This lesson involves the pupils in detective work, using three crucial sources about the murder of Lord Darnley the husband of Mary Queen of Scots. Pupils can study individual sources and report back to the whole class to answer the mystery.

This lesson features family history documents from the Victorian period. Children can learn how sources can be used to find out things about the past.

The interactive resource invites pupils to become a page at the court of King Henry VIII. The time is 1539, just before Henry’s marriage to his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, and the page has to help the king write to her. This means exploring Hampton Court to find his portable writing desk. There are a series of onscreen prompts to help with the production of the letter. A writing frame has been created to offer an extended and more structured approach to the letter writing task. Visit for the main resource to use with this writing frame.

This lesson can be used with pupils at key stage 2 to support the teaching of Literacy. It focuses on a photograph of a railway accident in 1868.

A lesson plan and resources to learn about what it was like living in a late 19th century mining town.

In 1882, 74 men and boys lost their lives in an explosion at a coal mine. Almost everyone in the small town of Trimdon Grange near Durham lost a father, brother, husband, or grandfather. Source 1 comes from a popular magazine called the Illustrated London News (1882). Source 2 was written by Tommy Armstrong, who was from the region. All the people and events mentioned in the song are real. This lesson combines History and Literacy to ask pupils to consider how a story is told through narrative poetry.

This lesson can be used with key stage 3 pupils. It considers the story of the Rebecca riots through evidence relating to the nature of the movement, the experience of some of those involved and the reaction of the authorities. hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg

Gellir defnyddio’r llun hwn gyda disgyblion cyfnod allweddol 3 ym mlwyddyn 8. Mae’n edrych ar hanes helyntion Beca drwy gyfrwng tystiolaeth ar natur y Mudiad, profiad rhai o’r bobl a oedd yn rhan ohonynt ac ymateb yr awdurdodau. Also available in English

A lesson to teach about the 1833 factory out where children can investigate how the far the act had solved the problems of child labour.

This lesson can be used with key stage 3 pupils in year 9. It looks at the story of the Bussa rebellion on Barbados based on evidence relating to the reaction of the British authorities.

The purpose of this lesson is for pupils to look at some pages from the census and learn how much they can discover about people who lived in the past.

What was Chamberlain trying to do? Chamberlain flew to meet Hitler in September 1938 to resolve the crisis. Three of the documents here are extracts from Chamberlain’s own record of the meeting. The other two documents are useful evidence of the kind of advice Chamberlain was getting at home in Britain.

The lesson considers the story of Thomas Blood and the questions encourage pupils to investigate the sources and try to work out how and why Thomas Blood tried to steal the Crown Jewels.

This lesson could be used as part of a teaching programme for any of the main GCSE modern world history courses for key stage 4 relating to the study of appeasement. The sources allow students to explore some of the main issues in British foreign policy and the importance of not accepting sources at face value.

A lesson focusing on why school dinners were introduced as a way of improving public health. Around the year 1900 there was a lot of concern about the physical state of the people of Britain. Even though there had been tremendous efforts in the late 19th century to provide better public health, housing and education, many children were still no more healthy than they had been back in the 1840s. The new Liberal government elected in 1906 passed various measures to try to deal with this problem. They were particularly concerned to try to improve the health of children. They passed laws to ensure midwives were notified of each new-born baby, they introduced School Medical Examinations and, in 1906, they gave permission for schools to offer meals to their pupils. But what kind of meals? These documents show how one city, Bradford, carried out an experiment to see how the system might operate.

This lesson provides pupils with the opportunity to work with some of the most exciting documents to be released for years. The supporting sources, detail two of the proposed assassination plans that formed part of Operation Foxley.

This lesson plan contains document extracts which are designed to be used in Key Stage 2, probably alongside portrait-study, but can be used for any study of Henry VIII to provide context for the King’s daily life. They add another dimension to the strong sense of personal monarchy which will characterise any study of the Tudors.

