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.
Showing 323 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
1919 race riots
How significant a factor was race in the riots of 1919?
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?
Classroom resource
19th century prison ships
What do these documents reveal about attitudes to crime and punishment?
Session we teach
4099 is my name (SEND)
How can we share the experiences of someone who lived in the past?
Classroom resource
A ‘right’ to relief?
In what ways did paupers hold the Poor Law to account?
A Great Christmas Inconvenience
What can we learn from the documents about how some Victorians celebrated Christmas?
A Significant Person
Why is this person from the past remembered?
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?
All Work and No Play
What does this document reveal about work in the past?
Classroom resource
Anglo-Saxons – Gift from a King
What was Anglo-Saxon society like?
Animals in the Archives
What jobs have animals done in times of war and peace?
Archaeology in the Archives
What kinds of documents can tell us about the work of archaeologists?
Archives Ahoy!
What can we learn about pirates from our collection?
Session we teach
Archives Live: Windrush 75
Special live event from The National Archives
Classroom resource
Attlee’s Britain 1945-1951
Planning for the future?
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
Body Snatchers
What led to the Anatomy Act of 1832?
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
Bussa’s rebellion
How and why did the enslaved Africans of Barbados rebel in 1816?
Classroom resource
Capturing our Collections
Artworks inspired by documents found in The National Archives
Classroom resource
Caribbean history in photographs
What can these photographs tell us?
Classroom resource
Cats and mice
What tactics were used by suffragettes, police and government?
Classroom resource
Census detective
What can you find out?
Census Detectives
What does the census reveal about families in the past?
Classroom resource
Chamberlain and Hitler 1938
What was Chamberlain trying to do?
Session we teach
Chartism
Who were the Chartists?
Classroom resource
Chertsey
What was Chertsey like in the Middle Ages?
Classroom resource
Child migration
Why were children sent to Canada in 1869-1913?
Classroom resource
Children’s Clothing in the Workhouse
What do the letters tell us about pauper children's clothing in the workhouse?
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?
Session we teach
Civil rights and racial segregation
What was the response to racial segregation in the US?
Classroom resource
Civil Rights in America
Follow the progress of the struggle through the archives
Codes and Secret Messages
What do the documents reveal about codes and secret messages?
Session we teach
Cold War
How concerned were the British in the early stages of the Cold War?
Classroom resource
Cold War on File
Why did the Cold War emerge?
Classroom resource
Commonwealth migration since 1945
What was the context and impact of migration in modern Britain?
Classroom resource
Coping with Cholera
How did the authorities react in 19th century?
Session we teach
Coronations: Ceremony and Change
How can we find out about Coronations in the past? How far have Coronations changed over time?
Craft Club – Christmas Cards
Festive pop-up cards
Classroom resource
Criminal petitions
What do they reveal about the justice system?
Session we teach
Crisis in the reign of Mary I
How far can Mary I’s reign be considered a time of crisis?
Curiosities
What is this curious object?
Dear Herbert
What can personal documents reveal about people’s lives?
Disaster at Sea
How can we find out about significant events in the past?
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
Early Modern witch trials
Who was accused?
Classroom resource
Eden’s last stand
Why did Anthony Eden resign in 1938?
Classroom resource
Edward the Confessor
What does the Domesday Abbreviato tells us about Edward the Confessor?
Classroom resource
Elizabeth I’s monarchy
Rule of a ‘weak and feeble’ woman?
Classroom resource
Elizabethan propaganda
How did England try to show Spain planned to invade in 1588?
Classroom resource
Empire Windrush: Caribbean migration
Why did people from the Caribbean travel to live and work in Britain?
Classroom resource
Empire Windrush: Early Black Presence
What do the sources reveal about an early Black presence in Britain?
Classroom resource
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?
Classroom resource
Empire Windrush: The Notting Hill Carnival
What do the sources reveal about the significance of the Notting Hill Carnival and why it began?
Classroom resource
England’s Immigrants, 1330-1550
Downloads for teachers
Classroom resource
English Reformation c1527-1590
How did state and people respond to religious change?
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 Canada
How much care was really taken?
Classroom resource
Evacuation to Shropshire
What happened to children who were sent away?
Classroom resource
Fifties Britain
Never so good? Or too good to be true?
Classroom resource
Florence Nightingale
Why do we remember her?
Classroom resource
Food Glorious Food
What was food like for a child in the Victorian workhouse?
Classroom resource
Foundling Hospital
What were conditions like for children in the care of the Foundling Hospital?
Session we teach
Four days’ hard labour
What was life like for a Victorian child criminal?
Classroom resource
Framlingham Castle
What was the primary function of Framlingham Castle in the ‘Middle Ages’?
Classroom resource
French Revolution
How did the British react to July 1789?
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?
Fun in the Files
What can our documents reveal about how people had fun in the past?
Classroom resource
General Haig
Butcher of the Somme or hero of Amiens?
Classroom resource
Georgian Britain
Age of modernity?
Classroom resource
German occupation of the Rhineland
What should Britain do about it?
