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The National Archives have joined forces with the South East Grid for Learning (SEGfL), English Heritage and the British Film Institute to deliver a powerful new combination of archival materials for schools. Unlocking Archives is a project that encourages teachers to combine different types of archival material for pupils to use in the classroom.
Phase 1 is now online and brings together documents from the Learning Curve, photographs from English Heritage's Heritage Explorer and film from the BFI's Screenonline to provide teachers with an unparalleled online resource for the History and Citizenship classroom at key stages 2-4.
Look out for further updates to this exciting new site over the course of the year. In phase 2, students and teachers will be able to access powerful new tools in order to build their own online resources and presentations from an expanded selection of film clips, photographs and documents.
The Learning Curve is launching its new podcast series with two new podcasts. In the first, our Past Masters team uses documents from the Archives to follow Charles Darwin aboard HMS Beagle. They'll be finding out about shipboard life in the 1830s and trying to understand how Darwin was influenced by the voyage. In the second Dr. Jane McDermid of the University of Southampton discusses the Stalinist Terror of the 1930s, in a lecture delivered in conjunction with the Historical Association and aimed specifically at Sixth Formers.
Keep an eye on the home page for more details. Over the next few months we will also be covering duelling, UFOs, appeasement and the Treaty of Troyes so there should be something for everyone. Drop us an email if you've got a topic you think we should cover or to tell us what you think about this exciting new series.
The National Archives has joined forces with South East Grid for Learning to redevelop the ever-popular OnFilm section of the Learning Curve and provide an enlarged archive of original film clips with full background information, newly developed classroom activities and a stunning online video-editing tool that will allow students to work directly with the materials.
In December 2007 Focus on Film was shortlisted for a BETT award which recognise excellence in digital learning resources. In January it was announced that the site had won, in the face of stiff competition, the award for Best Digital Content in a non-core subject. Thanks to everyone who came and supported us at the show.
World Cup 1966 - Did England rig the result? 
Forget 2010 and relive the glory days with a look at the year where not England but Brazil failed to qualify to shock across Latin America. This updated and new look snapshot uses Foreign Office documents to look at international reaction to England's victory and is suitable for key stage 3 to 4.
"Say Cheese!" - Queen Victoria's Family Photograph
Revised and updated this classic snapshot now has a fresh look, expanded background, links and guidance for teachers along with a new glimpse into Queen Victoria's later family life.
Learning Curve is changing. From this month we are beginning a year long process of completely redeveloping the site, aiming to make it easier to find things, improve the design and pull in content that in the past has been scattered across the National Archives site. We'll keep you posted on how it's all going.
In the meantime we want your views on the redevelopment. What do you like about the current Learning Curve? What don't you like? How could things be improved? Drop us an email at education@nationalarchives.gov.uk
This Spring we will be launching our massive new Second World War online exhibition. Explore seven theatres of war spanning the whole of the conflict with twenty different investigations for students and hundreds of documents, sound files and film clips.
Mary Mills and Catherine McHarg are the Education Officers at the National Monuments Record; the archives of English Heritage. They are currently working on their brand new educational website Heritage Explorer – Images for Learning. Prior to working at English Heritage Mary was Education Officer at Wolverhampton Archives and Local Studies while Catherine was Education Officer at Wessex Archaeology.
The world of online technology gives teachers and pupils access to a whole range of information at the click of a mouse. It allows teachers to get hold of original archive sources in their own classroom and use them to teach pupils the skills of questioning and interpreting the vast array of material that they are constantly bombarded with.
There is a whole range of inspiring archive sources available to teachers from many different places. Your lessons will be enriched and your pupils motivated if you use these sources to create your own pick and mix of documents from the Learning Curve alongside images, film and other material.
We love the Learning Curve website because of the tremedous range and quality of the documents. One of our favourites is the extract from a War Office document on employment of women in the Royal Flying Corps from April 1917 from the Britain 1906-1918 exhibition. This document lists occupations of women during World War I including welding, electrics and other skilled or physical tasks. It also lays out the role of female managers in the workplace - and their limits! If the existing images in the investigation aren't enough for you there are dozens more examples under the Women at Work theme in Heritage Explorer.
We were really interested in the snapshot 19th Century Mining Accident. We liked the ‘jigsaw’ approach where pupils are asked to assemble a report on the day using a range of sources to find information. One of the strengths of these sources is that they allow pupils to find out more about the people who were involved and this links well with a teaching activity on Heritage Explorer based on a mining memorial listing children who were drowned in a mining accident in the 1830s.
And finally – we would like to mention Unlocking Archives a new website that demonstrates the value of using sources from a number of different organisations combining as it does documents, images and film from the National Archives, British Film Institute and Heritage Explorer.
March
6th March 1957: Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah declares Ghanaian independence. In and out of prison at the beginning of the decade, Nkrumah's massive popularity ensured his victory over British colonial authorities. See film of the reaction to his release in 1951.
23rd March 1919: Benito Mussolini founds the Italian Combat Squad (Fasci Italiani di Combattimento) with 200 members. In less than six years he was absolute ruler of Italy. But why did he then decide to invade Abyssinia?
April
14th April 1816: A major uprising in Barbados as enslaved Africans rise up against British planters. What was Bussa's rebellion?
15th April 1912: In the early hours of the morning, the Titanic slips beneath the waters of the Atlantic. Who was on board?
23rd April 1616: Death of William Shakespeare. Despite writing at least 40 plays and hundreds of poems, almost nothing written in Shakespeare's own hand survives and he remains a shadowy figure outside his works. Can National Archives documents shed light on the life of the Bard?
May
13th May 1839: Prize-Fighter Thomas Rees leads an attack on the turnpike toll gate at Efailwen in Pembrokeshire. Dressed in women's clothes, Rees' attack becomes known as the first of the Rebecca riots. Where did they get their name?
31st May 1916: The Battle of Jutland begins, the largest naval engagement of WWI. Dozens of ships were sunk but neither side gained a decisive advantage. Did the British blunder?
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For a free guide on Learning Curve and ICT in history, download our updated Teacher’s booklet.
