Lessons

Our lessons are investigations mapped to the curriculum that can be covered in a single period or followed up for homework. You can use them ‘as is’ or adapt them to fit your group’s needs.

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1833 Factory Act

Did it solve the problems of children in factories?
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1834 Poor Law

What did people think of the new Poor Law?
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1919 race riots

How significant a factor was race in the riots of 1919?
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19th century mining disaster

What happened at the Trimdon Grange Mining Disaster?
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19th century people

What can we tell from this photograph?
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A ‘right’ to relief?

In what ways did paupers hold the Poor Law to account?
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A Victorian prison

Why were Victorian Prisons so tough?
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Adolf Hitler

Was Hitler a 'passionate lunatic'?
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African nurses

What part did they play in British health services?
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All on board!

What can we learn from old board games?
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American Revolution

What political ideas in the colonies influenced the American Revolution?
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Archives Live: Windrush 75

Special live event from The National Archives
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Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement

From Conflict to Peace - 25 Years On
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Belsen concentration camp 1945

What did the British find when they entered Belsen concentration camp?
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BGFA25 – Discussion Activity

From Conflict to Peace - 25 Years On
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Boston Tea Party

How was the 1773 Boston Tea Party significant for the American Revolution?
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Bound for Britain

Experiences of immigration to the UK
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British Response to V1 and V2

How did Britain respond to the threat of attack by missiles in 1943?
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Bulaya Chanda

What do these documents reveal about Bulaya Chanda, soldier and ‘showman’?
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Bussa’s rebellion

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

What was Chertsey like in the Middle Ages?
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Child migration

Why were children sent to Canada in 1869-1913?
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Children’s Clothing in the Workhouse

What do the letters tell us about pauper children's clothing in the workhouse?
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Christmas is cancelled!

What were Cromwell’s main political and religious aims for the Commonwealth 1650-1660?
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Coping with Cholera

How did the authorities react in 19th century?
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Crime and Punishment: Robert Peel

How was law enforcement changed by Sir Robert Peel’s new Metropolitan Police Force?
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Criminal petitions

What do they reveal about the justice system?
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Discover the Dissolution

How did the Dissolution change my local area?
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Domesday Book

What can we learn about England in the 11th century?
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Downing Street Declaration (KS4)

Key Stage Four Resources - Lesson One
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Dr James Barry

Why was he significant in 19th century medicine?
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Eden’s last stand

Why did Anthony Eden resign in 1938?
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Edward the Confessor

What does the Domesday Abbreviato tells us about Edward the Confessor?
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Elizabethan propaganda

How did England try to show Spain planned to invade in 1588?
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Empire Windrush: Caribbean migration

Why did people from the Caribbean travel to live and work in Britain?
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Empire Windrush: Early Black Presence

What do the sources reveal about an early Black presence in Britain?
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Empire Windrush: Life for Migrants in the 1940s and 50s

What do these documents reveal about life for Caribbean migrants to Britain in the 1940s and 1950s?
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Empire Windrush: The Notting Hill Carnival

What do the sources reveal about the significance of the Notting Hill Carnival and why it began?
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Evacuation to Shropshire

What happened to children who were sent away?
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Food Glorious Food

What was food like for a child in the Victorian workhouse?
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Foundling Hospital

What were conditions like for children in the care of the Foundling Hospital?
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Framlingham Castle

What was the primary function of Framlingham Castle in the ‘Middle Ages’?
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French Revolution

How did the British react to July 1789?
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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?
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General Haig

Butcher of the Somme or hero of Amiens?
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God blew and they were scattered

Did God really help the English defeat the Spanish Armada?
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Going to School in the Workhouse

How was school for pauper children different, and what was the same?
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Gordon Ford’s story

What was it like to be an airman in the Second World War?
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Government posters

How did Britain encourage people at home to help win the war?
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Gunpowder Plot

Can you uncover the plans of the plotters?
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Have we underestimated the Victorian Poor?

