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.

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All key stage 2 resources

Showing 156 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?
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19th century people

What can we tell from this photograph?

20sStreets – Teacher’s Notes

What can archives reveal about people’s lives in the 1920s?
Session we teach

4099 is my name (SEND)

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

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

All on board!

What can we learn from old board games?

All Work and No Play

What does this document reveal about work in the past?

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?

Archives Live: Windrush 75

Special live event from The National Archives

Atlas of Illustrated Feelings

How are you feeling today?
Session we teach

Black Victorians

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

Case Study C – Wakefield

24 Thornes Lane

Case Study D – Wakefield

68 Thornes Lane Wharf

Case Study G – Falmouth

3 Lister Street

Case Study H – Falmouth

42 Lister Street

Census Detectives

What does the census reveal about families in the past?
Classroom resource

Chertsey

What was Chertsey like in the Middle Ages?
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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?

Codes and Secret Messages

What do the documents reveal about codes and secret messages?
Session we teach

Coronations: Ceremony and Change

How can we find out about Coronations in the past? How far have Coronations changed over time?

Creating an Imaginary Archive

What would you collect?

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?
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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?
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?

Fun in the Files

What can our documents reveal about how people had fun in the past?
Classroom resource

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?
Classroom resource

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?
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?
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?

Holidays are Here!

What can our documents reveal about how families enjoyed summer holidays during the Second World War?
Classroom resource

How we were taught

What was school like 100 years ago?
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?
Session we teach

Mapping London

How and why does an area change over time?
Classroom resource

Past pleasures

How did the Victorians have fun?

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

Queen Anne

How can we find out about her?
Classroom resource

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?
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

Sugar

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

The Beautiful Game

What can our documents reveal about an incredible sports match?
Classroom resource

The Home Front

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

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?
Session we teach

The Sinking of the Titanic

Why were so many lives lost in the disaster?

The Yellow Bicycle

A story of migration
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?

TTTV: Refugee Week 2021

What can we learn from documents about Basque children’s experiences in refugee camps?
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Tudor Entertainment

What was the effect of the early playhouses?

Tudors: Image of a King

How did monarchs present an ‘image’ of themselves 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 homes

Was there much difference between rich and poor homes?
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Victorian lives

How was life different in Victorian times?
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Walter Tull

How can we use sources to find out about him?
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What is a Jubilee?

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