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Cardboard boxes that visitors from a school have decorated to contribute to a wall

Learning programme for schools

Documenting change in British society and politics

We offer a variety of sessions and resources for schools and college students from a wide range of backgrounds. Find out more here and feel free to get in touch. 

On Site Sessions

We offer school sessions based on our primary source material, mainly on reform and records of social and political history from the twentieth century, in our dedicated education space Monday to Friday, 10am to 3pm.

Primary School KS1 and KS2 sessions are 90 minutes (or can be split into two sessions with a break in between for a whole morning or afternoon) and include a creative activity. Secondary KS3, KS4 and KS5 sessions can be 90 min or two hours and include engagement with original primary sources.

Our collections cover topics such as Suffrage, Birth of the Welfare State, Significant People - Millicent Fawcett and the Changing Role of Women.

Lord Beveridge standing up against a wall and looking into the distance
Lord Beveridge.

Our primary sources come from the Women’s Library Collection, William Beveridge (architect of the Beveridge Report), the Fabian Society, Independent Labour Party, the London mapping archives of Charles Booth, election material (including referendums), CND and more! 

20 to 30 min tours of the university Library can be added to KS4 and 5 sessions. 

Fill in the booking form and send to the Library Learning Officer. We’ll try and meet your requirements dependant on availability.

Contact: Debbie Challis by email, on Twitter or call on 020 7107 5472.

Primary school

Key Stage 1

Famous People: William Beveridge (welfare), Millicent Garrett Fawcett (suffragists) or Emily Wilding Davison (suffragettes).

Key Stage 2

Victorian Streets in London

Curriculum areas covered: History, Local History, Geography, Literacy mapping, Victorians, crime.

How we got the vote

Curriculum areas covered: History, Citizenship, democratic participation, women’s suffrage, Twentieth Century.

Why we see a doctor

Curriculum areas covered: History, workhouse, poverty, health, hospitals, Beveridge Report, NHS, PSHE, Twentieth Century.

The Children’s Charter: Poverty and Rights

Curriculum areas covered: History, Victorians, Literacy, change through time, citizenship, children’s right to be heard, PSHE.

Activists for Change: options (a) Social Reform (b) Suffrage (c) Nuclear Disarmament

Curriculum areas covered: History, Citizenship, democratic participation, social reform, Booth, poverty, work, welfare, women’s suffrage, Suffragettes, suffragists, CND, the Bomb, Cold War, Greenham Common, activism.

Secondary schools

Key Stage 3 and 4

Peoples’ Struggle for the Vote

Curriculum areas covered: History, Citizenship, Reform Acts, democratic participation, women’s suffrage, History AQA 2B Britain.

Women’s Rights / Changing Role of Women (overview or specific period from 1900 to 2000).

Curriculum areas covered: History, Religious Studies, Citizenship, Sociology, feminism, women’s suffrage, women at work, family, women in the war, Women’s Liberation Movement, History AQA 2B Britain.

The Peoples’ Health: Welfare from the Workhouse to the NHS

Curriculum areas covered: Health & Social Care, History, workhouse, Means Testing, 1900s reforms, New Liberals, Beveridge Report, NHS, cradle to grave, OCR History B the People’sHealth.

Children, Poverty and Rights

Curriculum areas covered: Health & Social Care, History, sociology, 1900s social reforms, Rowntree, Booth, New Liberals, Child Poverty Action, Britain 1900-1918, OCR History B the People’s Health. 

Rise of Labour Party and Fabianism

Curriculum areas covered: History, politics, social reform, labour movement, 1900s, Britain 1900-1918, History AQA 2B Britain.

Abroad and Home: The Second Boer War

Curriculum areas covered: History, Empire, Victorian, 1900s, imperial expansion South Africa, race and racism, social reform, women’s activism, concentration camps, Britain 1900-1918, History AQA 2C Britain.

Britain and Europe (Post 1945)

Curriculum areas covered: History, twentieth century, the European Union, end of Cold War, economics, referendums, migration, Citizenship, History AQA 2C Britain.

Protest and Change: Options a) Social Reform  b) Women’s Suffrage c) Women’s Rights in 1960s & 70s d) Nuclear Disarmament

Curriculum areas covered: History, Citizenship, 1900s social reformers, Booth, Rowntree, poverty, work, welfare, suffrage, women’s suffrage, CND, the Bomb, Greenham Common, activism, History AQA 2B Britain,

Equality, Diversity and Rights

Curriculum areas covered: Citizenship, Health & Social Care, social change 1960-2010, LGBTQ+, disability, women’s rights, response to HIV / AIDs, Equalities Act 2010, Sociology, OCR History B the People’s Health 

Sixth Form / KS5 

Includes access to some academic texts as well as primary sources. All topics below can be adapted to focus on specific essay questions or topics:

Changing Role and Status of Women in the Twentieth Century

Curriculum areas covered: History, Sociology, feminism, women’s suffrage, women at work, family, women in the war, gender roles, electoral reform, Women’s Liberation Movement, changing social and cultural attitudes, Pearson Edexcel Britain Transformed, AQA Britain 1900 – 1951, Pearson Edexcel Protest, agitation and parliamentary reform.

Rise of Labour Party and Fabianism

Curriculum areas covered: History, Government and Politics, Booth, social and welfare reforms in 1900s, impact of Boer War, Liberal Government, New Liberalism, labour movement, ‘Peoples’ Budget’, Pearson Edexcel Poverty, public health and the state in Britain, AQA Britain 1900-1951, AQA Challenge and Transformation: Britain 1851-1964, OCR Britain 1900-1951.

