Victorians

A colleague told me that Mr Gove wants to remove Mary Seacole and William Wilberforce from the teaching of history and place more emphasis on major figures like Oliver Cromwell. I haven't checked this but, as I might be getting involved with the Victorians in the near future, I thought I'd have my two-penneth.

Victorian Board School

I've prepared some Victorian resources for the Immersive Room at Inspire 2 Learn and one section deals with Famous People including all the usual suspects. One that I haven't included is Sir Joseph Bazalgette, the designer of the London sewer system, but I'm going to put him in. This allows me to include more Science in this history topic by using the fictional book The Sewer Sleuth by Julia Jarman. This short book looks at investigating cholera in London in a detective/scientific manner. This book in turn leads me to more excellent fiction for children set in Victorian London, incorporating the London sewer system, written by Eleanor Updale (Montmorency, Montmorency On The Rocks, Montmorency & the Assasins, Montmorency's Revenge)

Franklin Watts (1997) ISBN 0-7496-2590-2

Scholastic Press (2003) ISBN 0-439-97815-7 

Also within the Immersive Room, I've included another "unknown" historical figure, Patience Kershaw. Patience's true tale is told through the medium of a song sung by The Unthanks* and uses her statement to the Inspector of Mines in the 1840's. I find this moving history. A young girl couped up with half-naked sweaty men in a pit, developing large muscles from pushing and a "baldy patch" on her head from rubbing against the carts.

Here's the Tender Coming (2009) EMI Rabble Rouser 687 1222

We are all part of history and small, as well as continent-spanning stories, are relevant and should be part of the curriculum.

* The Testimony of Patience Kershaw from "Here's The Tender Coming"