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Making the most of a census
Primary History article
This article looks at how children can utilise and manipulate mathematical data to make sense of a historic past. The focus is on helping children see the numbers as a resource for understanding the experiences of those that lived in this place.
Aim: Understand historical concepts such as continuity and...
Making the most of a census
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One of my favourite history places: Meldon Viaduct
Primary History feature
'One of my favourite history places' is a regular feature in Primary History – see all favourite history places here. In this edition, Tim Lomas explores Meldon Viaduct and its surroundings:
Visiting places you have read about or seen pictures of can sometimes prove an anticlimax. Others far exceed expectations. One such is...
One of my favourite history places: Meldon Viaduct
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Riding along on my pushbike… exploring transport in EYFS
Primary History article
There is a myriad of opportunities for exploring the history of travel and transport in Early Years. You could focus on the Montgolfier brothers’ hot air balloon flight in the late eighteenth century, the invention of steam trains and motor cars in the nineteenth century, or even the space race...
Riding along on my pushbike… exploring transport in EYFS
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Your Local Railway: a local history investigation in Key Stage 2
Primary History article
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...
Your Local Railway: a local history investigation in Key Stage 2
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Significant Individuals: Charles Darwin
Primary History article
Charles Darwin: exploring the man behind the beard – studying the lives of significant individuals in the past
Studying the life of Charles Darwin is an exciting way to meet the requirement in Key Stage 1 to teach significant individuals. But what do we actually know about him, beyond the...
Significant Individuals: Charles Darwin
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What can you do with a Victorian Trade Directory…?
Primary History article
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...
What can you do with a Victorian Trade Directory…?
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Poverty in Britain: A development study for Key Stage 2
Primary History article
One of the requirements for Key Stage 2 history is for some history that extends beyond 1066. Various suggestions have been made including an examination of change within a social theme. The example given is Crime and Punishment but the opportunities for something interesting are vast. This article focuses on...
Poverty in Britain: A development study for Key Stage 2
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Children in Victorian Britain: Down the Mine
Lesson Plan
This resource is free to everyone. For access to hundreds of other high-quality resources by primary history experts along with free or discounted CPD and membership of a thriving community of teachers and subject leaders, join the Historical Association today
Please note: this free resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum....
Children in Victorian Britain: Down the Mine
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Children in Victorian Britain: Henry at boarding school
Lesson Plan
Please note: this free resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. For more recent resources see:
Victorians (Primary History article, 2014)
Scheme of work: Sarah Forbes Bonetta
Scheme of work: Brunel
In this lesson children pursued an historical enquiry, raising questions and using original sources. They gained an understanding of conditions in early...
Children in Victorian Britain: Henry at boarding school
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The Poor Law in Nineteenth-century England and Wales
Classic Pamphlet
Variety rather than uniformity characterised the administration of poor relief in England and Wales, and at no period was this more apparent than in the decades before the national reform of the poor law in 1834. Unprecedented economic and social changes produced severe problems for those responsible for social welfare,...
The Poor Law in Nineteenth-century England and Wales
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Queen Victoria as a Politician
Article
Even had Queen Victoria not presided over the achievements of the age which bears her name, her career would still hold a fascination for the historian. She was, for one thing, the solitary woman in a male political world. She was possessed of a personality at once perceptive and simple,...
Queen Victoria as a Politician
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Isambard Kingdom Brunel: A Significant Victorian
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content, references and links may be outdated. For more recent content see our Brunel scheme of work and George Stephenson scheme of work.
The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) have recently published new Schemes of Work for all subjects. Included within these...
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: A Significant Victorian
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Teaching Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history
Article
Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people are the largest minority ethnic group in some communities (and therefore in some schools) in the UK. Yet the past of Gypsy, Roma, Traveller people may rarely be part of history lessons. The result is that pupils of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller heritage may not...
