A superb homework task for students studying the Black Death. Students download this booklet and answer the questions in it while exploring the free to play Black Death RPG game found at Wolsey Academy’s website (just Google us) There are 4 separate mini games each one focusses on a different aspect of the Black Death Causes Symptoms Treatments Consequences These activities have proven wildly popular in every school that has adopted them. Hope it helps. Wolsey Academy, a non-profit resource provider, directs all profits to various charities, including refugee support, youth sports, educational programs, and carbon capture, achieving a carbon-negative status. Explore our site for resources and free history role-playing games loved by students. Thank you for your dedication to teaching and for supporting our mission.

A fully resourced and innovative lesson looking at Medieval Life in Europe. The focus is on the life of peasants, the nobility and the role of the church. It has been used with incredible success for many years to high school students across Europe, America and Asia. The centre piece of the lesson is the use of the Medieval Life History Role Playing Game which is free to play and is hosted (along with other such games) at Wolsey Academy (Google us) if you do not already include these games in your curriculum then it is never too late! The learning episodes for this lesson are as follows: Recap on prior-learning activity Straight into the game world – complete the table in the resources section as students explore the medieval village online. Peer Assistance Task (Cops and Robbers stealing…) 14 comprehension questions with stretch task. Villein and Church Crucial Info Class discussions Source-Based Activity – Use the 6 source cards to add further notes to their game tables. Back to the future activity. Write an account of a time traveler’s experience spending a day in a medieval village, use all of the ten keywords. Peer recap and revisit the initial task. Blooket quiz using the 10 REVISION FLASH CARDS in the resources to help prepare students! Hope it helps! Wolsey Academy, a non-profit resource provider, directs all profits to various charities, including refugee support, youth sports, educational programs, and carbon capture, achieving a carbon-negative status. Explore our site for resources and free history role-playing games loved by students. Thank you for your dedication to teaching and for supporting our mission.

This is from a Guided Reading Activity from a set of 24 that makes up 4 separate guided reading challenges designed for 4 year groups in KS3 and 4. Each extract is from one of the SPEARS topics (Social, Political, Economic, Armed Conflict, Religious and Science). All are available at Wolsey Academy Guided Reading is an activity in which students are given an extract (2-4 pages-ish) from a real history book. They have to read through it and annotate it, with a ‘subtitle’ and 1-2 bullet points of key details of each paragraph. At the end there is space for students to write a summary of their learning from the extract. The extracts are as follows: Year 7: Social – Women in Roman Society – Mary Beard, SPQR (article) Political – Norman Control of England – Marc Morris, The Norman Conquest Economics – Aksum Empire – Martin Meredith, The Fortunes of Africa (article) Armed Conflict - Battle of Hastings – Marc Morris, Anglo-Saxons Religious – Islamic Medicine – Firas Alkhateeb, Lost Islamic History (article) Science – Black Death Contagion Theories – Benedict Gummer, The Scourging Angel Year 8: Social – Poverty & Marriage in Industrial Britain – Emma Griffen, Liberty’s Dawn Political – Peterloo Massacre – E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (article) Economic – The Great Exhibition – Ben Wilson, Heyday Armed Conflict – East Indian Company & Sepoys – William Dalrymple, Anarchy Religious – Christianity in The New World – Mark Steward, Great Expeditions Science – Chicago and the Mid-West – William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, Year 9: Social – Migration to Britain – Sathnam Sanghera, Empireland Politics – The Rise of Stalin – Frank Dikotter, Dictators Economic – The Rise of Germany – Katja Hoyer, Blood and Iron Armed Conflict – Japan’s invasion of China – Rana Mitter, China’s War with Japan Religious – Indian Partition – Barney White-Spunner, Partition Science – Naval Technology – Robert Masse, Dreadnought. KS4: Social – Youth in Nazi Germany – Julia Boyd, A Village in the Third Reich Politics – USA and post war Europe – Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War Economics – Inflation ion Weimar Germany – Richard J Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich Armed Conflict – Rolling Thunder – Max Hastings, Vietnam Religious – USSR and Religion – Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin. Science – A Bomb Development – Pap Ndiaye, Nylon and Bombs Download them all at once at Wolsey Academy Wolsey Academy is a non-profit, with every penny we make from the sale of resources going to one of our charity partners (Detailed at our website) If you have yet to hear of us, please do visit our site and try the free to play and study Medieval Free Roaming RPG games which students find brilliantly engaging and spice up your lessons/homework activities. Hope it helps.