Classroom resource
God blew and they were scattered
Did God really help the English defeat the Spanish Armada?
Classroom resource
Going to School in the Workhouse
How was school for pauper children different, and what was the same?
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 Fire of London: examine the evidence
How can we know what happened back in 1666?
Classroom resource
Great Fire of London: how London changed
What happened?
Classroom resource
Great Plague of 1665-1666
How did London respond to it?
Classroom resource
Great War soldier’s record
What can we find out?
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
Health and the Poor Law
To what degree did the Poor Law make an important contribution to Public Health?
Classroom resource
Henry VIII court rules
How did Henry VIII get up in the morning?
Session we teach
Henry VIII: image of a king
Was appearance everything for a ruler in the 16th century?
Session we teach
Henry’s royal rules (SEND)
What were the rules of daily life for a king in Tudor times?
Session we teach
Hidden Love: LGBTQ+ lives in the 1920s and 1930s
What can our documents reveal about LGBTQ+ lives in the 1920 and 30s?
Classroom resource
Hitler assassination plan
How did the British plan to kill Hitler?
Classroom resource
Holding History
What is 'The National Archives'?
Holidays are Here!
What can our documents reveal about how families enjoyed summer holidays during the Second World War?
Classroom resource
Home Front 1939-1945 (part one)
How did Britain fight the war at home?
Classroom resource
Home Front 1939-1945 (part two)
How did Britain fight the war at home?
Classroom resource
Hong Kong and the Opium Wars
How did Hong Kong become part of the British Empire?
Classroom resource
How did the government respond to a mass protest at ‘Peterloo’ in 1819?
Political reform in 19th century Britain
Classroom resource
How we were taught
What was school like 100 years ago?
Classroom resource
Indian Independence
What led to Partition in 1947?
Classroom resource
Introduction
What is The National Archives?
Session we teach
Introduction to document research
What can archives reveal about the past and how history is constructed?
Classroom resource
Irish Partition
Why was Ireland divided in 1921?
Classroom resource
Jacobite propaganda
What was the point of Jacobite propaganda?
Classroom resource
Jacobite Rebellion of 1715
Rebels with a cause?
Classroom resource
Jacobite Rising of 1745
A serious threat to the Hanoverians?
Classroom resource
James I
What were the key areas of dispute?
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
Kenilworth Castle (part one)
What can you tell from an image?
Classroom resource
Kenilworth Castle (part two)
What do the medieval records reveal?
Classroom resource
Kindertransport
Saving refugee children?
Classroom resource
Letters from the First World War, part one
How did these men experience the conflict? (1915)
Classroom resource
Letters from the First World War, part two
How did these men experience the conflict? (1916 - 18)
Classroom resource
LGBTQ+ Rights in Britain
How have changes in laws and attitudes affected LGBTQ+ people in Britain?
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?
Living under canvas
What can this document tell us about the experience of a group of refugee children?
Session we teach
Living under canvas: Child refugee stories
What can we learn from documents about the experiences of Basque child refugees?
Classroom resource
Loyalty and dissent
How did Indian soldiers respond to the First World War?
Classroom resource
Magna Carta teacher’s resources
Downloads for teachers
Classroom resource
Magna Carta, 1215 and beyond
A medieval revolution?
Classroom resource
Mangrove Nine protest
What does this reveal about police brutality and racism in '70s Britain?
Session we teach
Mapping London
How and why does an area change over time?
Session we teach
Medicine on the Western Front
How can we find out about medical treatment in the First World War?
Classroom resource
Medicine on the Western Front (part one)
How did trench warfare affect injuries and treatment?
Classroom resource
Medicine on the Western Front (part two)
How did trench warfare affect injuries and treatment?
Classroom resource
Medieval castles
What was their purpose and significance?
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?
Session we teach
Migrants to Britain
What can government documents reveal about the experience of Indian seafarers?
Classroom resource
Murder at Kirk o’ Field
What happened in 1567?
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
People – GCSE English Language
Using images for descriptive and narrative writing
Classroom resource
Places – GCSE English Language
Using images for descriptive and narrative writing
Propaganda
How can art be used to convey a message?
Session we teach
Propaganda: the art of persuasion
How did the British government encourage people to support the war?
Classroom resource
Protest and Democracy 1816 to 1818, part 1
Was this the start of mass politics in Britain?
Classroom resource
Protest and democracy 1818 to 1820, part 2
How close was Britain to revolution?
Classroom resource
Protesting against the New Poor Law
What can archival material tell us about protest?
Classroom resource
Punishment in the workhouse – Lesson One
What can ‘pauper voices’ reveal about punishments for workhouse children?
Classroom resource
Punishment in the workhouse – Lesson Two
What can ‘pauper voices’ reveal about attitudes towards punishments in the workhouse?
Classroom resource
Queen Anne
How can we find out about her?
Classroom resource
Rebecca riots
What happened during them?
Classroom resource
Rebels in the records
What can we learn from documents that show how people ‘rebelled’ in the past?
Session we teach
Resistance and Rebellion in the Caribbean
How did enslaved people resist?