To what extent did the Victorian Poor accept their fate in the workhouse?
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Health and the Poor Law

To what degree did the Poor Law make an important contribution to Public Health?
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Henry VIII court rules

How did Henry VIII get up in the morning?
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Hitler assassination plan

How did the British plan to kill Hitler?
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Hong Kong and the Opium Wars

How did Hong Kong become part of the British Empire?
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How we were taught

What was school like 100 years ago?
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Huguenots in England

What was the experience of Huguenot migrants in seventeenth century England?
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Irish Partition

Why was Ireland divided in 1921?
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Jacobite propaganda

What was the point of Jacobite propaganda?
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Jews in England 1066

Why did Jews settle in England after 1066?
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Jews in England 1216-72

What was the relationship between Christians and Jews from 1216-72?
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Jews in England 1290

Why did Edward I expel the Jews in 1290?
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Jutland: Death at sea

Were lives wasted when the Indefatigable sank?
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Kenilworth Castle (part two)

What do the medieval records reveal?
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LGBTQ+ Rights in Britain

How have changes in laws and attitudes affected LGBTQ+ people in Britain?
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Life aboard the Titanic

Who travelled on the fateful maiden voyage?
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Life in 1950s Britain

What can we find out about life in 1950s Britain using documents from the time?
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Life in 1960s Britain

What can we find out about life in 1960s Britain using documents from the time?
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Mangrove Nine protest

What does this reveal about police brutality and racism in '70s Britain?
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May Fourth Movement 1919

Why did the Paris Peace Conference lead to a mass protest movement in China?

Medieval agreements and arguments

What do medieval documents reveal about people’s agreements and disagreements in the Middle Ages?
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Medieval castles

What was their purpose and significance?
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Medieval seals

What can seals tell us about medieval times?
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Medieval Society

What roles did women play in Medieval times?
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Mental Health on Record

What do the documents reveal about the understanding of mental health in the past?
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Native North Americans

What was early contact like between English colonists and Native Americans?
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Partition of British India

What can The National Archives documents reveal about the partition of British India?
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Past pleasures

How did the Victorians have fun?
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Punishment in the workhouse – Lesson One

What can ‘pauper voices’ reveal about punishments for workhouse children?
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Punishment in the workhouse – Lesson Two

What can ‘pauper voices’ reveal about attitudes towards punishments in the workhouse?
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Queen Anne

How can we find out about her?
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Rebels in the records

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

A Victorian railway accident
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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?
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Slavery

How did the Abolition Acts of 1807 and 1833 affect the slave trade?
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Sugar

What can original documents tell us about the history of sugar?
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The Boxers of Whitechapel

What do the documents reveal about the inhabitants?
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The Chinese Civil War

Why did the fighting between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party happen?
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The Home Front

How did people prepare for the war at home?
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The Independence of Bangladesh in 1971

What can British documents tell us about the creation of Bangladesh?
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The King, the Crown and the Colonel

How did Thomas Blood try to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671?
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The Search for ‘Terra Australis’

What did Captain Cook’s secret mission involve?
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The South African War

How did the British conduct war in 1899-1902?
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Tobacco

James I & VI: How was tobacco viewed, consumed, and traded in the Stuart period?
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Trimdon

What was it like living in a late 19th century mining town?
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Tudor Entertainment

What was the effect of the early playhouses?
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Ugandan Asians

What was the impact of the expulsion from Uganda on the lives of British Asians?
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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?
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Uncovering the past

How can we use photographs to find out about the past?
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Victorian family history

How can we find out about the life of a Victorian child?
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Victorian Health Reform

How did the Victorians view compulsory vaccination?
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Victorian homes

Was there much difference between rich and poor homes?
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Walter Tull

How can we use sources to find out about him?
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Wartime Propaganda

How did Britain try to keep the support of West African peoples?
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What caused the 1832 Great Reform Act?

Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
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What is a Jubilee?

What can we find out about Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee?
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What was Chartism?

Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
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Who was Noor Khan?

What can documents reveal about her role during the Second World War?
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William Shakespeare

What can we find out about his life?
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Workhouse Women

How were women treated in the Victorian workhouse?
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World Cup 1966

Did England rig the result?
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Zeppelin raids

How did First World War Zeppelin raids affect British civilians?