Why do people need rights?
| People | Place | Problem | Possibilities |
| Victorian children at work
Victorian Street Child Lord Shaftesbury Mary Seacole Charles Dickens |
Victorian Britain
Victorian colonies across the world |
The exploitation of children in the Victorian Era | Children learn about their rights and responsibilities today and the need to ensure all children across the world today have rights. |
Synopsis
Project will start with a narrative built around a street child with no rights in Victorian Britain. Using Berlie Doherty’s ‘Street Child’ as our first text, we will explore what life was like for many Victorian children living in a world in which they had no rights. The children will investigate different Victorian jobs carried out by children and reflect on what it might have been like to work in factories and farms, in unsafe conditions and often with no pay. Children will have the opportunity to visit The Woodstock Museum and be trained to be a Hall Boy or Scullery Maid and we will recreate a Victorian classroom here in school. The knowledge they gain from learning about Victorian children will enable our pupils to better understand their rights and responsibilities today, with specific reference to The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
As children’s understanding of the Victorian period grows, we will look at key Victorian figures, who changed the world through their actions or creations: Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, Florence Nightingale, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Mary Seacole. The children will research some of the key Victorian inventions that changed the world, from the telephone to the electric lightbulb and in doing so, will see that this was a period of immense change and progress.
Knowledge Organisers
Knowledge Organiser_Why do peopleneed rightsTrips out/Visitors In
Woodstock Museum Experience – Learning to be a Hall Boy or Scullery Maid.
A Victorian School Day recreated in the classroom
Learning Exhibition
Children will host a Victorian Job Fair where they will explain to parents and carers the different jobs carried out by Victorian children and in doing so, share their knowledge of the period and all they have learnt about their rights and responsibilities.