Classroom resource
Richard II
Were the troubles facing England in the 1370s and 1380s due to Richard II’s age and inexperience?
Classroom resource
Rob Roy
A Victorian railway accident
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?
Classroom resource
Role of a Queen – Matilda and Elizabeth I
How has the role of Queen changed from the past?
Samuel Pepys
What does his will reveal?
Classroom resource
Say ‘cheese’: a portrait of Queen Victoria’s family
What can Queen Victoria's family photographs tell us?
Classroom resource
School dinners
Why were school dinners brought in?
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?
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
What can an object reveal about its owner and life in Medieval England?
Classroom resource
Significant Events
What happened then?
Classroom resource
Significant People
Who is who?
Classroom resource
Significant People
Key Stage One Activity Book
Classroom resource
Significant Places
What's in a place?
Session we teach
Significant Women: discover their stories in the archives
What can documents tell us about significant women’s lives?
Classroom resource
Sixties Britain
A social and cultural revolution?
Classroom resource
Slavery
How did the Abolition Acts of 1807 and 1833 affect the slave trade?
Session we teach
Spirit of Invention: Explore, design, create!
What can the Victorians teach us about how to be an inventor?
Classroom resource
Suffrage Tales
What would you do?
Classroom resource
Suffragettes ‘in Trousers’
How did men support votes for women?
Classroom resource
Suffragettes on file
What did the struggle for the vote involve?
Session we teach
Suffragettes through government eyes
What do government records reveal about the suffrage movement?
Classroom resource
Suffragettes: Outrage at Kew
What's the story?
Classroom resource
Sugar
What can original documents tell us about the history of sugar?
Classroom resource
Terfysg Beca (Cymraeg/Welsh)
Beth a ddigwyddodd yn ystod
The Beautiful Game
What can our documents reveal about an incredible sports match?
Classroom resource
The Boxers of Whitechapel
What do the documents reveal about the inhabitants?
Classroom resource
The Great Seal
What can it tell us?
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?
Session we teach
The Mangrove Nine
How much can documents from The National Archives reveal about the Mangrove Nine?
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?
Classroom resource
Thirties Britain
The depressed decade?
Time Travel Club Activities
Discovering The National Archives
Classroom resource
Tobacco
James I & VI: How was tobacco viewed, consumed, and traded in the Stuart period?
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?
Session we teach
Treasures
What 'treasures' are there at The National Archives?
Classroom resource
Trimdon
What was it like living in a late 19th century mining town?
TTTV: Refugee Week 2021
What can we learn from documents about Basque children’s experiences in refugee camps?
Classroom resource
Tudor Entertainment
What was the effect of the early playhouses?
Session we teach
Tudor rebellions
How seriously did they challenge the authority of the crown?
Tudors: Image of a King
How did monarchs present an ‘image’ of themselves in the past?
Classroom resource
Twenties Britain (part one)
Decade of conflict, realignment and change?
Classroom resource
Twenties Britain (part two)
Decade of conflict, realignment and change?
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
Uncovering the past
How can we use photographs to find out about the past?
Session we teach
Unmasking a spy
Who was Karel Richter?
Classroom resource
Victorian children in trouble with the law
Did the punishment fit the crime?
Classroom resource
Victorian family history
How can we find out about the life of a Victorian child?
Classroom resource
Victorian Food and Drink
What do old adverts reveal?
Classroom resource
Victorian Health Reform
How did the Victorians view compulsory vaccination?
Classroom resource
Victorian homes
Was there much difference between rich and poor homes?
Classroom resource
Victorian Industrial Towns
What made them unhealthy?
Classroom resource
Victorian lives
How was life different in Victorian times?
Classroom resource
Victorian Railways
Did they create more crime?
Classroom resource
Walter Tull
How can we use sources to find out about him?
Classroom resource
Wartime Propaganda
How did Britain try to keep the support of West African peoples?
Classroom resource
What caused the 1832 Great Reform Act?
Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
Classroom resource
What caused the ‘Swing Riots’ in the 1830s?
Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
Classroom resource
What is a Jubilee?
What can we find out about Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee?
Session we teach
What is history?
How do historians know what to believe?
Classroom resource
What methods did the Suffragettes use to gain the vote?
Political reform in 20th century Britain
Classroom resource
What was Chartism?
Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
Classroom resource
What was the significance of the Match Girls’ Strike in 1888?
Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
Session we teach
Whitechapel
How can we find out about what Whitechapel was like in 1888?
Classroom resource
Who was Noor Khan?
What can documents reveal about her role during the Second World War?
Classroom resource
Why did the Luddites protest?
Political reform in 19th century Britain
Classroom resource
Why was radical writer Thomas Paine significant?
Political and social reform in 18th century Britain
Classroom resource
William Shakespeare
What can we find out about his life?
Classroom resource
Women and the English Civil Wars
How did these conflicts affect their lives?
Classroom resource
Workhouse Voices
What did paupers say about the Poor Law?
Classroom resource
Workhouse Voices Creative Writing
Stories inspired by letters from the past
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?