Primary school resources

'Tales from the Green'

Hosted by Emily, our local story teller, Tales from the Green are free, online storytelling recordings that celebrates the rich and diverse cultures in Newington Green. You can watch and be part of the amazing stories on Youtube.

These stories are particularly suitable for small learners – from ages 2-8 years old. Each story lasts for around 20 minutes and takes inspiration from a different culture from around the world – with a diaspora in Newington Green.

Tales from the Green is a project in partnership with Newington Green Alliance.

Activities from Unity Arts

The wonderful Unity Arts are carrying on their work to share the history of Hackney Dissent through their wonderful documentary co-created by young researchers in the borough. Young learners during this difficult quarantine time can learn about Newington Green’s famous dissenter Mary Wollstonecraft through watching the documentary, exploring the timeline and colouring in the stencil image of Mary. Completed images will be compiled and displayed as part of an installation at Newington Green Meeting House when we re-open in Autumn. To learn more about how to get your artwork exhibited please contact Unity Arts and to learn more about the Mary stencil created by artist Stewy and until recently, on the side of the Meeting House (and soon to be restored after much needed building work!) you can watch this documentary.

Free School Assemblies/one-off class workshops: 'How we Remember History'

Are you thinking about ways to address recent events with your learners?

After the injustice of George Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter protests across the globe and the wave of interest in how we engage with our history – we are offering free school assemblies as a way to engage primary and secondary school learners with this important topic and time in our national history.

We will offer assemblies that engage, ask and discuss with learners the following topics;

What is History?
How do we learn history/where do we learn about our History?
Who makes History? Do we all make it?
What is a Historian? How do you know when you are a Historian?
What parts of our History are missing from the story and why? How has this happened?
In which ways do we remember our History?
How do we make sure we represent all the information about Histories that we can?
Debate/Vote: how do we think it is best to remember events/stories/histories from the past?

Please get in touch with Banu to book assemblies/classes which can be via Zoom or in person at your school (with strict social distancing according to your institutions guidelines).

New Primary School resources

The Newington Green Meeting House, People’s History Museum, the Wollstonecraft Society (with thanks to support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund) are pleased to announce that we are releasing the world’s first comic book telling the story of Mary Wollstonecraft’s extraordinary life.

It’s been specifically developed for primary schools to meet the national curriculum, and is accompanied by a six-week scheme of work where learners explore the different aspects of Mary’s philosophy. Spend your term exploring the concepts of mindfulness, feminism and preserving the past through digestible and engaging activities – and learning more about the Mother of British Feminism.

The scheme of work is intended to cover one lesson per week over a term of six weeks and is perfect for Key Stage Two learners. Each week classes can follow a PowerPoint presentation where they learn about aspects of Mary’s life covering:

Learners get their own workbook each lesson to take part in activities explained in the PowerPoints, such as: creating the perfect recipe for a supportive friendship, becoming feminist time detectives by analysing historical photographs and researching and sharing people in their local areas that inspire them.

Got questions?

Hear more from the Programme Manager of the Newington Green Meeting House: Revolutionary Ideas project Amy Todd (she has since left the project) and People’s History Museum’s Education Officer, Liz Thorpe in this introductory video
Email banu@new-unity.org

More information

Thanks to additional funding from the Wollstonecraft Society, all schools in the boroughs of Islington and Hackney and state schools in Laugharne, Beverley, Salford, Barking and Spitalfields will be sent these resources in the post, free of charge, in the next month
The comic is available online
If you would like to request a printed copy of the comic for your school or library, please contact banu@new-unity.org and we’ll see if we can help
Printed versions of the comic will be sent to all project partners – free of charge
If you would like to request a personal copy and interest is high, we may consider another print run. Please email banu@new-unity.org if you would like to register your interest
Want us to deliver the scheme of work to your learners? Not eligible for the free printed comic? No worries! Join our education newsletter and you can be the first to get the link to our live lessons where we deliver the 6 week programme via Youtube Live and your learners can access the free, online comic. You’ll also be the first to hear about our upcoming “Meet Mary” sessions where Rebecca Morden of Scary Little Girls theatre company will be performing as Mary – answering your learners’ questions via Zoom!

All our education programmes are free of charge thanks to support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. To learn more about Mary Wollstonecraft, Mother of British Feminism, visit the Wollstonecraft Society and to learn more about the work of People’s History Museum.

History and English Resources for KS2

There are three sets of resources, one focusing on stories from Newington Green Meeting House, one from Benjamin Franklin’s life and one from Wesley’s histories.

These resources below from the Newington Green Meeting House project cover the history of this 300 year old religious building where people have always thought differently, together. Learners will meet their historical neighbours, meet the famous faces of the Meeting House like Mary Wollstonecraft (mother of feminism) and learn about campaigns today to make the world a fairer place.

For KS3 learners the resources go on further to introduce Anna Laetitia Barbauld, poet and educator, who attended the Meeting House and spent her life writing works to make the world a fairer place – like writing protest poems to support abolishing slavery. Through exploring her work, and contemporary versions and interpretations of her works from poet Dr. Simon Jenner, learners create their own protest poems about campaigns they feel strongly about today.

Free online, downloadable resources

Working with Benjamin Franklin House and Wesley’s House and the Museum of Methodism – we are pleased to offer these downloadable online resources around the theme ‘Changing the World’. All our of unique historical sites and histories are about making the world a better place and celebrating people that championed these changes. The resources are presented as three presentations (with audio/video), some with accompanying worksheets or experiments and all teacher/guardian guides to support learners, although the resources are designed so learners can work independently.

Teachers can watch this short CPD with more information on the programme recorded on our Youtube channel.