Knowledge, skills and understanding

Ideas, beliefs, attitudes and experiences of men, women and children...

Victorian ideas concerning poverty, attitudes and beliefs can be discovered and discussed after reading sections of the police notebooks relating to your local area.

Social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of society...

The social investigators record information concerning ethnic groups, religion and social activities of communities. Sections of the police notebooks relating to your locality can be examined or use the extracts of the police notebooks.

Historical interpretation

The past is represented and interpreted in different ways and explain why...

Pupils should be asked to question the judgements of the social investigators of Charles Booth's survey by examining sections of the police notebooks and evaluating their opinions. This can be achieved by using the worksheet. The social investigators attempted to be objective. Pupils should examine whether they were influenced by their background, beliefs and opinions.

Historical enquiry

How to find out about events, people from a range of sources...

There are a range of sources available on the web site, pupils can search the digitised images of the police notebooks and the Map Descriptive of London Poverty 1898-1899 and discover whether there are other interviews relating to people in their area by searching the catalogue. There could be an interview with a teacher, minister or worker.

To ask and answer and select and record information relevant to enquiry...

Relevant information to the local area can be recorded using the Map Descriptive of London Poverty 1898-1899 and the police notebooks. This can be achieved by completing the worksheet.

Organisation and communication

Recall, select and organise historical information...

Pupils can be asked to write a report on the information concerning the local area from the information collated from Charles Booth's survey, or use the methods of the Charles Booth survey to write a report of the modern situation in their street or area. Pupils could use digitised maps to identify and colour code features important to local study, and to compare the area with the modern map which is available on the web site. The maps, digitised images, and website as a whole provide an opportunity to develop ICT skills.

Local history study

A study investigating how an aspect in the local area has changed over a long period of time, or how the locality was affected by a significant national or local event or development or by the work of a significant individual.

Example - aspects in the local area that have changed: education, population movement houses and housing, religious practices, treatment of the poor and care of the sick, law and order, sport and leisure...

The local area can be studied by using the Charles Booth archive. Follow the worksheet it takes pupils through the following activities: Finding the local area on the modern map; comparing the area with the Booth map; examining the differences; finding the section of the police notebooks relating to local area; comparing the modern area with 100 years ago. You may also wish to search the catalogue of the Charles Booth archive, there may be an interview with a teacher of your school, minister of a local church or a worker from the area.

Victorian Britain and snapshot 1900

A study of the impact of significant individuals, events and changes in work and transport on the lives of men, women and children from different sections of society...

Material about everyday life in Victorian London can be found in the police notebooks from Charles Booth's survey. 100 examples illustrating such things as leisure, ethnic groups, transport, working life, crime, markets, children's games and street life in Victorian London can be found by clicking here. These snapshots of everyday life can be readily compared with counterparts in the modern world, to give an impression of both continuity and change. Similarly, Booth's map can be compared with the modern map - both available on the Charles Booth Online Archive website - to illustrate continuity and change in the topography of the city.

The Charles Booth Online Archive website would help children investigate some of the ways their local area changed during the Victorian era, and some of the reasons for those changes. Children use the local area to explore characteristic features of Victorian times, how the area changed over time and the reasons for and results of these changes. Children develop their sense of chronology, and ask and answer questions, from buildings and other information sources. (KS2)

The Charles Booth Online Archive website would be a resource within the "snapshot 1900" scheme of work. The website could provide information about the British working class and middle class and provide pupils with experience in interrogating and nineteenth-century source material. Pupils could use information about the local area to build up a picture of the complexity of working class and middle-class life: housing, occupations, income, expenditure, education and leisure pursuits. (KS3)