Video conferencingIf your school is too far away to make a visit to The National Archives, we are able to offer some of our workshops via videoconference. You will need access to videoconference equipment either in your school or via a City Learning Centre, and an ISDN or I.P line for making the link to us. Most of the workshops are free of charge. If using an ISDN connection, all that we ask is that you dial us up and meet the cost of the call. Our ISDN number is +44 (0) 20 8392 5351. If you use IP to videoconference, you will need to be registered with the Janet Videoconferencing Service who bridges the call on our behalf. For more information about this, please see www.ja.net/community/schools/index.html Videoconference workshops are designed to last for 35 minutes for KS 1, and up to 1 hour for Key Stages 2 to A Level, but can be made to fit in with your lesson time. Most of our workshops can be booked directly with us at a time and date to suit you, subject to availability, using the booking form. Some of our workshops are advertised and booked on the Global Leap website, a central source of information for videoconferencing in schools. See www.global-leap.com A pack of preparation materials for some workshops can be downloaded from our website http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/index/education.htm or will be sent to you with work for students to complete before the workshop. This will encourage discussion and debate to help them to get the most out of the session.
This workshop introduces pupils to some of the amazing ancient wax seals in our collection. The aim of the workshop is to give pupils an understanding of how seals were made, how and why they were used, and what the images used on them mean. Firstly, we look at royal seals from the time of Edward the Confessor up to the present day. Pupils identify different elements of the designs and compare how they have changed and developed over the last thousand years. Pupils also have a close look at some of the seals used by Tudor kings and queens to see what particular impression each one tried to create about themselves on their seal. Secondly, we look at personal seals that belonged to barons, knights, ladies, craftsmen, religious houses and ordinary people in medieval and Tudor times. Pupils work out why each person chose the design they did on their seal, and discuss how this can help us understand people in the past. Pupils are then encouraged to go on and create their own design for their own personal seal, based on the ideas they have gained during the session.
Costumed actors are sometimes used to deliver video conference workshops and engage your students in historical debates This workshop aims to develop pupils´ understanding of the character of Henry VIII, and how he used imagery to create an impression about himself. Pupils will develop their understanding of the Tudor period by studying different types of original Tudor documents and learning how they were made. They will develop their skills at interpreting information from documents including portraits, and learn how to read original Tudor handwriting. Preparation materials for this workshop are available on our website www.learningcurve.gov.uk/index/education.htm If you have problems downloading the pack, please contact us and we will send you a copy. The workshop begins with an introduction to the National Archives. The education officer will then show and discuss with pupils a selection of original documents from the time of Henry VIII to work out what he was really like as a person and a king. Documents used include an illuminated portrait of Henry VIII as a young man, a document with his own signature on it and a description of the decorations used on jousting horses at tournaments. The work the pupils have done on the preparation activity will be used to work out what images were used on the jousting horses. The education officer will help the pupils read each of the Tudor word cards from the preparation pack. Then an example of the image the word describes is placed on the caparison of the jousting horse, which can be seen on the screen. Finally the education officer will discuss the images with the pupils: they will be encouraged to think about what the image stood for in Tudor times, why Henry chose to use it on his horse and what it tells us about him as a king.