The Beveridge Report: Social Welfare and Public Health

Curriculum areas covered: History, Beveridge Report, impact of Second World War, ‘Total War’, health / welfare provision in 1930s / 40s, ‘cradle to grave’, OCR History B The People’s Health, Pearson Edexcel Britain Transformed, AQA Britain 1900 - 1951.

Change and Protest: The Contagious Diseases Act and Campaign for Repeal 1862 – 1886

Curriculum areas covered: History, Sociology, Pearson Edexcel Protest, agitation and parliamentary reform, protest organised by women for women, prostitution, sexual diseases, women’s rights.

The Labour Manifesto and General Election, 1945

Curriculum areas covered: impact of the Beveridge Report, Labour’s manifesto promises, changing attitudes due to war, Labour’s role in government in the war, ideology, socialism, AQA Challenge and Transformation Britain 1851-1964

Consensus Politics? General Election Material 1951 – 1979

Curriculum areas covered: History, Politics and Government, domestic policies, consensus policies, education, welfare, economy, post war ‘boom’, rising living standards, changing social attitudes, AQA Britain 1900 – 1951.

Electoral Systems: General Elections and Referendums

Curriculum areas covered: Government and Politics, General Elections, voting, modern democracy, Britain and Europe, The European Union, AQA Electoral Systems.

EPQ or Extended Essay /Project Support

We offer 2 hour introduction sessions, including an introduction to LSE Library and resources, on:

  • Topic searches and evaluation of material
  • Referencing and academic writing

Access to LSE Library for 16 to 18 year old students

Students studying a topic in relevant subjects (history or social sciences) can apply for reference access to LSE Library. Access is open to 16 – 18 year olds in full or part-time education.

Access is not available due to intense use by LSE students in May, early June and October.

If you are under 18 and would like to have access to LSE Library, please download and fill in this form. The form asks for verification by a teacher or parent.

Please attach the filled in form and a passport style ‘head and shoulder’ photograph in a jpeg to by email to the Education and Outreach Officer. You will be contacted when your form is ready and you must bring some form of identification (eg your school /college card) to pick it up.

CND badge
A badge from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Off-site sessions

We can offer a limited number of off-site sessions at schools within the M25 area with a presentation and handling material in the following topics for KS1, 2, 3 and 4 classes:

  • Famous People: William Beveridge, Millicent Garrett Fawcett or Emily Wilding Davison
  • Victorian Streets in London - curriculum areas covered: History, Local History, Geography, Mapping, Victorians.
  • Peoples’ Struggle for the Vote - curriculum areas covered: History, Citizenship, democratic participation, women’s suffrage.
  • Women’s Rights / Changing Role of Women (overview or choose specific period from 1900 to 2000) - curriculum areas covered: History, Religious Studies, Citizenship, sociology, feminism, women’s suffrage, women at work, family, women in the war, Women’s Liberation Movement.
  • Activists for Change: Suffrage or Nuclear Weapons - curriculum areas covered: History, Citizenship, 1900s social reformers, Booth, Rowntree, poverty, work, welfare, suffrage, women’s suffrage, CND, the Bomb, Greenham Common, activism.
  • Equality, Diversity and Rights - curriculum areas covered: Citizenship, Health & Social Care, social history 1960 – 2010, LGBTQ+, disability, women’s rights
One of the Booth study poverty maps of London
One of Charles Booth's Poverty Maps that covers the present day LSE area.

Online Resources

LSE Library has a number of online resources:

Key Stage 1 and 2

A look at the life of William Beveridge, Baron Beveridge (1879-1963) who was a social reformer and architect of the Beveridge Report, which led to the National Health Service and welfare state.

Includes a powerpoint, teachers notes with ideas for activities and flashcards and a telegram template.

Curriculum links for Key Stage One

History: Significant People and Events, aspects of change in national life, events within living memory, World War II and post 1945 to the present.

Literacy: Learning new words and meanings, writing short sentences.

PSHE: healthcare, understanding society, British values

Key Stage 3 (can be adapted for GCSE) resources

We have produced Teachers' Notes and Lesson Presentations for use in teaching key stage three history that are informed by the content of and LSE archive material.

The resources can be used to support teaching ‘Challenges for Britain and the wider world 1901 to the present day’.

Sixth Form / A Level resources

Original archive sources and supporting material around the 1942 Beveridge Report and its impact on the 1945 General Election. Transcripts and images of original documents are provided on the PowerPoint slides and the teachers’ notes provide contextual and background information for the Beveridge Report and the Creation of the Welfare State.

Primary Sources to understand responses in the period to unemployment and the development of broadcast media in Britain for AS / A-Level History.

Eye Witnesses to Peace 1918-20: Forming the League of Nations

An education resource for one or two lessons focusing on individuals who witnessed the aftermath of the First World War in Britain and Europe and tried to improve the fragile peace through documents from LSE Archives, including the Women’s Library Collection. These notes and presentation cover ‘Peace-making’ and the formation of The League of Nations for the early part of the ‘inter-war years 1918-1939’ topic at GCSE level, with extra content that can be adapted for A Level. A Level and / or Citizenship sections are marked in orange.

All of the educational resources produced are open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any non-commercial medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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