This is from a Guided Reading Activity from a set of 24 that makes up 4 separate guided reading challenges designed for 4 year groups in KS3 and 4. Each extract is from one of the SPEARS topics (Social, Political, Economic, Armed Conflict, Religious and Science). All are available at Wolsey Academy. Guided Reading is an activity in which students are given an extract (2-4 pages-ish) from a real history book. They have to read through it and annotate it, with a ‘subtitle’ and 1-2 bullet points of key details of each paragraph. At the end there is space for students to write a summary of their learning from the extract. The extracts are as follows: Year 7: Social – Women in Roman Society – Mary Beard, SPQR (article) Political – Norman Control of England – Marc Morris, The Norman Conquest Economics – Aksum Empire – Martin Meredith, The Fortunes of Africa (article) Armed Conflict - Battle of Hastings – Marc Morris, Anglo-Saxons Religious – Islamic Medicine – Firas Alkhateeb, Lost Islamic History (article) Science – Black Death Contagion Theories – Benedict Gummer, The Scourging Angel Year 8: Social – Poverty & Marriage in Industrial Britain – Emma Griffen, Liberty’s Dawn Political – Peterloo Massacre – E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (article) Economic – The Great Exhibition – Ben Wilson, Heyday Armed Conflict – East Indian Company & Sepoys – William Dalrymple, Anarchy Religious – Christianity in The New World – Mark Steward, Great Expeditions Science – Chicago and the Mid-West – William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, Year 9: Social – Migration to Britain – Sathnam Sanghera, Empireland Politics – The Rise of Stalin – Frank Dikotter, Dictators Economic – The Rise of Germany – Katja Hoyer, Blood and Iron Armed Conflict – Japan’s invasion of China – Rana Mitter, China’s War with Japan Religious – Indian Partition – Barney White-Spunner, Partition Science – Naval Technology – Robert Masse, Dreadnought. KS4: Social – Youth in Nazi Germany – Julia Boyd, A Village in the Third Reich Politics – USA and post war Europe – Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War Economics – Inflation ion Weimar Germany – Richard J Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich Armed Conflict – Rolling Thunder – Max Hastings, Vietnam Religious – USSR and Religion – Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin. Science – A Bomb Development – Pap Ndiaye, Nylon and Bombs Wolsey Academy is a non-profit, with every penny we make from the sale of resources going to one of our charity partners (Detailed at our website (Google us). If you have yet to hear of us, please do visit our site and try the free to play and study Medieval Free Roaming RPG games which students find brilliantly engaging and spice up your lessons/homework activities. Hope it helps.