This videoconference aims to introduce pupils to documents about Victorian child criminals and to the background of Victorian crime and punishment. Through a study of documents held here at the archives, including photographs and prison records, pupils will investigate Victorian attitudes to crime and punishment, as well as the social and economic background of this period. Pupils will then go on to study the Prison Record of a little boy named Henry Munday, and will use his experiences as a stimulus for creative writing. The education officer will send you a pack of preparation materials for this session. The workshop will begin with a discussion of Luke Fildes´ painting entitled Applicants for admission to a casual ward with the Education Officer. Pupils will consider when the painting is set, whom the people are, what is happening to them and why. Pupils will be asked to consider what options were available to the destitute in the Victorian period. The second part of the videoconference will look at crime in the Victorian period, and will focus on the life of a child criminal, Henry Munday. Pupils will consider why Henry might have turned to crime, and will be shown further documents by the Education Officer that give information about the experiences he may have endured in Prison. The final part of the session aims to prepare pupils to write a poem about Henry in the first person, with the use of metaphors. The suggested follow-up work for this activity is detailed in the preparation pack. Pupils will consider what Henry´s thoughts and feelings might have been, before brainstorming ideas with the Education Officer. They will be a given a worksheet to guide their ideas. Pupils can then write their poems during a follow-up session in class. Available: any time of the year
An image of Charles I from the records of the Court of King’s Bench, talogue reference: KB 27/1542/2 This role-play videoconference workshop led by historical interpreters, gives your students the chance to debate the causes of the civil wars based on actual documents held here at the Archives. The session will take you and your pupils back in time to 1642, where two costumed interpreters play the roles of Puritan Adam Wright and Bishop Richard Hyde. They will lead your pupils, who will either be Royalists or Puritans, in an inspiring debate on the causes of the civil wars. In order to help pupils prepare for their part in the debate, a pack of preparation materials and teacher´s notes are available online at: http://www.learningcurve.gov.uk/workshops/civilwar.htm. This pack includes copies of original documents and simplified transcripts, on which pupils can base their arguments. Pupils will gain an understanding of these documents, and their use as evidence for the causes of the civil wars. During the videoconference, they will also have the unrivalled chance to view the original petition and notes from King Charles I´s trial!
A scene of native inhabitants, form Jean Barbot’s, Journal depicting life in Africa in 1688, Catalogue reference: ADM 7/830B This videoconference introduces pupils to some of the fascinating documents held at the archives, relating to the British transatlantic Slave Trade and its abolition. For the first part of the videoconference, the Education officer will show pupils images taken from the Barbot Journals of 1681. They will be encouraged to discuss what we can learn about Africa before the transatlantic slave trade. Pupils will then go on to look at documents taken from Colonial and Treasury records, to consider why and how the trade expanded. For the final part of the session, pupils will discuss resistance and rebellion amongst the enslaved. They will be given the opportunity to study the story of Jan Zwart, a slave from the island of Berbice (British Guiana) and his experience of being sold and separated from his family. A pack of preparation materials will be sent to you in advance of the session.
Your students will share one hour in the life of a soldier from a Pals Battalion, Private Henry Fairhurst, played by a costumed actor, as he talks about why he joined up and what life is like in the trenches. Your students are encouraged to engage with the soldier during the workshop and ask him any questions they like about his life in the trenches: from what he thinks about the war; the aims of the conflict and how it is being fought; to the time he wakes up in the morning; and what he does in his free time. Was it really all mud and blood in the trenches, or did Pte Fairhurst see some benefits in what he was doing? A range of original documents from the National Archives is used as evidence for his story, such as battalion war diaries, trench maps and soldiers' files. Students can use the information they have gained during the workshop to complete a profile of Pte Fairhurst and fill in replicas of the documents we hold about him. As a follow up to this workshop, students will be encouraged to think about the usefulness and reliability of this form of historical interpretation as a piece of evidence, by considering what sources and information the actor used to recreate this role. A pack of preparation materials with suggestions for questions to ask and copies of Pte Fairhurst's documents will be sent to you in advance of the session.
One of the 'Jack the Ripper' letters This videoconference workshop is designed for those taking the Edexcel GCSE coursework option on Jack the Ripper. Preparation materials for this workshop are available on our website www.learningcurve.gov.uk/workshops/jacktheripper.htm If you have problems downloading the pack, please contact us and we will send you a copy. Through a study of original correspondence taken from the Metropolitan Police Letter Books and the 'Jack the Ripper' letters held here at the National Archives, students will investigate why the police were unable to catch the murderer. They will research the different methods employed by the police in their efforts to apprehend Jack the Ripper, as well as those suggested by members of the public, to question whether or not the police were to blame for not bringing him (or her!) to justice. The 'Jack the Ripper' letters will also be examined to understand the impact they had on the police investigation of the case and what they reveal about society´s attitudes to the murders. In addition to this, students will examine original census returns from 1881 to build up a picture of Whitechapel at the time of the murders and consider how this evidence can also help us to understand the difficulties faced by police in their investigations into the case.
