Medieval England: The Making of the Feudal System

This is a fully resourced KS3 (11-14 years) unit of work that seeks to bring medieval England to life. It explores the Norman Conquest and how the Normans established and maintained power after their invasion in 1066. It firstly examines England before 1066, the rivals for the English throne in 1066, and the battles that took place in 1066. It goes on to examine how power was established and maintained through castles, terror (the Harrying of the North), and, most importantly, through the feudal system. Through varied and imaginative activities, the unit looks to develop students’ source skills. The unit contains many activities to scaffold these skills and two source based formative assessments.

These lessons will be easily scaffolded and differentiated.

In total this should work out as a term’s lessons if KS3 classes are seen once a week.

This unit can be used alongside a second unit - the Unmaking of the Feudal System - which explores the injustices of the system and how it began to be challenged in the later medieval period.

A zip folder is included to demonstrate the order of the lessons.

This unit is part of a bigger KS3 scheme of work which looks to measure the nature of change on a spectrum of change. Due to this, I have also included a lesson on the nature of change to allow students to get the most out of the lessons.