This is from a Guided Reading Activity from a set of 24 that makes up 4 separate guided reading challenges designed for 4 year groups in KS3 and 4. Each extract is from one of the SPEARS topics (Social, Political, Economic, Armed Conflict, Religious and Science). All are available at Wolsey Academy. Guided Reading is an activity in which students are given an extract (2-4 pages-ish) from a real history book. They have to read through it and annotate it, with a ‘subtitle’ and 1-2 bullet points of key details of each paragraph. At the end there is space for students to write a summary of their learning from the extract. The extracts are as follows: Year 7: Social – Women in Roman Society – Mary Beard, SPQR (article) Political – Norman Control of England – Marc Morris, The Norman Conquest Economics – Aksum Empire – Martin Meredith, The Fortunes of Africa (article) Armed Conflict - Battle of Hastings – Marc Morris, Anglo-Saxons Religious – Islamic Medicine – Firas Alkhateeb, Lost Islamic History (article) Science – Black Death Contagion Theories – Benedict Gummer, The Scourging Angel Year 8: Social – Poverty & Marriage in Industrial Britain – Emma Griffen, Liberty’s Dawn Political – Peterloo Massacre – E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (article) Economic – The Great Exhibition – Ben Wilson, Heyday Armed Conflict – East Indian Company & Sepoys – William Dalrymple, Anarchy Religious – Christianity in The New World – Mark Steward, Great Expeditions Science – Chicago and the Mid-West – William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, Year 9: Social – Migration to Britain – Sathnam Sanghera, Empireland Politics – The Rise of Stalin – Frank Dikotter, Dictators Economic – The Rise of Germany – Katja Hoyer, Blood and Iron Armed Conflict – Japan’s invasion of China – Rana Mitter, China’s War with Japan Religious – Indian Partition – Barney White-Spunner, Partition Science – Naval Technology – Robert Masse, Dreadnought. KS4: Social – Youth in Nazi Germany – Julia Boyd, A Village in the Third Reich Politics – USA and post war Europe – Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War Economics – Inflation ion Weimar Germany – Richard J Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich Armed Conflict – Rolling Thunder – Max Hastings, Vietnam Religious – USSR and Religion – Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin. Science – A Bomb Development – Pap Ndiaye, Nylon and Bombs Download them all at once at WolseyAcacdemy~com Wolsey Academy is a non-profit, with every penny we make from the sale of resources going to one of our charity partners (Detailed at our website) If you have yet to hear of us, please do visit our site and try the free to play and study Medieval Free Roaming RPG games which students find brilliantly engaging and spice up your lessons/homework activities. Hope it helps.

5 Activity Booklets that allow students to work through the excellent History Free Roam RPG games found at wolseyacademy historyworlds. This innovative games that allow students to walk the streets of historical periods, talking to characters from the time while completing activity booklets that build on/prepare them for their lessons have proven extremely popular. The five games are: 1066 Battle of Hastings and Norman Invasion Thomas Becket King John Medieval Life Black Death Wolsey Academy’s mission is to share great resources to improve teaching and engagement. Wolsey Academy, a non-profit resource provider, directs all profits to various charities, including refugee support, youth sports, educational programs, and carbon capture, achieving a carbon-negative status. Explore our site for resources and free history role-playing games loved by students. Thank you for your dedication to teaching and for supporting our mission. We hope they help.

A short PowerPoint designed to help students and teachers use and play the incredible free game at Wolsey Academy The game allows students to explore a medieval village, talking to the people and completing a grid. Wolsey Academy, a non-profit resource provider, directs all profits to various charities, including refugee support, youth sports, educational programs, and carbon capture, achieving a carbon-negative status. Explore our site for resources and free history role-playing games loved by students. Thank you for your dedication to teaching and for supporting our mission. We hope it helps.

1 of 22 lessons that together teach the entire Vietnam Conflict, 1945-1975. Ideal for all specifications. Each lesson comes with a range of activities, flash cards for revision and assessments and checks throughout. Almost all include a written assessment with guidance and activities that ask students to consider a range of different historical interpretations of the events. All resources needed for the lesson are self-contained within the PowerPoint with printer friendly versions ready to go. The lessons are as follows: Vietnam Overview and Timeline Colonial Vietnam General Giap Dien Bien Phu 1954 Geneva Accords 1954 Domino Theory & McCarthyism Ho Chi Minh The Vietcong Strategic Hamlet Program Overthrow of Diem 1963 Gulf of Tonkin Incident 1964 Vietcong Tactics US Tactics Khe Sanh, Tet & Hue Nixon Doctrine & Vietnamization Opposition to the War – Media & Atrocities My Lai Massacre 1968 Opposition to the War – Students, Kent State and the Draft Support for the War – Hard Hats Peace and the Fall of Saigon 1975 Why did the US Fail? 80 Flashcards Wolsey Academy is a non-profit with every penny we make going to good causes, see our website, Wolsey Academy (Google us), for more information and to access free History games and lots more resources. Hope it helps. W.