The following are workshops that we have adapted for videoconferencing in response to requests from teachers. If you would be interested in doing any other workshop from the list of those available for onsite workshops as a videoconference, please contact us on +44 (0) 20 8392 5365 or email education@nationalarchives.gov.uk and we will be happy to discuss this with you.
This workshop is based on a collection of detailed, personal interviews with Chartist prisoners that were made by the Home Office in 1839. Before the workshop, we will send you copies of the interviews, one for each student to read and analyse to find out what they can tell us about individual Chartist's backgrounds, employment history, family, reasons for imprisonment and motivation for becoming a Chartist. During the videoconference the education officer will lead discussion with the students to bring together the results of their research and see if it is possible to identify a typical Chartist, and debate how useful these interviews are as evidence for understanding the motives of Chartists. To conclude the workshop, a selection of documents illustrating various aspects of the Chartist movement will be looked at for group discussion, including original posters advertising Chartist meetings.
The workshop begins with a study of The Suffragette newspaper to see what evidence it provides us with for who was involved in the suffragette movement. Copies of documents used in the workshop will be sent to you in advance for some preparation work, and for reference during the workshop. We then go on to examine photographs of various suffragettes taken by the police for the government. The education officer leading the workshop will discuss what information we can find out about suffragettes from these photographs, and also how reliable they are as evidence - one particularly interesting example lends itself very well to this debate as you will see! Students are then taken through a selection of documents on individual suffragettes and particular incidents to research what methods the suffragettes used, what the government thought of these activities and how they planned to deal with them. The education officer will bring together their findings to debate the use of militant tactics by the suffragettes and whether this helped or hindered their cause.
The workshop begins with an overview of the events of 1933 to establish a context for the document we will examine: a speech delivered by Goebbels to the international press in September 1933. Preparation materials for this workshop are available on our website www.learningcurve.gov.uk/workshops/socialism.htm If you have problems downloading the pack, please contact us and we will send you a copy. During the workshop, the education officer will bring together each group´s findings from their preparation work to help them analyse the speech as a whole and discuss their opinions of the usefulness and reliability of such a document as a piece of evidence. Students will also be asked to discuss how they would have responded to this speech as a journalist from the UK listening to it in 1933, and how useful and reliable they think it is as a piece of evidence for understanding National Socialism and its rise to power. To conclude, some more examples of original National Socialist propaganda that are kept here at the National Archives will be shown and discussed with the students.
KS1: The Great Fire of LondonThis videoconference has the same focus as the onsite session about the Great Fire of London. Pupils are asked to consider how we can find out about an event that has happened beyond living memory? How do they know that the story about the Great Fire is true? The Education Officer leading the session will take pupils through a selection of documents connected with the Great Fire, before asking pupils to decide whether or not the historians have go the story right. A pack of preparation materials will be sent to the teacher in advance of the session. Available: any time of year QCA links: Unit 5: How do we know about the Great Fire of London? KS 2: Victorians: Children in the MinesThis videoconference introduces pupils to a member of the government´s Employment Commission of 1842 (played by a costumed interpreter). As part of the enquiry into how children were treated in the mines, pupils will play the role of Victorian children and will be questioned by the Commissioner about their experiences. A pack of preparation materials will be sent to the teacher in advance of the session, including copies of interviews taken with children by the real employment commission in 1842, and guidance on how to prepare pupils for the session. Available: 25 - 28 March 2008, 23 - 27 June 2008 QCA links: History Unit 11, section 2: What was life like for a poor child in the 1840s? KS 3: Year 7: What is HistoryThis session has been specifically designed for Welsh schools. This videoconference follows the same format as the What is History videoconference, encouraging students to use original documents for historical research. The Welsh census material will be used to discover to what extent a successful quarry town in the nineteenth century has changed over time. Photographs and maps from our collection will also be shown during the videoconference, as the Education Officer guides students through the process of formulating the initial enquiry question, to using and evaluating the sources. Available: any time of year QCA links: History Unit 1: Introductory unit: What´s it all about? |
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