The Victorians

The Victorian age was only 150 years ago but things were very different in those times to how they are today. It was a time of great change and excitement across Britain but it was also a time of great contrast between rich people and poor people. Rich Victorians lived a life utterly unimaginable to poor Victorians and this difference was a source of inspiration to one of Britain’s finest ever authors – Charles Dickens.

During the next half term, Class 5 will be studying life in Victorian Britain during their history sessions as well as basing their literacy work around one of Dickens’ (and Britain’s) most famous books – Oliver Twist. During November, the class will be completing a mini-project based on life in Victorian Britain and Charles Dickens. As such, any additional research students can complete on these subjects will be fantastically helpful in ensuring a successful unit of work.

In particular, when researching try to focus:

1) the life of Charles Dickens (another helpful link and another and another);

2) the difference in lifestyles for rich people and poor people (another helpful link); and

3) what life was like in a workhouse.

As we will be studying the story of Oliver Twist, try to research this in depth (this links to a very detailed overview of the story – as this webpage has a target audience of adults, only use it as an extension activity).

7 thoughts on “The Victorians

  • 03/11/2014 at 3:53 pm
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    I love learning about the Victorians because it was my favourite time ever, thanks Mr Antcliffe.

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  • 10/11/2014 at 1:16 pm
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    I have researched lots about the Victorians and I have started to to do my project – I am focusing on Charles Dickens.

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  • 10/11/2014 at 1:34 pm
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    Thank you for this wonderful blog entry now I can learn all about important times in Victorian Times.
    Thank you again Mr. Antcliffe
              

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  • 11/11/2014 at 12:06 pm
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    Some of  Dickens houses’ are still standing like 48 Doughty Street. His museum has some of the best reading material in the world, a lot of the reading material is his own work. He wrote Oliver Twist in 48 Doughty Street

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  • 11/11/2014 at 12:13 pm
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    There was a very big difference between poor people and rich people in Victorian Times as wealthy people could afford to go to school and poor people couldn’t.

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  • 11/11/2014 at 1:30 pm
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    ~Victorians liked long words;
    ~Charles Dickens was Queen Victoria’s favourite author although she did not like reading;
    ~The Victorians invented many things including electric lights;
    ~Queen Victoria had nine children and did not like most of them especially the oldest as she thought he would be a rubbish king later on; and
    ~Queen Victoria went to a work house and a boy stole her purse, 71 children were innocent but still got the cane.

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  • 11/11/2014 at 1:37 pm
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    I love learning about the Victorians. I think it is really fun to learn about a different lifestyle from over 100 years ago! Here are some facts:
    – In a Victorian school there was a book called the logbook, it was a very important book though because it recorded everything that happened.
    – Many children lived in workhouse, these weren’t very nice places. 

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