2 of 22 lessons that together teach the entire Vietnam Conflict, 1945-1975. Ideal for all specifications. Each lesson comes with a range of activities, flash cards for revision and assessments and checks throughout. Almost all include a written assessment with guidance and activities that ask students to consider a range of different historical interpretations of the events. All resources needed for the lesson are self-contained within the PowerPoint with printer friendly versions ready to go. The lessons are as follows: Vietnam Overview and Timeline Colonial Vietnam General Giap Dien Bien Phu 1954 Geneva Accords 1954 Domino Theory & McCarthyism Ho Chi Minh The Vietcong Strategic Hamlet Program Overthrow of Diem 1963 Gulf of Tonkin Incident 1964 Vietcong Tactics US Tactics Khe Sanh, Tet & Hue Nixon Doctrine & Vietnamization Opposition to the War – Media & Atrocities My Lai Massacre 1968 Opposition to the War – Students, Kent State and the Draft Support for the War – Hard Hats Peace and the Fall of Saigon 1975 Why did the US Fail? 80 Flashcards Wolsey Academy is a non-profit with every penny we make going to good causes, see our website, Wolsey Academy (Google us), for more information and to access free History games and lots more resources. Hope it helps. W.

3 of 22 lessons that together teach the entire Vietnam Conflict, 1945-1975. Ideal for all specifications. Each lesson comes with a range of activities, flash cards for revision and assessments and checks throughout. Almost all include a written assessment with guidance and activities that ask students to consider a range of different historical interpretations of the events. All resources needed for the lesson are self-contained within the PowerPoint with printer friendly versions ready to go. The lessons are as follows: Vietnam Overview and Timeline Colonial Vietnam General Giap Dien Bien Phu 1954 Geneva Accords 1954 Domino Theory & McCarthyism Ho Chi Minh The Vietcong Strategic Hamlet Program Overthrow of Diem 1963 Gulf of Tonkin Incident 1964 Vietcong Tactics US Tactics Khe Sanh, Tet & Hue Nixon Doctrine & Vietnamization Opposition to the War – Media & Atrocities My Lai Massacre 1968 Opposition to the War – Students, Kent State and the Draft Support for the War – Hard Hats Peace and the Fall of Saigon 1975 Why did the US Fail? 80 Flashcards Wolsey Academy is a non-profit with every penny we make going to good causes, see our website, Wolsey Academy (Google us), for more information and to access free History games and lots more resources. Hope it helps. W.

