Teaching Tudor History for GCSE

Most schools are used to teaching this topic in Y7 or 8. Although SHP offered Elizabethan England as an optional Depth Study for many years, there are generally very few resources aimed at the GCSE market.  This has now changed very quickly as the publishers presses have started rolling.  Already we have good-looking students’ books from OCR on the late Elizabethans written by Jamie Byrom and Michael Riley, so you know its good. I will be reviewing it shortly, but in the meantime I thought I’d let you know which outstanding lessons will be appearing soon.

How should Sir Francis Drake be remembered?

Capitalising on recent publicity about Britain’s involvement in the slave trade, this lesson shines a light on the conflicting interpretations of Drake, encouraging students to see the full range of viewpoints of this controversial character before marshalling evidence to support their own opinion.

Why were there so few Catholics living in England at the end of Elizabeth’s reign?

Why was there a problem with vagrancy in Elizabethan England?

Instead of working through a textbook, PowerPoint presentation of handouts, students work collaboratively on a variety of clues of different complexity to build their own meaning. In this way they find the reasons stick because they worked them out for themselves.

How serious a threat did vagrancy pose in Elizabethan England and how do we know?

Good opportunity to look at the nature of types of evidence and encourage students to evaluate each. Students compare court records, popular literature and legislation to work out how serious the problem really was

How effectively did Elizabeth’s government deal with the problem of vagrancy?

Here students look at short-and long-term consequences. The Elizabethan system or poor relief lasted until the 19th century but how effective was it in Elizabeth’s own reign?

At what point did a war between Elizabeth I’s England and Philip II’s Spain become inevitable?

Full lesson. Students explore the overarching issues underpinning Elizabeth’s attitude to Spain before creating a tension graph showing the main turning points. Finally they test the hypothesis of Susan Doran who gives her view on when it became inevitable.

How can we explain the changing relationship between Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots?

What problems did the arrival of Mary Queen of Scots into England in 1568 cause Elizabeth?