Overview
What was it really like to grow up during the Victorian era?
In this engaging KS2 history workshop, pupils explore the lives of Victorian children and discover how wealth, health, education and work shaped their childhood experiences.
Through storytelling, role play and historical enquiry, pupils compare the lives of rich and poor children, investigate the dangerous jobs many children carried out and discover how education gradually transformed childhood during the nineteenth century.
The experience is enhanced by a guided Discover With Us session, where pupils explore Victorian healthcare, medicine and policing through the museum’s historic ambulance collection, recreated Victorian apothecary and original police cells. By stepping inside authentic spaces and examining real objects, pupils discover how poverty, health and crime shaped everyday life during the Victorian era.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the session, pupils will be able to:
- Understand how childhood differed during the Victorian period.
- Compare the lives of rich and poor children.
- Explore the impact of child labour on health and wellbeing.
- Understand how education changed throughout the Victorian era.
- Investigate how poverty influenced children’s opportunities.
- Explore how healthcare and policing developed during the Victorian period.
- Compare Victorian childhood with life today.
Key Enquiry Questions
Throughout the workshop, pupils investigate questions such as:
- What was life like for Victorian children?
- Why did some children have to work?
- How did wealth affect childhood?
- What made some Victorian jobs dangerous?
- Why was education so important?
- How did life improve during the Victorian period?
Workshop Activities
Growing Up in Victorian Britain
Pupils begin by exploring the Victorian period and discovering why it was a time of enormous change.
Together they investigate:
- The Industrial Revolution.
- Why towns and cities grew so quickly.
- Why children often worked instead of attending school.
- How Victorian childhood changed during the nineteenth century.
Rich or Poor?
Through role play and discussion, pupils compare the lives of children from very different backgrounds.
They explore:
- Homes and family life.
- Food and health.
- Toys and leisure.
- Education.
- Work.
- Living conditions.
Pupils discover how wealth affected almost every aspect of daily life and consider how opportunities differed depending on where and how someone was born.
Choose Your Job
Working together, pupils investigate a range of Victorian jobs carried out by children before choosing which occupation they would prefer.
They consider:
- Working conditions.
- Pay.
- Health risks.
- Life expectancy.
- How children contributed to family income.
Through discussion they discover the dangers associated with many Victorian occupations while considering why so many families depended upon child labour.
A New Beginning
The workshop concludes by exploring how education transformed childhood during the Victorian period.
Pupils investigate:
- The introduction of compulsory education.
- Victorian classrooms.
- School discipline.
- How education created new opportunities.
- Why attitudes towards children gradually changed.
Reflection
Pupils reflect on how Victorian childhood changed over time and discuss which aspects of Victorian life they would find most challenging.
They compare the lives of Victorian children with their own experiences and consider why education, healthcare and child protection remain important today.
Discover With Us: Victorian Life at West Bar
Following the workshop, pupils take part in a guided Discover With Us session exploring how Victorian emergency services, healthcare and policing affected the lives of children and families.
Using authentic museum spaces and collections, pupils investigate how poverty, illness and crime were closely linked during the Victorian period.
During the session they will discover:
- How people received medical help before the NHS and the 999 emergency service.
- The role of Victorian apothecaries and why many medicines could be dangerous.
- How overcrowded towns and cities allowed diseases such as cholera to spread rapidly.
- Why poor families often struggled to afford doctors and medical treatment.
- How children’s circumstances could lead them into crime.
- Why children were arrested and held in police cells.
- How Victorian police cells differed from prisons and why they were kept so clean.
- How attitudes towards children gradually changed, leading to reform schools and separate prisons for young offenders.
Through authentic objects, recreated spaces and original Victorian police cells, pupils discover how life could be very different depending on wealth, health and opportunity.
Students then continue exploring the museum independently, discovering how emergency services, medicine and policing continued to develop throughout the twentieth century.
Curriculum Links
This workshop supports learning across several areas of the KS2 curriculum, including:
History
- Victorian Britain.
- The Industrial Revolution.
- A study of an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066.
- Historical enquiry.
- Cause and consequence.
- Similarities and differences between past and present.
PSHE
- Health and wellbeing.
- Rights and responsibilities.
- Equality and opportunity.
- Caring for others.
Skills Developed
Pupils will develop:
- Historical enquiry.
- Source interpretation.
- Observation.
- Comparison and contrast.
- Communication.
- Critical thinking.
- Empathy.
- Decision making.
Visit Information
This workshop forms part of a full museum learning day, running from 10:00am until 2:00pm.
During the day, groups rotate through a programme of activities consisting of:
- One 45 minute Life as a Victorian Child workshop.
- One 45 minute Discover With Us guided museum experience.
- Two 45 minute self guided museum exploration sessions.
- One 45 minute lunch break.
This varied programme combines facilitated learning with opportunities for independent exploration across the museum’s galleries.
Practical Information
Suitable for: KS2
Workshop duration: 45 minutes
Museum visit: Full learning day, 10:00am to 2:00pm
Group size: Up to 35 pupils per group
Daily capacity: Up to three groups (approximately 105 pupils) can be accommodated each day, with groups rotating through the day’s activities.
Accessibility: We are committed to making our learning programme accessible to all learners. Please let us know about any access requirements when booking so we can adapt the session wherever possible.
Why Choose This Workshop?
Through role play, discussion and practical activities, pupils gain a fascinating insight into what childhood was really like during the Victorian era. By comparing the experiences of rich and poor children, investigating dangerous jobs and exploring the introduction of compulsory education, they develop a deeper understanding of how Victorian society shaped young people’s lives.
The Discover With Us session brings these themes to life through the museum’s own collections. From exploring a Victorian apothecary and historic ambulance to stepping inside original police cells, pupils discover how poverty, illness and crime were closely connected, creating a memorable learning experience that links national history with the stories of Sheffield itself.