Samson Jackson is believed to be one of six Black Africans to have served on the Western Front during the First World War. He changed his name in 1915 from Bulaya Chanda to Samson Jackson. In the 1920s, he started using the name Chief Luale (Luali) for his career on the stage. Bulaya Chanda was born in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) around 1895. He was of the Awemba or Bemba tribe who are a Bantu speaking people found in the north-east corner of Zambia, near the border with Belgian Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo). Use the sources in this lesson to find out more about his fascinating life and how his experiences challenge popular beliefs about the First World War and inter-war period. **Suggested inquiry questions: ** What documents can we use to find out about the life of Bulaya Chanda? How do Bulaya’s experiences challenge popular beliefs about the First World War and inter-war period? What can we discover about leisure and entertainment in the 1920s and 1930s? Connections to the curriculum **Key stage 3 ** Challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world 1901 to the present day: the First World War and the Peace Settlement; the inter-war years. **Key stage 4 ** AQA GCSE History: Depth study: Conflict and tension: the First World War, 1894–1918 Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people: c790 to the present day

What do the sources reveal about an early Black presence in Britain? Black people have lived in Britain for over two thousand years. Some came to Britain with the Roman invasion in 43CE and they became an important part of British society throughout the medieval ages and beyond. Evidence shows that Black people joined the armed forces, married in parish churches, made significant contributions to art and writing, and resisted and challenged the repressive laws of the day. We cannot tell the history of Britain without including their stories. In the early years of the First World War, many Caribbean men bought tickets to sail to Britain to join the army. The British West Indies Regiment was created, playing an important role in the conflict. Men from Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and other parts of Africa, also fought for Britain. At the end of the war, many African and Caribbean soldiers decided to stay in Britain to make it their permanent home. Race riots broke out in parts of the country during the early months of 1919, as some white communities blamed black people for the shortage of work and housing caused by the war. During the Second World War, black people from across the Commonwealth fought for Britain once more. Some were soldiers, whilst others came to support work on the Homefront such as factory production and nursing. After the war, Britain needed to be re-built. By 1948, the Nationality Act was passed; allowing people from British colonies the right to live and work in Britain if they wanted. Other people from Europe were also invited to Britain. Many people from the Caribbean left their homes to begin a new life in Britain, bringing with them a wide range of skills. They filled jobs in the transport system, postal service and health service, helping Britain to re-build and recover. These people are often called the ‘Windrush Generation’, named after the ship ‘The Empire Windrush’ that docked at Tilbury in June 1948. Windrush was not the first ship to bring Caribbean migrants to Britain; the Ormonde and Almanzora had arrived in Southampton the year before. Between 1947 and 1970, nearly half a million people left their homes in the Caribbean to live in Britain.

Learning about the story of the Empire Windrush The National Archives has created some resources for you to use in your classroom with our video to remember the story of the Windrush generation. In the video, pupils take a historical journey from early times to the 1960s. They start with evidence of a Black presence in Britain from earlier migrations and explore the story of the Empire Windrush with other documents from The National Archives. Why did people leave their homes in the Caribbean to come to Britain? What was it like when they arrived? How were they treated then and in the years that followed? Historical sources also include music and some original footage from the period. We hope that the commentary and documents will encourage your pupils to explore the past and ask questions about how this Caribbean immigration changed life in Britain. Before watching the video, we advise teachers discuss the meaning of such terms as: blitz, immigrant, commonwealth, British Empire, colony, colour prejudice, inequality, discrimination, and colour bar. Please note that some of the language and terms used in the documents in video are not appropriate or acceptable today. The documents cover sensitive subjects. We suggest that teachers look at the material carefully before introducing to pupils. In April 2017 the British Government apologised for its treatment of the Windrush generation. Some people were told that they lived here illegally and faced deportation from the country. There was widespread shock at the impact on the lives of many Black Britons, and this became known as the Windrush Scandal. Approach of Video In such a short video it is not possible to present a detailed account of the Windrush story and its impact. Therefore, we highlight the story through four key documents, these include extracts from a government information pamphlet about Britain created for a Caribbean audience, a telegram about the passengers on the ‘Empire Windrush’, extracts from a housing report in the 1960s and a photograph of the Notting Hill Carnival. We hope teachers will explore the topic further using our lessons with original documents and activities to deepen understanding of events raise questions for discussion and consider the nature of evidence. Resources: All resources include teacher’s notes, background information, document captions, transcripts, and some have simplified transcripts. There are four connected lessons to this video which can be found in our shop.