This is from a Guided Reading Activity from a set of 24 that makes up 4 separate guided reading challenges designed for 4 year groups in KS3 and 4. Each extract is from one of the SPEARS topics (Social, Political, Economic, Armed Conflict, Religious and Science). All are available at Wolsey Academy. Guided Reading is an activity in which students are given an extract (2-4 pages-ish) from a real history book. They have to read through it and annotate it, with a ‘subtitle’ and 1-2 bullet points of key details of each paragraph. At the end there is space for students to write a summary of their learning from the extract. The extracts are as follows: Year 7: Social – Women in Roman Society – Mary Beard, SPQR (article) Political – Norman Control of England – Marc Morris, The Norman Conquest Economics – Aksum Empire – Martin Meredith, The Fortunes of Africa (article) Armed Conflict - Battle of Hastings – Marc Morris, Anglo-Saxons Religious – Islamic Medicine – Firas Alkhateeb, Lost Islamic History (article) Science – Black Death Contagion Theories – Benedict Gummer, The Scourging Angel Year 8: Social – Poverty & Marriage in Industrial Britain – Emma Griffen, Liberty’s Dawn Political – Peterloo Massacre – E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (article) Economic – The Great Exhibition – Ben Wilson, Heyday Armed Conflict – East Indian Company & Sepoys – William Dalrymple, Anarchy Religious – Christianity in The New World – Mark Steward, Great Expeditions Science – Chicago and the Mid-West – William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, Year 9: Social – Migration to Britain – Sathnam Sanghera, Empireland Politics – The Rise of Stalin – Frank Dikotter, Dictators Economic – The Rise of Germany – Katja Hoyer, Blood and Iron Armed Conflict – Japan’s invasion of China – Rana Mitter, China’s War with Japan Religious – Indian Partition – Barney White-Spunner, Partition Science – Naval Technology – Robert Masse, Dreadnought. KS4: Social – Youth in Nazi Germany – Julia Boyd, A Village in the Third Reich Politics – USA and post war Europe – Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War Economics – Inflation ion Weimar Germany – Richard J Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich Armed Conflict – Rolling Thunder – Max Hastings, Vietnam Religious – USSR and Religion – Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin. Science – A Bomb Development – Pap Ndiaye, Nylon and Bombs Download them all at once at Wolsey Academy Wolsey Academy is a non-profit, with every penny we make from the sale of resources going to one of our charity partners (Details at our website). If you have yet to hear of us, please do visit our site and try the free to play and study Medieval Free Roaming RPG games which students find brilliantly engaging and spice up your lessons/homework activities. Hope it helps.

This is from a Guided Reading Activity from a set of 24 that makes up 4 separate guided reading challenges designed for 4 year groups in KS3 and 4. Each extract is from one of the SPEARS topics (Social, Political, Economic, Armed Conflict, Religious and Science). All are available at Wolsey Academy. Guided Reading is an activity in which students are given an extract (2-4 pages-ish) from a real history book. They have to read through it and annotate it, with a ‘subtitle’ and 1-2 bullet points of key details of each paragraph. At the end there is space for students to write a summary of their learning from the extract. The extracts are as follows: Year 7: Social – Women in Roman Society – Mary Beard, SPQR (article) Political – Norman Control of England – Marc Morris, The Norman Conquest Economics – Aksum Empire – Martin Meredith, The Fortunes of Africa (article) Armed Conflict - Battle of Hastings – Marc Morris, Anglo-Saxons Religious – Islamic Medicine – Firas Alkhateeb, Lost Islamic History (article) Science – Black Death Contagion Theories – Benedict Gummer, The Scourging Angel Year 8: Social – Poverty & Marriage in Industrial Britain – Emma Griffen, Liberty’s Dawn Political – Peterloo Massacre – E.P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class (article) Economic – The Great Exhibition – Ben Wilson, Heyday Armed Conflict – East Indian Company & Sepoys – William Dalrymple, Anarchy Religious – Christianity in The New World – Mark Steward, Great Expeditions Science – Chicago and the Mid-West – William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis, Year 9: Social – Migration to Britain – Sathnam Sanghera, Empireland Politics – The Rise of Stalin – Frank Dikotter, Dictators Economic – The Rise of Germany – Katja Hoyer, Blood and Iron Armed Conflict – Japan’s invasion of China – Rana Mitter, China’s War with Japan Religious – Indian Partition – Barney White-Spunner, Partition Science – Naval Technology – Robert Masse, Dreadnought. KS4: Social – Youth in Nazi Germany – Julia Boyd, A Village in the Third Reich Politics – USA and post war Europe – Odd Arne Westad, The Cold War Economics – Inflation ion Weimar Germany – Richard J Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich Armed Conflict – Rolling Thunder – Max Hastings, Vietnam Religious – USSR and Religion – Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin. Science – A Bomb Development – Pap Ndiaye, Nylon and Bombs If you have yet to hear of us, please do visit our site and try the free to play and study Medieval Free Roaming RPG games which students find brilliantly engaging and spice up your lessons/homework activities. Hope it helps.

