Keeping healthy - Lessons and Resources
Explore Keeping Healthy at KS2
Investigate ideas about health from the Black Death through the Great Plague and breakthroughs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Explore change, continuity and key turning points.
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Everything for this history topic in one place
The enquiry sequence
Enquiry-based lessons and resources
6 activities
Planner for KS2 thematic study Black Death to today: Keeping healthy over time
This intrinsically interesting topic has been chosen as a long-term development study as it not only builds on the fact that all pupils will have some experience of this issue,…
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Keeping healthy – KQ1 – What does the Black Death of 1348 tell us about people’s knowledge of health 700 years ago?
Pupils are hooked in with a story of the impact of the Black Death on one family. This is followed by an engaging analysis of an artist’s impression of a…
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Keeping healthy – KQ2 – How much more did they know about keeping healthy by the time of the Great Plague of 1665?
Pupils’ attention is focused on the Great Plague of 1665. They consider the likely efficacy of methods used to combat the plague and then ask themselves whether any progress at…
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Keeping healthy – KQ3 – Did such huge changes in people’s health suddenly take place about 200 years ago?
Pupils’ attention is grabbed with a powerful story, supported by detailed analysis of two contemporary sources. Having had the changes which happened in that period explained, using a detailed PowerPoint…
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Keeping healthy – KQ4 -Which were the biggest breakthroughs in people’s health in the 19th century?
In this session the focus moves to pupils’ working more independently, carrying out their own research in groups and then developing powers of advocacy. The lesson culminates in a role…
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Keeping healthy – KQ5 – Has everyone become healthier in the last 100 years?
Starting with a contemporary cartoon analysis, which hints at highly relevant current life-style related health problems that still have not been eliminated, pupils explore some of the health hazards today…
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Keeping healthy – KQ6 – When was the best time to live in terms of keeping heathy? What would the dates of your preferred lifespan of 80 years be?
In this brief concluding session, pupils look back over 300 years of history and make a judgement about the best time to have lived, applying what they have picked up…
Read MoreWritten by Neil Thompson
All content on Keystage history is written and quality assured by Neil Thompson, a former history teacher, county history adviser and Ofsted inspector with more than 30 years’ experience in history education.