Education sessions and resources

Our taught sessions and online resources cover a variety of time periods and places. Many contain structured investigations for use directly in the classroom. Others are more suited for research and preparation. They all allow access into our unique collections.

Filter by

Remove all filters

All key stage 3 resources

Showing 202 resources
Classroom resource

1833 Factory Act

Did it solve the problems of children in factories?
Classroom resource

1834 Poor Law

What did people think of the new Poor Law?
Classroom resource

19th century mining disaster

What happened at the Trimdon Grange Mining Disaster?
Classroom resource

19th century people

What can we tell from this photograph?
Session we teach

4099 is my name (SEND)

How can we share the experiences of someone who lived in the past?
Classroom resource

A Victorian prison

Why were Victorian Prisons so tough?
Classroom resource

Adolf Hitler

Was Hitler a 'passionate lunatic'?
Classroom resource

African nurses

What part did they play in British health services?
Classroom resource

All on board!

What can we learn from old board games?
Session we teach

All pals together

Would you like to meet our tommy, Henry Fairhurst?
Classroom resource

Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement

From Conflict to Peace - 25 Years On
Classroom resource

Belsen concentration camp 1945

What did the British find when they entered Belsen concentration camp?
Classroom resource

BGFA25 – Discussion Activity

From Conflict to Peace - 25 Years On
Session we teach

Black Victorians

How much can documents reveal about the lives of Black people in Victorian Britain?
Classroom resource

Bound for Britain

Experiences of immigration to the UK
Classroom resource

British Response to V1 and V2

How did Britain respond to the threat of attack by missiles in 1943?
Classroom resource

Bulaya Chanda

What do these documents reveal about Bulaya Chanda, soldier and ‘showman’?
Classroom resource

Bussa’s rebellion

How and why did the enslaved Africans of Barbados rebel in 1816?
Classroom resource

Cats and mice

What tactics were used by suffragettes, police and government?
Classroom resource

Chertsey

What was Chertsey like in the Middle Ages?
Classroom resource

Child migration

Why were children sent to Canada in 1869-1913?
Session we teach

Choosing for the Archives (SEND)

How can we find out about someone from the past, using documents, images and objects?
Classroom resource

Christmas is cancelled!

What were Cromwell’s main political and religious aims for the Commonwealth 1650-1660?
Classroom resource

Commonwealth migration since 1945

What was the context and impact of migration in modern Britain?
Classroom resource

Discover the Dissolution

How did the Dissolution change my local area?
Classroom resource

Domesday Book

What can we learn about England in the 11th century?
Session we teach

Domesday Book: medieval treasure

What can we learn about people’s lives in 1086?
Classroom resource

Dr James Barry

Why was he significant in 19th century medicine?
Classroom resource

Eden’s last stand

Why did Anthony Eden resign in 1938?
Classroom resource

Elizabethan propaganda

How did England try to show Spain planned to invade in 1588?
Session we teach

Enquiring into Elizabeth

What can we learn about Elizabeth I’s ruling style from her letters and speeches?
Classroom resource

Evacuation to Shropshire

What happened to children who were sent away?
Classroom resource

Foundling Hospital

What were conditions like for children in the care of the Foundling Hospital?
Classroom resource

From Outbreak to Archive: Tales of Public Health

What do the documents reveal about how government and society dealt with public health in the past?
Session we teach

From the Front

How typical was Albert Edwin Rippington’s experience of war?
Classroom resource

General Haig

Butcher of the Somme or hero of Amiens?
Classroom resource

God blew and they were scattered

Did God really help the English defeat the Spanish Armada?
Classroom resource

Gordon Ford’s story

What was it like to be an airman in the Second World War?
Classroom resource

Government posters

How did Britain encourage people at home to help win the war?
Session we teach

Great Escapes: Remarkable Second World War Captives

What can documents reveal about how people held captive ‘escaped’ during the Second World War?
Classroom resource

Gunpowder Plot

Can you uncover the plans of the plotters?
Classroom resource

Have we underestimated the Victorian Poor?

