How cruel were the Victorians? Victorian crime and punishment

Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.

This unit centres on Victorian crime and punishment.

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While some factual knowledge about crime and punishment in the period forms an essential component, the main focus is on testing the validity of the popular interpretation that Victorians were cruel, by reference to original evidence and information about famous reformers.

This unit was originally taught in a day of school time but could also be taught across a sequence of lessons. There is scope to adjust  some of the teaching activities to take account of time constraints in different schools.

This is one a set of Year 6 schemes of work arising from the 2005 KS2-KS3 History Transitions Project.