Click here for the Resource Pack

EDUCATIONAL AIMS

Through a combination of costumed interpretation, hands on activities and role play, we aim to develop a knowledge and understanding of poverty and its effects on people in Britain during the 19^th and 20^th century.

By exploring this unique building within their local community, pupils will have the opportunity to learn about; ideas beliefs and attitudes of society and links between poverty and homelessness. They will experience activities designed around the visit  showing the paupers way of life and the treatment and education a child from the workhouse  received at the time.

The Educational games and activities provided cover a cross-curricular field. Teaching staff are encouraged to visit beforehand to discuss their subject area and negotiate the appropriate learning experience which would best suit their group.
 

CURRICULUM LINKS at key stages, 2  and 3.

History
Local history and buildings. Attitudes of society and its consequences. The historical background leading to decisions made to enforce poor laws. Trades, professions and families in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. 

English
Writers from the period and their contributions to our knowledge of the workhouses.
Learning through role play, drama and character interpretation. Reading and writing with the vocabulary used at the time.

Mathematics
Making connections with the way Mathematics was taught and learnt during this period. Recognising and working with different number patterns and multiples. Using ’real-life’ money, weights and measures from the past.

Personal Social and Health Education
Values, customs and issues affecting society during the 19^th and 20^th century. Jobs, skills, rules and laws. Education and Health problems relating to society and circumstances. Family support, child education and welfare.

Religious Education and Citizenship
Human rights, fairness and social justice. A range of human experiences, lifestyles  and emotions in this setting. The part religion played in the education of workhouse children. Environmental issues. Needs and wants, then and now.

Geography
Investigating the local area and environment today. Topical Geographical issues. Discovering and relating to maps, plans and photographs of the surrounding area in Victorian times.

Art and Design
The use of visual images of the period to develop ideas. Sights sounds and smells as stimuli for creative work. A range of crafts and ‘make-do’ activities from the past.

CURRICULUM LINKS at Key Stage 1

The above curriculum links apply, however the emphasis is more on a cross-curricular experience within the tour, followed by a choice of activities and games in the education room.

Children are encouraged to ask questions, express opinions and participate both in groups and individually.

The learning experience in the education room will be designed to emulate the schooling a child from a workhouse would have received and the games they played using imagination, surroundings and meagre resources.

6^th Form Projects

Staff and students are sent background information relating to the Spike before their visit. They are given a guided tour around the Spike and participate in the sensory experience which inmates would have lived through.

They are asked to self manage a discussion or debate in the education room around a topic related to their studies. Help can be given on the practicalities of managing the debates, with research beforehand and interactive materials.