Get your day off to a great start with a settled tutor session or a fun class reward activity. Also included is a bonus literacy question and an extension task that sees the pupils’ write a paragraph on the topic! Ideal for quick History lesson recaps as well. 11 Presidents - starting with Trump and working our way backwards to JFK. Hope it helps. Have you tried one of Wolsey Academy’s Learning Worlds yet? Our Learning Worlds make for engaging homework and class tasks. Pupils take on the role of a protagonist and relive key historical or fictional events. From 1066 to the modern day. From Shakespeare to Orwell. We’re making Learning Worlds to cover them all - and plenty more besides. Told in a format pupils love they complete the tasks at home and come to class equipped with a completed taskbook – ready to delve deeper into the analysis and debate.

This lesson on the Windrush Generation explores the arrival of Caribbean migrants to Britain on the SS Empire Windrush in 1948. It examines the push and pull factors for migration, such as post-war labor shortages in Britain and economic difficulties in the Caribbean. Students analyze the challenges faced by the migrants, including racial discrimination and housing issues, and their cultural contributions to British society. Activities include watching and analyzing a video, discussing a case study, identifying push and pull factors, completing a pre-printed activity sheet, and participating in quizzes to reinforce key concepts and historical context. Wolsey Academy is a non-profit resource creator. Every penny we make goes to one of our partner charities – from space science education to local sports teams to carbon capture. Please help us, help you, help them by checking out our website and making use of our free and premium resources. We have over 1000 resources covering History, Business, IT, Geography and English. As a special offer to those with an interest in the Windrush Generation and their history please use the code ‘WINDRUSH’ to get 50% all resources at the our store. Search for Wolsey Academy on Google. Thank you and we hope it helps.

Industrial Revolution: From a Scheme of Work on the Industrial Revolution. Target is KS3 but all assessments throughout are GCSE and use Edexcel criteria. Each lesson contains a lesson plan, quick start guide, printable resources, mini plenaries, challenge questions, mark schemes, writing frames, lots of differentiation, a nice mix of activity types and a lesson specific EAL activity sheet. There are 14 lessons in total, but each lesson has enough material to last 2 or 3 lessons for even high ability classes. Most lessons include some high-level source analysis. The lessons also include a link to a site hosting a self-marking End of Unit quiz and a revision guide which make for nice homework activities. The SOW has been used for several years (with continual updates and improvements) at a very successful History department in an outstanding school. If used at KS3 it also acts as a grounding for any History of Medicine modules they might encounter at KS4 (hence the focus on public health and inventions). The SOW covers the following topics: Introduction to the Industrial Revolution (free) Population Boom (free) Factories Coal Mining Transport Robert Stephenson Industrial Revolution inventors Child Labour Public Health Problems Public Health Solutions & Government Intervention Source Question on the Big Stink Luddites British Empire Source Question on Empire Revision Guide & EAL activities. WolseyAcademy.com, a non-profit resource provider, directs all profits to various charities, including refugee support, youth sports, educational programs, and carbon capture, achieving a carbon-negative status. Explore our site for resources and free history role-playing games loved by students. Thank you for your dedication to teaching and for supporting our mission. Hope it helps.

