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The National Archives Education Service

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The Education Service provides free online resources and taught sessions, supporting the National Curriculum for history from key stage 1 up to A-level. Visit our website to access the full range of our resources, from Domesday to Britain in the 1960s, and find out about more about our schools programme, including new professional development opportunities for teachers.

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The Education Service provides free online resources and taught sessions, supporting the National Curriculum for history from key stage 1 up to A-level. Visit our website to access the full range of our resources, from Domesday to Britain in the 1960s, and find out about more about our schools programme, including new professional development opportunities for teachers.
Eden's Last Stand
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Eden's Last Stand

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This lesson could be used as part of a teaching programme for any of the main GCSE modern world history courses for key stage 4 relating to the study of appeasement. The sources allow students to explore some of the main issues in British foreign policy and the importance of not accepting sources at face value.
Edward the Confessor
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Edward the Confessor

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Illuminated manuscripts are luxury items, displaying the wealth and often piety of their owners through golden details on religious or secular imagery. It is unusual, however, to see such religious iconography in the pages of Domesday. The importance of Domesday Book meant that several copies were needed, with three being made in the 13th Century. This copy, the Abbreviato, was made for the Exchequer and presents a shorter (abbreviated) version of the original book. The copy begins with the story of Edward the Confessor, showing scenes from his life to show his religious piety.
Introduction to Magna Carta
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Introduction to Magna Carta

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This lesson provides pupils with a general introduction to Magna Carta and why it is considered of historical importance. By the end of the lesson pupils will have gathered information that can be used to write a short piece on what makes something of historical importance, and why Magna Carta is such an important document. This lesson is the first in a sequence of three designed to be used with the BETT Awards 2016 and Medea award 2016 winning Magna Carta resource website. These lessons include PowerPoint presentations, teacher’s notes and other material for use in classrooms. The lesson resource website guides students through medieval history and documents with the help of reenactors as students create their own digital chronicle of the creation of Magna Carta.
Magna Carta: The debate
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Magna Carta: The debate

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This lesson provides pupils with an opportunity to question the historical importance of Magna Carta. It focuses on the 1215 version of Magna Carta and the political context of its creation. At the end of the lesson pupils will have gathered information that can be used to write a short piece on whether they consider the 1215 version of Magna Carta to be either: A collection of complaints and grumbles by the barons which only had benefits for them? or An important statement of key principles about how the king can rule and that had benefits for everyone in England? This lesson is the third in a sequence of three designed to be used with the BETT Awards 2016 and Medea award 2016 winning Magna Carta resource website. These lessons include PowerPoint presentations, teacher’s notes and other material for use in classrooms. The lesson resource website guides students through medieval history and documents with the help of reenactors as students create their own digital chronicle of the creation of Magna Carta.
Magna Carta: The great feudal feud for all
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Magna Carta: The great feudal feud for all

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This lesson provides pupils with knowledge of the different classes of people in the medieval England (King, Barons, Knights, Burghers, Peasants) and asks them to consider how Magna Carta may have affected each of them. At the end of the lesson pupils will have gathered information that can be used to write a short piece on who benefitted from Magna Carta in 1215. This lesson is the second in a sequence of three designed to be used with the BETT Awards 2016 and Medea award 2016 winning Magna Carta resource website. These lessons include PowerPoint presentations, teacher’s notes and other material for use in classrooms. The lesson resource website guides students through medieval history and documents with the help of reenactors as students create their own digital chronicle of the creation of Magna Carta.
Why was radical writer Thomas Paine significant?
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Why was radical writer Thomas Paine significant?

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Very few people had the right to vote in the late eighteenth century. Politics and the running of the government was limited to a small number of wealthy people and certain people later called radicals, questioned if this was the best way of government. The most important radical writer at this time was Thomas Paine (1737-1809). Paine was born in Thetford in Norfolk and later moved to America where he played an influential role in drafting the Declaration of Independence. He later travelled to France and became involved in the French Revolution, working with the leaders to produce the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man’. Paine wrote a book called ‘The Rights of Man’ which said that everybody should have the right to be involved in government. His book sold half a million copies and was read by many more. It was frequently used as the discussion topic for political groups called corresponding societies. Thomas Paine supported the development of corresponding societies, which grew up across the country in the 1790s in Derby, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow London, Perth, Norwich, Nottingham and Sheffield. The societies aimed to gain public support for parliamentary reform including annual parliaments and universal suffrage. Using the original documents in this lesson, find out how Thomas Paine and other radicals demanded change in how the country was to be governed. How did the government respond?
Workhouse Women
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Workhouse Women

