The Institute for Outdoor Learning is holding its biannual conference in Leicestershire next month. It will take place at Scalford Hall near Melton Mowbray on October 15 and 16. For more details, go to www.outdoor-learning.org

Low-cost travel

School travel company STS is offering schools the chance to save #163;150 on the cost of their trips by booking before October 22. STS runs a range of holidays from battlefield visits to ski tours. Visit www.ststravel.co.uk

Lessons from Auschwitz

The Holocaust Educational Trust has announced its schedule of trips to Auschwitz this autumn.

The trust has been running its Lessons from Auschwitz programme, which also involves orientation and follow-up seminars for teachers, for the past 12 years and this term will feature six trips, including two for pupils from Scottish schools.

For more information, go to www.lfaproject@org.uk

Educational visit

What the lesson is about

This is part of a unit on crime and punishment linked to a visit to a Victorian prison and using a database of 19th-century crime. It is aimed at key stage 4 pupils.

Aims: pupils will -

- look at the changes and continuity in crime and punishment over time;

- use a database to identify crime patterns;

- compare their findings with their prior knowledge.

Getting started

Ask pupils to familiarise themselves with a database of 19th-century crime and punishment (an example can be found on the link below).

What were the most common types of crime? How did the pattern of crime change over the century? Does the local picture match the national one, and if not, why not?

Invite your class to suggest a hypothesis about patterns of 19th-century crime and then test it against the database.

Taking it further

Use a visit to a Victorian prison as the basis for an examination of punishment.

Get pupils to research the sorts of punishments in use before Victorian times. How did these change during the 19th century? What other sorts of punishment were used as well as prison?

Pupils may also find it interesting to research child prisoners. The sorry story of Henry Catlin, 14, is online. He was deported to Tasmania for stealing 17 pence in 1842.

Where to find it

The original lesson, plus supporting resources, a guide to using local archives and a list of places to visit, was originally uploaded by NEN and can be found at www.tes.co.ukvictorian-crime.