Unlocking Archives is an exciting collaboration between The National Archives, British Film Institute (BFI), English Heritage and the South East Grid for Learning, that pulls together archive photographs, film extracts and documents to provide a rich online resource for the History and Citizenship classrooms at key stages 2, 3 and 4.

Consider a typical street scene c1900 like this one from the English Heritage collection. Newcastle Street hoarding, Aldwych, London Ref no:  BL 19953Reproduced by permission of English Heritage. NMR Date Taken:  1907

BFI Screenonline

It’s a fascinating social document, but consider how much more powerful it might be when combined with film of bustling street scenes from other streets in British cities of the period.

The two sources allow us to populate the streets in our imagination – one providing a feel for the reality of life in these streets, the other providing an opportunity to examine a snapshot of life in detail. Add in some documentary sources and we could investigate whether the people in the film and photograph were likely to be healthy, or wealthy, or whether they travelled like we do today, or countless other fascinating questions.

This is what Unlocking Archives is all about. The three archives have wonderful collections and the South East Grid for Learning has a track record in bringing together such resources to promote a learning package which excites interest and develops creativity.

Screenonline is the British Film Institute's free and unparalleled online guide to British film and television from the 1890s to the present day.

Discover more than 3000 (and counting) film and television titles supported by authoritative and accessible analysis and thousands of production stills, posters and contemporary reviews.

Users in UK schools, colleges, universities and public libraries also have free access to more than 500 hours of moving image material, including many full-length films and television programmes.

Screenonline's Education Zone is written by teachers for teachers and provides a growing range of flexible, curriculum relevant resources linked to film and television extracts. These include starters, plenaries, lesson ideas, evaluations and downloadable resources linked to a range of different subjects.

So whether you're teaching farming or feminism, bio-fuels or the British Empire, Screenonline has something for you!


THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES – LEARNING CURVE

Learning Curve provides free resources for teachers and students of all ages based on the unique collection of documents held at The National Archives, which span 1,000 years of history. By adopting an enquiry-led, source-based approach it encourages students to work in the way real historians do by using original documentary material and interpreting it to provide evidence for the past. In short this is real history from the archives supported with the best authors in school’s history and latest interactive technology to ensure your students can really bring history to life.

The archive of English Heritage, the National Monuments Record (NMR) holds records relating to England’s archaeology, historic buildings and landscape, including around 8 million photographs dating from the 1850s to the present day.

The Heritage Explorer website gives teachers and learners free access to over 360,000 of these images, plus teaching activities, interactives, whiteboard resources and lots, lots more! Teachers can access classroom-ready materials at the click of a button for teaching History, Citizenship and many more subjects.

The photographs include historic views of daily life, aerial photographs and modern images of listed buildings. All can be easily accessed and freely downloaded by pupils and teachers. They are accompanied by relevant captioning and other information such as the date that they were taken.

Feeling inspired? Then you can use the ‘Search’ facility to find images that are relevant or local to YOU!

SOUTH EAST GRID FOR LEARNING

The South East Grid for Learning is a Regional Broadband Consortium and a NEN Provider. Increasingly, SEGfL is driving pilot broadband projects and helping schools make the very best use of new communications technologies. Connected schools are discovering that they can use the wealth of online resources to transform the effectiveness of teaching and school management. 

The National Education Network is at the heart of the government’s ambitions to transform education.  It promises to spread best practice, to help schools share limited resources and to promote the development of online teaching materials crafted explicitly to support all aspects of the National Curriculum.  It is a vital component of the strategy to promote personalised learning and is fundamental to raising achievement in learners.