Industrial Revolution: From a Scheme of Work on the Industrial Revolution. Target is KS3 but all assessments throughout are GCSE and use Edexcel criteria. Each lesson contains a lesson plan, quick start guide, printable resources, mini plenaries, challenge questions, mark schemes, writing frames, lots of differentiation, a nice mix of activity types and a lesson specific EAL activity sheet. There are 14 lessons in total, but each lesson has enough material to last 2 or 3 lessons for even high ability classes. Most lessons include some high-level source analysis. The lessons also include a link to a site hosting a self-marking End of Unit quiz and a revision guide which make for nice homework activities. The SOW has been used for several years (with continual updates and improvements) at a very successful History department in an outstanding school. If used at KS3 it also acts as a grounding for any History of Medicine modules they might encounter at KS4 (hence the focus on public health and inventions). The SOW covers the following topics: Introduction to the Industrial Revolution (free) Population Boom (free) Factories Coal Mining Transport Robert Stephenson Industrial Revolution inventors Child Labour Public Health Problems Public Health Solutions & Government Intervention Source Question on the Big Stink Luddites British Empire Source Question on Empire Revision Guide & EAL activities. WolseyAcademy.com, a non-profit resource provider, directs all profits to various charities, including refugee support, youth sports, educational programs, and carbon capture, achieving a carbon-negative status. Explore our site for resources and free history role-playing games loved by students. Thank you for your dedication to teaching and for supporting our mission. Hope it helps.

Overview: This lesson covers innovations in video game consoles from 1961 onwards. It has a relay activity followed by a written paragraph with peer assessments. Complete with differentiation sheets, plenaries, starters, lesson plan and pedagogy justifications. Cardinal’s Corner: Do not be deceived. This is an incredibly rich and well written book. Yes, it is about video games. But that does not in any way detract from its quality as a piece of writing. The author, David Sheff, is famed for having done one of the last interviews with John Lennon and his articles have appeared in all sorts of publications. It is essentially a history of one of the most culturally important companies of the late twentieth (and early twenty first) century. Nintendo as a company is over a hundred years old and the stories goes right back to its early days in Kyoto as a maker of card games (I’ve actually been lucky enough to visit their original office when on vacation). I got this book free with a computer game magazine when I was in high school. I read it all in about a week – not bad for a 13 year old kid. When I came to re-read it as an adult I found it equally as fascinating and if pushed I would say this was probably my favourite book of all time. It is oozing with anecdotes and provides a depth of historical contexts – from how the Nintendo company survived the second world war to a Cold War legal battle with the Soviet Union over the video game rights to Tetris. A fascinating read – and one that be found on pdf here. Video games are a hugely important part of our recent culture, they’re something that all our pupils are familiar with and they provide a hugely important learning tool. Even commercial games are uniquely powerful at teaching children. I was once astonished in one of my worst Year 9 classes when a child started talking with some confidence about the work of Leonardo De Vinci and asked, entirely unprompted, “Wasn’t he important during the Renaissance?”. Of course, what had he been playing? Assassins Creed. That same game series incidentally hires historical consultants to get as an accurate picture of the past, in the same way that Hollywood movies do. One of the Assassin Creed games features an accurate model of Colonial Boston – based on maps and drawings of the times – in which the player explores and meets key characters, like Benjamin Franklin. I also, perhaps flippantly, swear that is a good grounding in Civilization 2 that got me my GCSE in History and an unhealthy obsession with Sim City that let me cruise to top grades in GCSE Geography. Games are not to be dismissed as learning tools. Indeed, my hunch is that in the near future games will do most of the teaching for us. Keep checking back at Wolsey Academy’s Learning Worlds page to see how that’s coming along. Hope it helps.

Industrial Revolution: From a Scheme of Work on the Industrial Revolution. Target is KS3 but all assessments throughout are GCSE and use Edexcel criteria. Each lesson contains a lesson plan, quick start guide, printable resources, mini plenaries, challenge questions, mark schemes, writing frames, lots of differentiation, a nice mix of activity types and a lesson specific EAL activity sheet. There are 14 lessons in total, but each lesson has enough material to last 2 or 3 lessons for even high ability classes. Most lessons include some high-level source analysis. The lessons also include a link to a site hosting a self-marking End of Unit quiz and a revision guide which make for nice homework activities. The SOW has been used for several years (with continual updates and improvements) at a very successful History department in an outstanding school. If used at KS3 it also acts as a grounding for any History of Medicine modules they might encounter at KS4 (hence the focus on public health and inventions). The SOW covers the following topics: Introduction to the Industrial Revolution (free) Population Boom (free) Factories Coal Mining Transport Robert Stephenson Industrial Revolution inventors Child Labour Public Health Problems Public Health Solutions & Government Intervention Source Question on the Big Stink Luddites British Empire Source Question on Empire Revision Guide & EAL activities. Wolsey Academy, a non-profit resource provider, directs all profits to various charities, including refugee support, youth sports, educational programs, and carbon capture, achieving a carbon-negative status. Explore our site for resources and free history role-playing games loved by students. Thank you for your dedication to teaching and for supporting our mission. Hope it helps.