To what extent did the Victorian Poor accept their fate in the workhouse?
Classroom resource

Henry VIII court rules

How did Henry VIII get up in the morning?
Session we teach

Henry’s royal rules (SEND)

What were the rules of daily life for a king in Tudor times?
Classroom resource

Hitler assassination plan

How did the British plan to kill Hitler?
Classroom resource

How we were taught

What was school like 100 years ago?
Classroom resource

Irish Partition

Why was Ireland divided in 1921?
Classroom resource

Jacobite propaganda

What was the point of Jacobite propaganda?
Classroom resource

Jews in England 1066

Why did Jews settle in England after 1066?
Classroom resource

Jews in England 1216-72

What was the relationship between Christians and Jews from 1216-72?
Classroom resource

Jews in England 1290

Why did Edward I expel the Jews in 1290?
Classroom resource

Jutland: Death at sea

Were lives wasted when the Indefatigable sank?
Classroom resource

Life aboard the Titanic

Who travelled on the fateful maiden voyage?
Classroom resource

Life in 1950s Britain

What can we find out about life in 1950s Britain using documents from the time?
Classroom resource

Life in 1960s Britain

What can we find out about life in 1960s Britain using documents from the time?
Classroom resource

Loyalty and dissent

How did Indian soldiers respond to the First World War?
Classroom resource

Mangrove Nine protest

What does this reveal about police brutality and racism in '70s Britain?
Classroom resource

Medieval seals

What can seals tell us about medieval times?
Classroom resource

Medieval Society

What roles did women play in Medieval times?
Classroom resource

Mental Health on Record

What do the documents reveal about the understanding of mental health in the past?
Classroom resource

Native North Americans

What was early contact like between English colonists and Native Americans?
Classroom resource

Partition of British India

What can The National Archives documents reveal about the partition of British India?
Classroom resource

Past pleasures

How did the Victorians have fun?
Classroom resource

Rebels in the records

What can we learn from documents that show how people ‘rebelled’ in the past?
Classroom resource

Role of a Queen – Mary I and Anne

What can we find out about the roles of Queen Mary I and Queen Anne?

Samuel Pepys

What does his will reveal?
Classroom resource

Seafarers’ Stories

How can we tell the stories of the Mirpuri, Bengali and Panjabi seafarers who travelled to Britain in the 1920s-30s?
Classroom resource

Selling the Victorians

Victorians for sale! Has advertising changed from Victorian times?
Classroom resource

Slavery

How did the Abolition Acts of 1807 and 1833 affect the slave trade?
Session we teach

Suffragettes through government eyes

What do government records reveal about the suffrage movement?
Classroom resource

The Holocaust

Key documents from The National Archives
Session we teach

The Holocaust

What can British government documents tell us about what happened in the Holocaust?
Classroom resource

The Home Front

How did people prepare for the war at home?
Classroom resource

The Independence of Bangladesh in 1971

What can British documents tell us about the creation of Bangladesh?
Classroom resource

The King, the Crown and the Colonel

How did Thomas Blood try to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671?
Classroom resource

The Search for ‘Terra Australis’

What did Captain Cook’s secret mission involve?
Session we teach

The Sinking of the Titanic

Why were so many lives lost in the disaster?
Classroom resource

The South African War

How did the British conduct war in 1899-1902?
Session we teach

Travel smart through time (SEND)

How and why have people travelled around in the past and how have they done it safely?
Classroom resource

Trimdon

What was it like living in a late 19th century mining town?
Classroom resource

Tudor Entertainment

What was the effect of the early playhouses?
Classroom resource

Uncovering LGBTQ+ lives in the archive

What types of sources might be useful to find out about the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the past?
Classroom resource

Victorian family history

How can we find out about the life of a Victorian child?
Classroom resource

Victorian homes

Was there much difference between rich and poor homes?
Classroom resource

Victorian lives

How was life different in Victorian times?
Classroom resource

Wartime Propaganda

How did Britain try to keep the support of West African peoples?
Classroom resource

What is a Jubilee?

What can we find out about Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee?
Session we teach

Whitechapel

How can we find out about what Whitechapel was like in 1888?
Classroom resource

William Shakespeare

What can we find out about his life?
Classroom resource

Workhouse Women

How were women treated in the Victorian workhouse?
Classroom resource

World Cup 1966

Did England rig the result?
Classroom resource

Zeppelin raids

How did First World War Zeppelin raids affect British civilians?