Teaching Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history
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A Project on Working Class Education in the Victorian Period
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
In the third year at London Metropolitan University, history B.ED students research and prepare a resource about an aspect of life in C19th Britain for use with their chosen age group. Nicky made a book,...
A Project on Working Class Education in the Victorian Period
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Census 2021: using the census in the history classroom
Article
As we approach the next census in March 2021, we are reminded of what a rich historical source the census is. For historians, using the census can shine a light on particular people and places – a snapshot in time. Big stories can be told through a sharp local lens...
Census 2021: using the census in the history classroom
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Reading, recovering and re-visioning Victorian Women
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.
Knowledge of the experience of women during Victorian times has developed considerably during the last thirty years. History had a privileged place within the British Women’s Liberation movement in the early 1970s and reclaiming the...
Reading, recovering and re-visioning Victorian Women
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The Great Exhibition
Article
‘Of all the decades to be young in, a wise man would choose the 1850s’ concludes G.M. Young in his Portrait of An Age. His choice is understandable. Historians and contemporaries have long viewed the middle years of the century as a ‘plateau of peace and prosperity’, an ‘age of...
The Great Exhibition
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Queen Victoria's visit to Wolverhampton, November 30 1866
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
When Prince Albert died in 1861 Queen Victoria went into deep mourning and ceased all public duties. By 1866 she had still not made any public appearances. Wolverhampton, like many other towns, raised a subscription to commission a statue in Albert’s memory....
Queen Victoria's visit to Wolverhampton, November 30 1866
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Stories to extend and support the study of life in Victorian Times
Primary History article
Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
The study of life in Victorian Times with Key Stage 2 pupils, or aspects of life beyond living memory (now ‘the more distant past’) with children in Key Stage 1 is surely one of the richest and most popular historical themes. Some...
Stories to extend and support the study of life in Victorian Times
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Local study: Fulwell Windmill
Lesson Plan
Please note: This article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and references may be outdated.
The lesson formed part of a local study of Fulwell and Fulwell Windmill in Sunderland. It could also be taught as part of the Victorian Britain Study Unit. The children had already looked at maps and...
Local study: Fulwell Windmill
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Battersea: here for every dog and cat – 165 years and still going strong
Primary History article
In this article Karin Doull looks at the 165th anniversary of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Our treatment of our most popular pets is reflective of society in a given time and Karin highlights several ways in which the history of Battersea can be used to spotlight different aspects of...
Battersea: here for every dog and cat – 165 years and still going strong
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Using children’s illustrators as a focus for learning about ‘Past and Present’ in EYFS
Primary History article
The EYFS framework places a key emphasis on the value of giving children rich encounters with stories and picture books. With World Book Day just around the corner, this article suggests how a focus on children’s illustrators could be used to develop children’s understanding of ‘past and present’...
Using children’s illustrators as a focus for learning about ‘Past and Present’ in EYFS
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Earth heroes: Etta Lemon, ‘The Mother of Birds’
Primary History article
In this article Ailsa Fidler considers Etta Lemon and her role in halting the plume boom, which saw many bird species driven to the edge of extinction, all in the name of fashion. Linking a study of Etta to the government’s policy on Climate Education, the article shows how Etta’s...
Earth heroes: Etta Lemon, ‘The Mother of Birds’
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Female migration to Australia
Primary History article
The Hyde Park Barracks, in Sydney, has a layered history. Designed by Francis Greenway (a convict architect) it was built between 1817 and 1819 by convict labour. Over the next three decades an estimated 50,000 male convicts passed through – some stayed for years, others days or only hours before...
Female migration to Australia
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Interpretation and poor Victorian Children
Year 6 Scheme of Work
Please note: this resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum.
This unit centres on the portrayal of poor, Victorian children. While factual knowledge about conditions in workhouses is an essential component of the unit, the main focus is on contrasting portrayals of one fictional Victorian child, Charles Dicken's Oliver Twist. The...
Interpretation and poor Victorian Children
