Back to school: discover our learning resources and taught sessions
Our award-winning education service provides invaluable support for teachers and students with a full range of learning resources and taught sessions covering the span of British history from the medieval period to present day. We also provide a dedicated learning programme for students with Specialist Educational Needs and Disabilities.
Our approach to education is rooted in a belief that history should be an active investigation of the past. Our highly skilled team specialises in teaching using original sources, drawn from our unique and extensive collection of public records.
Booking now open for our taught sessions
Our popular taught sessions, covering a huge range of topics and available online and in person, are now available to book for the spring term. We have increased the number of onsite sessions we are offering. In these workshops, at The National Archives in Kew, children get the opportunity to see and handle original documents. We offer a huge range of workshop topics including:
Significant Women (KS1)
Treasures (Year 3 and 4)
Mangrove Nine (KS3 &4)
Migrants to Britain (KS3 & 4)
We are running workshops to mark LGBTQ+ history month in February 2024. In our KS4/5 Hidden Love session students get the chance to explore what state and police records can reveal about spaces that LGBTQ+ people used in the 1920s and 30s. These include vibrant Soho clubs like Billie’s and Shim Sham, as well as the lonely-hearts publication ‘The Link.’ Book for morning and afternoon sessions on Tuesday 6 February and Thursday 8 February 2024.
Online resources
We have just published two new lessons to support teachers and students. The first, on May Fourth Movement 1919, explores how the Paris Peace Conference led to a mass protest movement in China.
This new lesson offers an important angle on the history of China when learning about the Treaty of Versailles. It explores China’s role at the Paris Peace Conference and explains why the May Fourth Movement was a turning point for China and significant for China’s relationship to the West. At this conference, Chinese delegates insisted on having the land occupied by the Japanese returned to China. However, the ‘Great Powers’ (Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States) refused. This started the May 4th protest movement across China. This is the first of our three lessons on the history of China. Others will follow on the Chinese civil war 1945-49 and the Cultural Revolution.
Our second new lesson covers the life of Bulaya Chanda, soldier and ‘showman’. He is believed to be one of six Black Africans to have served on the Western Front during the First World War. He changed his name in 1915 from Bulaya Chanda to Samson Jackson. In the 1920s, he started using the name Chief Luale (Luali) for his career on the stage. Bulaya Chanda’s fascinating life and experiences challenge popular beliefs about the First World War and inter-war period. His daughter, Joan Robson was four years old when her father died in 1935. Joan’s personal archive documents have been used within this lesson with documents from the Colonial Office and War Office, and census.
Finally, we are happy to present another new video in the Unboxing the Archives series. Here, Dr Laura Robson-Mainwaring introduces MH77/84, the original correspondence related to the introduction of the NHS. For all teachers and students exploring history of the National Health Service, this video is a great place to start and find more out about the early days of the introduction of our National Health Service.