Workhouse Woes

Topics Year 4/5
This unit is part of Victorians Dickensian London

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Objectives

History

To continue to develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of Britain, local and world history, establishing clear narratives within and across the periods they study.
To study an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066: the impact of changes on everyday lives of the poor.
They should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources.

English

Reading books structured in a variety of different ways and reading for a range of purposes.

Lesson Planning

Learn about workhouses in Victorian London from Literary representations.

Teaching Objectives:

To learn about life living in a Victorian workhouse.
To find out about people and changes from a range of sources; understand about the Poorhouses and who went there.
To explore a range of texts and websites to research workhouses and find out about the lives of poor Victorian children.

Children will:

Understand what life was like living in a Victorian workhouse.
Learn about some of the legal changes affecting children in the Victorian period.
Understand about the lives of Victorian children.

Planning

Provided Resources

Painting ‘The Royal Family 1846’ by Franz Winterhalter compared to photo of poor Victorian family
Transcripts from Oliver Twist and poem by workhouse poet
A recipe for gruel

Unit Resources

You Will Need

Ingredients for gruel

Weblinks

4-minute clip from film Oliver from YouTube.com

Information about workhouses from workhouses.org.uk