Which reformer most deserves to go on the back of a £5 note?
This quirky enquiry takes a look at all of the prison reformers mentioned in the Edexcel specification. It also addresses the second order concept of significance.
Like the good history teachers we are, we inevitably pay homage to two of England’s best teacher trainers! Your students are introduced to Ian Dawson and Christine Counsell’s different criteria for judging whether something is historically significant. Which do your students think is the best? We have our preference but ultimately you want them to decide. Once they have the criteria they need to make a judgement they can look at our fact files.
These fact files cover the important reformers of the 19th century:
- Elizabeth Fry
- John Howard
- Samuel Romilly
Your students use their choice of significance criteria, and our fact files on each of the above, to decide who was the most significant, and therefore which should go on the back of a ‘fiver’.
You end by showing them whose mug was on the back of a five pound noted until relatively recently. Do they agree?
The end product is a letter to Royal Mint.
Download lesson
- Lesson presentation: PowerPoint
- Lesson write-up: PDF
- Resource 1: PDF
- Worksheet 1a, 1b: PDF
