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Funded and Managed by
City of London Corporation
The London Archives

History Enquirers learning session

Key Stage 4

How do historians approach and interpret historical documents?

This session provides an excellent opportunity for students to practise and develop their history enquiry skills using a range of documents from The London Archives. Students will examine a variety of document forms such as diaries, correspondence, reports, film and oral histories in order to evaluate how historians, like themselves, can make decisions about the value and importance of different documents. By covering such themes as the New Poor Law, prison, disability and immigrant histories, students will get a sense of how the way in which we choose to approach different documents, can inform the way we interpret and understand the past.

Curriculum links:

  • AQA, EDEXCEL, OCR A, OCR B - Engage in historical enquiry; develop the ability to ask relevant questions about the past, to investigate issues critically and to make valid historical claims by using a range of sources in their historical context
  • OCR A - Migration to Britain c.1000 to c.2010 (1)
  • OCR B - Crime and Punishment, c.1250 to present Migrants to Britain, c.1250 to present
  • AQA – Shaping the Nation (Britain: Health and the people: c1000 to the present day, Britain: Power and the people: c1170 to the present day, Britain: Migration, empires and the people: c790 to the present day)
  • EDEXCEL - Thematic study and historic environment (Crime and punishment in Britain, c1000–present, Medicine in Britain, c1250

Questions about the session? Get in touch via email at tla.schools@cityoflondon.gov.uk