The Topic Pack gives you a brief summary of the Victorians.

This large green urn was given as a gift to Queen Victoria in 1839 by Emperor Nicholas I, to thank her for the way in which his son Alexander had been welcomed in England the previous year. It was placed in the Grand Reception Room of Windsor Castle, and has...

The turn of the 20th century was in many ways a golden age of aviation. In 1903 the Wright brothers conquered heavier-than-air flight. From that time onward there were many other visionaries who wanted to be part of the dream of flying. The topic of early aviation history is an...

Why visit a cemetery as part of the history curriculum? Local studies now feature prominently in the primary history curriculum for both key stages. This development challenges teachers to find easilyaccessible, inexpensive and relevant resources on their doorstep. A rich resource which has traditionally been overlooked is the local churchyard...

For primary school pupils a key aim of the National Curriculum for history is to understand the method of historical enquiry. Working with original sources is of course central to the whole process and provides a great way to inspire pupils’ experience of the subject. Young pupils, once they have...

Many museums around the country house natural history collections that offer children the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of species from around the world. Using the collections of Victorian explorers and naturalists offers children a historical perspective with a cross-curricular approach which has a great appeal. Yet for...

The moustache cup I purchased on ebay is one of the most popular artefacts I use with students in a good game of ‘guess the object’. It has a wonderful quality of being at the same time familiar yet strange. Despite telling the students not to start with the question...

Please note: these free resources pre-date the 2014 National Curriculum. You could start the Victorians with a story. See the Victorian chimney sweep short lesson exemplar and the Upstairs Downstairs story in the History section of the Urban Spaces material. Lessons and short lesson exemplars available on this site: Victorian Britain: short...

This E-CPD unit has a number of possible focuses within the broader topic of Victorian Britain and the wider Victorian world.  This follows a pattern that is strong within the structures of the School History Project.  Each sub-topic needs to mirror what is best in history education at primary level, including...

Victorian era | Questions | Industrial revolution | Social reforms | Empire | Teaching the Victorians | Citizenship | Victorian achievements | Key concepts < This resource is free for everyone For access to hundreds of other high-quality resources by primary history experts along with free or discounted CPD and...

Please note: these resources pre-date the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. A series of lessons, exemplars and guides to help you teach your students about Victorian Britain.

Victorian Life: Clothes by Liz Gogerly. Wayland, 2008; ISBN: 978 0 7502 5368 0 Reviewed by Alf Wilkinson An exploration of Victorian clothes - for rich and poor - for upper KS2 pupils. The text briefly sets the context of the Victorian period, and uses examples of famous people -...

The Victorians is a much-loved unit of work in many schools and some teachers were disappointed to see it had been removed but there are still ways to continue to teach it under the 2014 National Curriculum. In many localities there will be a huge variety of Victorian buildings - including...

Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated. In this article, Richard Knights describes the background and the making of a short film based around the Prescot watch making industry, starring children from his own Year 5 class. The project, for which he gained...

What is a trade directory? Trade directories are the equivalent of the telephone directory and the Yellow Pages. They were published on a county or city basis every year and contain detailed descriptions of every village and town in the county. They also contain pages and pages of advertisements, for...

At the 1918 election just one woman, Constance Markievicz, won a seat, in Dublin, for Sinn Fein. She was in prison at the time. At the time, of course, the whole of Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. All 73 Sinn Fein MPs refused to take up their seats, and...

In this article Tim Lomas discusses one of the best resourced themes you can find: your local railway. Railways make one of the best themes for a historical study. No place has ever been far from a railway station even if Dr Beeching wiped out one-third of the network in...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. The teaching ideas below are adapted from an idea the great John Fines developed for teaching Ancient Greek science. With active teacher support and guidance, it requires the pupils to use what they know, and their...

When considering either ‘changes within living memory’ for Key Stage 1 or ‘an aspect or theme to develop children’s chronological understanding post 1066’ for Key Stage 2 it is important to focus on a clear observable change. This enables children to draw effective comparisons with their own experiences. Washday, bread...