Sunday 23 March 2008




A message for Redbridge and Havering Schools from Rachel Hillman of the National Archives Education Service

If your school is too far away to make a visit to the National Archives, we are able to offer many of our workshops via videoconference (both IP and ISDN). We aim to give students of all ages and abilities (from KS1- KS5), the opportunity to work as real historians with some of the most famous and important original documents in history. Videoconference sessions vary from topics as diverse as the Great Fire of London and the Tudors, to Jack the Ripper and the Rise of National Socialism.

Most of our sessions are led by members of the education service, all of whom are qualified teachers with recent classroom experience. Our ’special event’ videoconferences, held at specific dates in the year, are led by historical interpreters, who base their characters on thorough historical research from the archives. Examples of these sessions include: a videoconference on the First World War, where pupils are given the opportunity to talk to an actor playing the role of Private Henry Fairhurst from a Pals Battalion; a debate style session that takes your students back in time to 1642, where Puritan Adam Wright and Bishop Richard Hyde discuss the causes of the English Civil Wars, and a workshop that introduces pupils to a member of the government’s Employment Commission of 1842 as he gathers evidence of children’s experiences of working in the mines.

A pack of preparation materials is available for many of our videoconferences, and this can either be downloaded from our website The Learning Curve, or sent to you via post. These packs help to encourage discussion and debate during the session.
A full list of the sessions we offer and further information about the National Archives Education Service can be found at:

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