers to school visits, including:

• An affordable Orwell Lady short dock tour (launching 2026)
• Free use of the Custom House as a base for waterfront exploration
• A guided walkthrough of the new Dock Stories augmented-reality app
• A preview of forthcoming digital resources supporting digital literacy through local history

This session will equip you with practical resources and approaches that help pupils build a strong sense of place, identity and connection to their local history.