Brent – Our Sporting Heritage: 1908-2012
Brent Museum and Archives Olympic Resource for Schools:
PowerPoint presentation notes for teachers
Aims
The purpose of this resource is to encourage pupils to find out and discuss Brent’s role in
the 1908 and 1948 London Olympics and to look forward to the London 2012 Olympic
and Paralympic Games. The resource uses images and photographs available from
Brent Archives and develops pupils’ skills at using a range of sources in the enquiry. The
resource can be used to support the key stage 2 history curriculum, a local history study,
or the citizenship curriculum.
Suggestions for using the PowerPoint presentation in the classroom
The PowerPoint presentation can be used on an interactive whiteboard and some of the
later slides have activities that can be printed off and used as worksheets in the
classroom. Where appropriate, each slide has some information about the images or
photographs, and questions either in the ‘Notes’ information or on a separate slide which
can be used to direct pupils’ line of enquiry and thinking.
Background Information
The 1908 London Olympics
The 1908 Olympics were originally awarded to Rome, but, after an eruption of Mount
Vesuvius in 1906, they were reassigned to London. The Olympic stadium was built in
White City for the occasion, although the area now known as Brent hosted two events;
the Shotgun event and a part of the Marathon course.
The 1908 Olympics was opened on 27th April by King Edward VII and closed on 31st
October. It was the first time athletes paraded under their national flags at the opening
ceremony. The national team was described as representing the ‘British Isles’, as it
included Ireland, which was still ruled by the British at the time.
©Brent Museum and Archives, 2010. www.brent.gov.uk
The 1948 Olympics Games
London was originally granted the 1944 Olympics Games but it could not host them
because of the Second World War. The last Olympic Games before 1948 had been held
in Berlin 12 years previously, in 1936.
King George VI officially opened the games on 19th July 1948, in front of 85,000
spectators at Wembley. There were also spectators watching from their homes for the
first time, as the 1948 Olympic Games were the first to be shown on home televisions,
although very few people owned a TV at the time.
The Games were centred on Wembley Stadium and the Empire Pool, which had a
platform erected over the water for the boxing events.
The 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
In the summer of 2012, London will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, welcoming
the world to the biggest sporting event since the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The Olympics
are from 27th July – 12 August and the Paralympics are from 29th August – 9th
September 2012. There are 205 Olympic countries with up to 18,000 athletes
competing and 140 Paralympic countries with up to 4,000 athletes competing. 26
Olympic sports and 20 Paralympic sports will be played across 23 venues.
Whilst most of the activity will take place in East London, the Games will have an impact
across all of London, particularly Brent as we will be hosting the men’s and women’s
finals and semi finals at Wembley Stadium and Badminton and Rhythmic Gymnastics at
Wembley Arena.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games is not just about sport, it is also about culture, the
arts, volunteering and young people. Brent Council wants to use the power of the Olympic
and Paralympic Games to inspire a generation of young people to engage in sports,
culture, media and volunteering opportunities and have created ‘Inspiring Brent’, our
programme for the London Olympic and Paralympics Games.
©Brent Museum and Archives, 2010. www.brent.gov.uk