Education Resources

Free resources for teachers to use in the classroom

Want to use more primary sources in your classroom? From this page you can download free resource and activity packs, all based on primary sources held in the Essex Record Office archives, for use in your classroom, along with background notes and suggested activities.

 

Marconi, Aerials, Radios & Valves - Art Activity Pack

Marconi art activity pack image

This art activity pack was developed by our Artist in Residence, Elaine Tribley to coincide with the British Science Festival hosted by Chelmsford’s Anglia Ruskin University in September 2021. Targeted at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, this activity pack provides a range of activities focused around the pioneering work of Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi and the Marconi Company he founded in Chelmsford developed and built the technology required for the wireless communication that we rely on today, whether it is our kitchen radio or our mobile phones. 

The activities themselves are inspired by just some of the thousands of photographs taken by the Marconi Photographic Unit and preserved at the Essex Record Office. The project to create this resource was jointly funded by the Essex Record Office and Chelmsford City Council.

Marconi, Aerials, Radios & Valves - Art Activity Pack

 

Victorian Children

 

There are three sets of resources you can use to explore Victorian life with your students through real historical documents. Each resource takes a different approach. One makes a comparison between a Victorian school and a modern school using photographs. The second, looks at the contents of a Victorian school log book. The last resource uses the Census to look at Victorian life outside the classroom.

Victorian Children teaching resources.

 

Essex at War, 1914-1918

This resource pack, developed with Shenfield High School, is aimed at secondary school students, and uses over 20 sources telling stories of Essex people and places during the First World War.

The pack includes stories of soldiers, nurses, women factory workers, Zeppelins over Essex, food shortages, and family life when fathers did not make it home.

It includes images of the sources along with background notes and suggestions on how they might be used in History, English or other classes.

The pack consists of a PowerPoint presentation and teachers’ notes, which can be downloaded by clicking on the link below.

Essex at War education resources

This pack was produced as part of Now the Last Poppy has Fallen, a project investigating the First World War in Essex, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

For further inspiration of how your students could engage with our First World War records you could also take a look at Discovering Sister Kate Luard's Story, a short film make with students from Shenfield High School.

 

Saffron Walden on the Map

 

This resource pack, aimed a KS2 pupils, uses images of three key historic maps of Saffron Walden from the Essex Record Office’s collections to explore continuity and change in this historic market town over time. It can also be used to investigate how we can use maps as sources to find out about the past.

Saffron Walden on the map education resources

 

The Floods of 1953

This pack aimed at KS1 and KS2 pupils contains three PowerPoints and Teachers Notes with background to the events of January 31st, 1953, along with some suggestions for class activities linked to the PowerPoints. Activities have also been provided by the Environment Agency.

There are three versions of this pack targeted at the most flooded communities of Harwich and Dovercourt, Canvey Island and Jaywick.

The Floods of 1953 resources