Life in Tudor times
Explore Tudor Britain at KS2
Investigate Tudor monarchs and their changing society through portraits, letters and other evidence. Explore Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, religious change and the Spanish Armada.
Explore teaching resources
Everything for this history topic in one place
The enquiry sequence
Enquiry-based lessons and resources
11 activities
Henry and Katherine of Aragon: a love story less well told?
A recent find in a field in Warwickshire is to be sold and the hope is that the British Museum will be successful in their bid. Not only is this…
Read More
Tudor Britain knowledge organiser – KS2
You are learning about the Tudors as it was a period of history that helped to shape the Britain we live in today over 500 years later. Although best known…
Read More
Tudor Britain – assessment task – What can we learn about the way Elizabeth ruled the country from portraits
Focus: evaluation of sources Children work on an unseen portrait after the teacher has read out the caption which explains the context of the portrait. The mark scheme clearly and…
Read More
Planning for teaching Life in Tudor times at KS2
As you know, the requirement to study Life in Tudor Britain was mysteriously and inexplicably removed from the Key Stage 2 curriculum. As one of the best-taught and popular of…
Read More
Teaching Life in Tudor Times for KS2
The Tudors from Key Stage 2 history, it is too good a learning experience for pupils for them to miss out on. if you want to see how you could…
Read MoreLife in Tudor Times – KQ1 – Henry VIII a question of interpretations. Could you spot Henry VIII in a police line-up?
This is a really fun lesson which shows children what is meant by historical interpretations in an engaging and accessible way. It appeals to both visual and kinaesthetic learners by…
Read MoreLife in Tudor Times – KQ1 part 2 – Great starter on interpretations of Henry VIII
Working closely with academic authors, in this case Catherine Fletcher, always gives a fascinating insight into what historians want to write and publishers want to sell. This is fertile ground…
Read More
Life in Tudor Times – KQ2 – Why did Henry Break with Rome? Love or religion?
This KS2 history enquiry revolves around Henry VIII’s divorce and the break with Rome, one of the best-known stories in English history. At first, Henry, this larger than life figure,…
Read More
Life in Tudor Times – KQ2 part 2 – the highs and lows of Catherine of Aragon
The context of this lesson was to explore the highs and lows of Catherine of Aragon as a lead up to the Break with Rome. Pupils had already looked at…
Read More
Life in Tudor Times – KQ2 part 3 – History and literacy – Making sense of a letter from Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn
14 ways of telling this is a love letter Pupils are given a copy of a letter from Henry to Anne Boleyn. It appears, at first glance to be impossibly…
Read More
Life in Tudor Times – KQ3 – How different was life for people at different levels of society living in Tudor times?
This lesson features the lives of 4 different Tudor people as evidenced from a key document that they each have in common, namely an inventory. By studying the nature, value…
Read More
Life in Tudor Times – KQ3 part 2 – Linking history with numeracy; a Tudor enquiry
More glass than wall? Is this a fair description of Hardwick Hall? And how do we find out? This SMART task links history with numeracy asking pupils to apply numeracy…
Read More
Life in Tudor Times – KQ4 – Elizabeth I portraits – why aren’t things what they seem?
This powerful lesson on Tudor portraits as propaganda gives pupils the chance to appreciate that things aren’t always what they seem. Elizabeth wanted to be shown in a particular light…
Read More
Life in Tudor Times – KQ4 part 2 – Get ready – the queen is coming!
This enquiry focuses on helping children to learn about the power and authority of Queen Elizabeth and to appreciate the contrasting lifestyles of rich and poor in late Tudor England….
Read More
Life in Tudor Times – KQ5 – How was the Spanish Armada defeated by the smaller English fleet? Using a technique called Waiting room
This lesson works really well because the tension you build into the waiting room activity gets all the class involved and focused. The more able pupils have a specific, more…
Read More
Life in Tudor Times – KQ6 – How did people enjoy themselves in Elizabethan England?
This KS2 enquiry comprises three outstanding activities: 6a. Advising the film director To imaginatively reconstruct the scene using a variety of evidence 6b. Prove it! Using a gallery of images…
Read More
Mystery picture – hidden meanings in a Tudor painting
One of the exciting things about teaching history is watching the penny drop with pupils who discover that history is created and is not a single uncontested story. To get…
Read More
Why on earth did the Mary Rose, pride of the Tudor fleet, sink so quickly under the nose of Henry VIII himself? Home study option SMART TASK
A tightly structured series of activities on the reasons why the Mary Rose mysteriously sank which incorporates: A history mystery using evidence discovered in the last few years Evaluation of…
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.