Taken from Wolsey Academy’s “Inspired By…” series of lessons. Overview: Why did Britain win the Battle of Britain? Looks at multiple factors surrounding Hitler’s failure to execute Operation Sea Lion – the invasion of Britain. Begins with a relay activity to gather information about the factors, a student led teach roulette activity, followed by a prioritization sort and then a written answer using PEEKA paragraphs. Blog: Many moons ago when studying at the University of Edinburgh I was lucky enough to meet Wallace Cunningham – a real Battle of Britain fighter ace. An incredible man who fought in 19 Squadron flying Spitfires. He was eventually shot down over France and spent three years in a prisoner of war camp (Stalag Luft III – the same camp made famous by the Great Escape). I asked him how he felt about modern day representations of the Battle and he began to talk about the 1969 Battle of Britain feature film starring a tonne of famous actors including a young Michael Caine. It was, and still is, one of my favourite movies but I was expecting him to be unimpressed with the depiction. Instead he said it was brilliant. In the whole thing he could spot only one mistake. Everything else was true to reality. I assume here he was referring to the aircraft and squadron markings rather than the dialogue etc. However, having received validation from no other than a real Spitfire pilot, I have come to love it even more. Aside from the incredible large scale dogfights the film successfully explains many of the factors behind Hitler’s failure (and Britain’s success). This is what this is lesson is largely based on (with some added factors not shown in the film). Three factors are made clear in the film. Firstly, the film is especially good at explaining Hitler’s mistake in switching from the bombing of the airfields to the bombing of the cities – a decision he made just as he had the RAF on its knees. While the poor citizens were enduring the Blitz the RAF were able to rebuild and operate effectively without much harassment to their logistics and airfields. Secondly, it memorably depicts the effectiveness of radar – with RAF chief famously saying they were “praying to God and trusting in radar”. Thirdly it does a fantastic job, now often sadly forgotten, of showing the role that Allied airmen played. The scene of the Polish pilots engaging the Luftwaffe while on a training flight is incredibly moving as it is funny – and it has become a viral hit amongst young Poles today.

Perfect for History Club sessions – or active and creative lessons - at primary or secondary level. Includes information and video about the topics and a fun practical activity (which can often take more than one session to complete). All sessions include a weekly advertising poster for display boards, websites and screens around the school. Also included is a loyalty card for students to claim rewards after attending enough lessons. Designed by Wolsey Academy and tried and tested with secondary students in the UK. Topics are as follows: Ancient Egypt – Drama Production Battle of Trafalgar 1805 – Arts and Craft. Guy Fawkes, 1605 – Gunpowder Hunt. Charles Lindbergh, 1927 – Design & Fly a Plane. Pirates – Make a Movie. Thanksgiving – Fancy Dress and Card Design Benjamin Franklin – Make and fly a Kite. Tudor Christmas – Card Making. Battle of Atlantic – Code Breaking Game Medieval Coat of Arms – Research and Heraldry Making. Brunel – Bridge Building Darwin –Voyage of the Beagle, Art Competition. D-Day – Landing Craft Construction and Testing World Cup History – Kit Designs Battle of Quebec – Crane Construction Angkor Wat – Sunrise Drawings Historical Fashion – Clothing Designs Henry Ford – Assembly Line Competition Roman Army – Shield Design and Battle Tactics Role Play Local History: Ipswich Town Football Club – Badge Design.