The Education and Outreach Team works closely with schools to provide resources for pupils from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 5. Some of our workshops can be adapted for younger pupils, please contact the Education and Outreach Team to discuss if you are thinking of booking for a Key Stage 1 class.
Our school workshops are detailed below. Some of the workshops are available as online sessions, some in the classroom and some at The Archive Centre, or a combination of the above. Please check individual sessions to see the options. Details of the different types of session are also provided.
- Tudor Shopping
- Defending the Castle
- Science of Sound
- Norfolk- A County of Welcome
- Norfolk in World War Two
- Working as an Historian
- Norfolk’s Strangers
- The Changing Landscape
- History of our Village
- Introduction of the Railways
- Norfolk in the First World War
Available Workshops
Tudor Shopping
Discover what it was like to go shopping during the Tudor period. Find out what Tudor grocers really sold. Explore various different spices, looking at their texture and smell, before uncovering where they would have come from. Finally enter the Tudor world by going shopping in North Walsham Market place, and meeting some of the different vendors working there during the Tudor period.
This workshop formed part of the Paston Footprints Project.
Available as:
For more information please see our lesson plan by clicking on the links above.
To book a session please email our Education and Outreach Team.
Science of Sound
Understand how sound is made and how it travels through different mediums and find out why there is no sound in space! Explore pitch and frequency using musical instruments and animal sounds. Find out how we hear by exploring the inner workings of a human ear. Before finding our how sound has been recorded throughout history and some of the recordings including the in Norfolk Record Office’s sound archive.
Available as:
For more information please see our lesson plans by clicking on the links above.
To book a session please email our Education and Outreach Team.
Norfolk- A County of Welcome
In this session pupils discover the reasons for refugees coming to Norfolk. They get to hear the story of Lewis Ecker, a 19th century refugee who came to live in Norwich. Finally they get to think about what they would take with them if they became a refugee themselves.
Available as:
For more information please see our lesson plans by clicking on the links above.
To book a session please email our Education and Outreach Team.
Norfolk in World War Two
During this session children will learn what happened to the pupils of one Norwich school which was bombed during the war. They will investigate a number of artefacts to uncover their use and understand how everyday life changed during the war. Finally they will read a letter from a real life evacuee and consider her feelings on being evacuated.
Available as:
For more information please see our lesson plans by clicking on the buttons above.
To book the session please email our Education and Outreach Team.
Working as an Historian
Pupils will learn the different skills historians use to enable them to look after archives and put these into practice. They will analyse a variety of documents and put them into chronological order, create their own ‘conservation kit’ and use interrogative words to investigate and interpret a document.
Available as:
For more information please see our lesson plans by clicking on the buttons above (add).
To book the session please email our Education and Outreach Team.
Norfolk’s Strangers
This session encourages pupils to explore the reasons behind the Strangers coming to Norfolk during the Tudor period. They will look into why Queen Elizabeth I invited them to both Norwich and Great Yarmouth and discover the Stranger’s feelings on living and working in the county. Finally they will learn what the Strangers brought to this country and look into their legacy.
Available as:
For more information please see our lesson plans by clicking on the buttons above (add).
To book the session please email our Education and Outreach Team.
The Changing Landscape
Pupils will discover the changes to the Norfolk countryside due to natural and physical processes, by understanding why people created maps and their uses. They will find out about land use in their own village during the 1840s using a tithe map* and how this has changed over time. Finally, they will discover the effects of coastal erosion on two Norfolk villages over the last 150 years.
*If no tithe map is available for your local village we can discuss possible alternatives.
Available as:
For more information please see our lesson plans by clicking on the buttons above.
To book the session please email our Education and Outreach Team.
History of Our Village
Pupils will find out what is was like to live in their village during the Victorian period by using documents to take part in a range of activities including going ‘shopping’ around the classroom to discover how life during the reign of Queen Victoria contrasts with their lives today. The will look at richer and poorer families on the census, discover how trades have changed and look at the changes to buildings and their use over time.
Available as:
For more information please see our lesson plans by clicking on the buttons above.
To book the session please email our Education and Outreach Team.
Introduction of the Railways
Pupils will discover the impact of the introduction of the railways to North Norfolk. They will recognise how the coming of the railway change the jobs in the town and lead to more people moving into the area. They will also consider the impact on tourism.
Available as:
For more information please see our lesson plans by clicking on the buttons above.
To book the session please email our Education and Outreach Team.
Norfolk in the First World War
Discover the impact of the First World War on the people of Norfolk, by learning about some of the Norfolk citizens who fought, and using service records to draw a ‘life size’ Norfolk soldier. Next investigate the roles both men and women at home played in the war effort in order to fully understand the meaning of the term ‘home front’.
Available as:
For more information please see our lessons plans by clicking on the buttons above.
To book the session please email our Education and Outreach Team.
Norfolk Record Office 