Victorian Britain

History

Primary

A primary science experiment incorporates Victorian history

CPD trainer Deborah Herridge introduces an exercise for APP in primary science, using Victorian London as topic to combine science and history at Key Stage 1 and 2, in a training session for teachers. In 1858, the smell of untreated sewage from the polluted Thames in London, known as The Big Stink, led to the development of the drainage system. In her CPD workshop, Deborah shows the teachers how to recreate the stink by mixing pasta, chocolate and rice. Asking pupils to investigate the stink will help teachers use the APP criteria for 'gathering evidence' and also help KS1 and KS2 pupils learn about pollution. Deborah then asks the group to clean the water through filtration - issuing them with tools of sieves, filters, coffee filter papers and plastic bowls and jugs, showing how the practical science activity can be extended.

APP for Primary Science - The Big Stink with Deborah Herridge

A class visits the largest open-air museum in Britain

Blists Hill, the largest open air museum in Britain, is an authentic recreation of a small Victorian town. In this programme, we see a Year 5 class explore the town and interact with the demonstrator inhabitants. The pupils, dressed in Victorian costume, watch a printer at work and participate in a hands-on workshop, type-setting and printing their own artwork. They also experience a school lesson as it would have been in 1900, learning that discipline was strict, teaching inflexible and the class system rigorously enforced. Back in the modern school, teacher Clare James talks about the trip and explains how she has integrated it into the term's work.

Ironbridge

A teacher uses drama in a history lesson

Year 2 teacher Clare Fairclough initially introduced drama into her classroom to try to raise writing standards amongst the boys, but discovered it to be an essential teaching tool. In this programme, which focuses on a history lesson about Florence Nightingale, this can be seen in action as drama not only helps in developing literacy rates, it also personalises the learning for every child. Clare, the headteacher, and her class comment on the various elements of lesson including role-plays acted out by the pupils. The lesson illustrates the effectiveness of a cross-curricular, inclusive approach towards history, while touching on the challenges this can bring for both teachers and pupils.

KS1/2 History - Florence Nightingale through Drama

Pupils study the history of Brunel's SS Great Britain

A visit to Brunel's SS Great Britain, a Victorian steam ship, and its adjoining museum lets local pupils touch, feel and smell over 150 years of history. Local teacher Jacqueline Ferguson has partnered up with the education team at the SS Great Britain to create a unit of work called Creative Curator. The unit is designed to develop the pupils' investigative skills by focusing on artefacts that were used by actual passengers and crew on the ship. Jacqueline's Year 6 class first work in groups to test their knowledge of local Victorian hero Brunel, and then set about matching artefacts to passengers and crew before they present their combined knowledge through role-plays and art. The pupils also get a chance to quiz the ship's curator as they continue their investigation of artefacts and their labels.

KS2 History - Investigating Artefacts

A two minute virtual tour around the legendary SS Great Britain

A chance to imagine you&#39;re reallyaboard Brunel&#39;s legendary SS Great Britain.This virtual tour around the ship is a great pupil resource.

KS2 History - SS Great Britain: Virtual Tour

Pupils make creative labels as part of an SS Great Britain study

Following a visit to Brunel&#39;s SS Great Britain a Year 6 class continue their investigation of artefacts and people who were connected to them by writing some creative labels.Local teacher Jacqueline Ferguson has partnered up with the education team at the SS Great Britain to create a unit of work called Creative Curator. The unit is designed to strengthen the link between learning at the museum and work done back in the classroom. The pupils focus on one of the artefacts they photographed in the museum and write creative labels in the form of riddles and poems.An afternoon lesson studying just one artefact pulls together prior knowledge of the Victorian life with the investigation at the SS Great Britain, helping to deepen their understanding of the period and produce some imaginative literacy.

KS2 History - Writing about Artefacts

Three resources to help teach primary pupils about the Victorians

In this edition we look at three resources designed to help teach primary pupils about the Victorians. Expert Anna Warne, teacher and assessment co-ordinator, recommends: <ul> <li>Situations Vacant - a day of role-play at Preston Manor</li> <li>Street Child - a fictional book by Berlie Doherty about life for a child in the 1860s</li> <li>Primary History: The Children in Victorian Britain - DVD Plus Pack</li> </ul> Our roving reporter, Matthew Tosh, heads out to see a couple of the resources in action while Anna and presenter Hermione Cockburn discuss the resources in the studio with panellists Fiona MacCorquodale, assistant head at St Luke's CE Primary School in London, and Peter Taylor, headteacher at Worth Primary School in Cheshire.

Primary History: Victorians

Five videos to help KS2 history pupils explore Victorian Britain

Help Key Stage 2 history pupils explore a different aspect of life in Victorian Britain in each of these five dramatised lesson starters. In the School Room, four children find themselves transported back to a Victorian classroom. The Great Exhibition 1851 shows a young printer excitedly describing the Great Exhibition that's about to open in London. He talks about some of the exhibits including the world's biggest diamond and Britain's first public toilets. Brunel's SS Great Britain depicts an interview with Isambard Kingdom Brunel alongside his transatlantic passenger liner, SS Great Britain. In Florence Nightingale, the nurse discusses the lack of medical knowledge at the time. She also talks about the risk of infection that patients face, and her hopes for developing modern nursing methods. And The Workhouse shows poet James Reynolds writing a rhyming letter to his sister about life in the Newmarket workhouse.

The Victorians

Isambard Kingdom Brunel's revolutionary ship, for KS2 history

Key Stage 2 history pupils can find out about Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron sailing ship in this short video about Victorian Britain. In this lesson idea, a primary class can discover how engineer Brunel revolutionised shipbuilding when he made his SS Great Britain from iron, instead of wood. Many people thought it would sink. It was built as a luxury liner, with space for 1st and 2nd class passengers. Launched in 1843, SS Great Britain had a 92-year working career and reflected the rising demand for international travel.

The Victorians - Brunel's SS Great Britain

KS2 history: Florence Nightingale's work during the Crimean war

Reveal to Key Stage 2 history pupils Florence Nightingale's work during the Crimean war, with this dramatised short video . Primary pupils can hear 'the lady with the lamp' discuss nursing practices at the Crimean field hospital, including her concern about the number of patients dying from infections contracted in hospital, rather than their wounds. Florence also laments the lack of medical knowledge, her hopes for developing better nursing methods and her thoughts on writing down her nursing notes.

Professional Development for Quality Teaching

Subjects

> Primary History

> Victorian Britain