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The seven letters selected within this resource show a wealth of varied experiences of women inside the workhouse. The lesson can either use the letters in full or the teacher can select sections of the letters. Students are encouraged to analyse each letter, focusing on the treatment of women and their mental health. Learning objectives: To investigate the varied experiences of women in the workhouse. To analyse and make inferences about a source. Resources needed: Printed sources. This lesson was created as part of the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.
Protesting against the New Poor Law
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Protesting against the New Poor Law

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This document pack and associated activity are designed to support students with their depth study of Poverty, Public Health and the State in Britain c1780 – 1939. The period of 1834-55 has been chosen to allow focus on the Poor Law Amendment Act and its impact on society. The letters provided in this pack are largely from paupers or interested parties writing to the Poor Law Commission, the Poor Law Board or local authorities in regards to the act, as such they offer genuine contemporary reactions to the Act. The letters have been presented as photographs with transcripts available (printed on the reverse if this pack is printed double-sided). An accompanying powerpoint has been provided which can be edited to suit your needs. Teachers notes have been provided within the powerpoint with suggested activity instructions. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.
Punishment in the workhouse
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Punishment in the workhouse

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This lesson explores descriptions of the punishment of the Victorian poor in the MH12 collection in The National Archives. It comes in two parts. The first lesson explores punishments given to children while the second lesson examines pauper attitudes to punishments for the general population. It was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.
A ‘right’ to relief?
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A ‘right’ to relief?

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It has previously been assumed that paupers themselves had little knowledge nor understanding of the legislation governed their position, yet letters sent to the poor law commission from across England and Wales challenge this notion. In fact there is evidence that paupers were frequently writing to contest the way that they were being treated, complain about actions of their Guardians and in some instances even quoted specific parts of legislation in an attempt to change their lives. The legal terminology contained in the letters written by the poor, and the inferences that historians can make from this is a fascinating challenge to students of both History and Law related subjects. This resource aims to demonstrate, through a selection of letters and accompanying tasks, how paupers were active in exercising what they believe to be their ‘right to relief’ and were in fact agents who held the Poor Law to account. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.
Going to School in the Workhouse
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Going to School in the Workhouse

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This lesson explores source material in the form of letters written by Paupers which were sent to the Poor Law Commission in London, generally complaining about the treatment and conditions the pauper children were enduring. The pupils will analyse up to 3 individual letters (see below) to gain an understanding of some of the things which happened to children during this time. This lesson focuses on Schools and is part of a series of lessons which include a focus on Southwell Workhouse followed by two other lessons focussing on clothing and food. You can choose to do individual lessons , or all of them, depending on your context and objectives. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.
Have we underestimated the Victorian Poor?
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Have we underestimated the Victorian Poor?

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This resource is designed for a KS3 year 8-9 class with prior knowledge on the Victorian Workhouse. It could be used as a partner lesson for the already existing source lesson using the 1837 poster. The lesson examines the Victorian Poor in their own words and seeks to address the common misconception that the Victorian Poor were helpless when in the workhouse and accepted the consequences of becoming a pauper and being institutionalised. This resource is designed as a full lesson and has a section for lower-ability students, depending on whether you wish to differentiate. This lesson would best be used as part of a scheme of work on the Victorians and life during the Industrial Revolution. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.
Cold War -Did the Cold War really start in 1919-39?
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Cold War -Did the Cold War really start in 1919-39?

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There are 6 galleries in this Exhibition, each containing a number of case studies. Each Case Study is designed so that it can be used as a ‘stand alone’ item in one or two classroom sessions. However, each Case Study in a Gallery is linked to form a more coherent area of research. This has been done to give students and teachers the maximum amount of flexibility. The Case Studies in each Gallery are linked together to allow students to answer the ‘Big Question’. Details of the Big Question can be found on the Introduction to the Gallery Page and on each source page. This resource has been archived as the interactive parts no longer work. You can still use the rest of it for information, tasks or research. Please note that it has not been updated since its creation in 2009. You can find other archived resources similar to this one in our ‘Topic Sites’ section on our Education website.
Empire Windrush: Early Black Presence
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Empire Windrush: Early Black Presence

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What do the sources reveal about an early Black presence in Britain? Black people have lived in Britain for over two thousand years. Some came to Britain with the Roman invasion in 43CE and they became an important part of British society throughout the medieval ages and beyond. Evidence shows that Black people joined the armed forces, married in parish churches, made significant contributions to art and writing, and resisted and challenged the repressive laws of the day. We cannot tell the history of Britain without including their stories. In the early years of the First World War, many Caribbean men bought tickets to sail to Britain to join the army. The British West Indies Regiment was created, playing an important role in the conflict. Men from Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and other parts of Africa, also fought for Britain. At the end of the war, many African and Caribbean soldiers decided to stay in Britain to make it their permanent home. Race riots broke out in parts of the country during the early months of 1919, as some white communities blamed black people for the shortage of work and housing caused by the war. During the Second World War, black people from across the Commonwealth fought for Britain once more. Some were soldiers, whilst others came to support work on the Homefront such as factory production and nursing. After the war, Britain needed to be re-built. By 1948, the Nationality Act was passed; allowing people from British colonies the right to live and work in Britain if they wanted. Other people from Europe were also invited to Britain. Many people from the Caribbean left their homes to begin a new life in Britain, bringing with them a wide range of skills. They filled jobs in the transport system, postal service and health service, helping Britain to re-build and recover. These people are often called the ‘Windrush Generation’, named after the ship ‘The Empire Windrush’ that docked at Tilbury in June 1948. Windrush was not the first ship to bring Caribbean migrants to Britain; the Ormonde and Almanzora had arrived in Southampton the year before. Between 1947 and 1970, nearly half a million people left their homes in the Caribbean to live in Britain.
Health and the Poor Law
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Health and the Poor Law

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This lesson asks students to examine a set of letters to discover the health concerns of a sample of poor people in the Victorian era. The activity can be done in groups or as a carousel providing the whole class with knowledge of the content of each letter. The letters have been grouped into five main themes related to health allowing you to select the letters most appropriate to your group’s studies. You may also want to pair this activity with the use of our interactive maps on our Voices of the Victorian Poor website where there are over 3500 letters from the victorian poor to explore. There is a curated map on health within the ‘secondary’ student portal, or further health related filters within the ‘research’ portal. Using these maps can allow you to explore health issues in your local area or explore national trends in medical care, sanitary reform or disease outbreaks. This lesson was created as part of the Teaching the Voices of the Victorian Poor Teacher Scholar Programme.
Medieval Castles
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Medieval Castles

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The documents in this lesson relate to Framlingham, Portchester, Stokesay , Berwick and Alnwick castles. Some of these feature in the specification for OCR History GCSE module: Castles Form and Function c1000-1750 as specified sites in conjunction with English Heritage. Framlingham Castle is the first named site for OCR in 2018, followed by Kenilworth Castle in 2019. For AQA, GCSE History, module Historical Environment of Medieval England, Stokesay Castle is the specified site for 2018 and Pevensey Castle for 2019.
Refugees in South Asia during Second World War (1939-1945)
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Refugees in South Asia during Second World War (1939-1945)

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In contrast to dominant narratives about refugees from Asia and Africa arriving at the borders of Europe, between 1939 and 1945 thousands of European refugees took shelter in South Asia. They were joined by other war evacuees from Southeast Asia and refugees from China. This lesson looks at Polish and Jewish refugees who came to India from Europe and were joined by refugees from Malta and the Balkans. Alongside these refugees nearly half a million people fled from Burma and Southeast Asia as the Japanese advanced and sought shelter in colonial India. Thus, during the Second World War, India became home to thousands of refugees from Europe and Asia. This lesson uses original documents to explore how these refugees were provided with relief, how they were treated, and what happened to them when the war ended.
Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement 1998 Themed Collection
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Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement 1998 Themed Collection

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This themed collection includes all the original documents used to create The National Archives resources for use in secondary level school assemblies to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement which ended the conflict in Northern Ireland. In addition, our short video gives an overview of the conflict and the peace process that brought it to an end, what the Agreement did and its results. These resources can be used to build knowledge about the Agreement and support student discussion about how it successfully brought an end to the violence and brought in a new era of peace in Northern Ireland. This themed collection, however, allows teachers to create their own differentiated resources.
Magna Carta : Interactive Resource
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Magna Carta : Interactive Resource

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Magna Carta - an interactive learning resource from The National Archives and UK Parliament enable independent student-led enquiry useing an interactive platform and video characters to engage students with original thirteenth century documents to investigate why Magna Carta was issued and reissued at four points in time: 1215; 1225; 1265 and 1297. Guided by the famous monk chronicler, Matthew Paris, students travel around the country and through time to interview key characters and investigate original documents to decide for themselves why Magna Carta was, and remains, such an important document. You can find the interactive resource on our Education website (linked to our shop).