Yearly Overview-Year Six- History
Focus
Resources
Areas to cover

American expansion
America after the War of Independence.
The Lewis Clarke expedition, and early pioneers.
Autumn One
The American
Civil War
American slavery
Slave states in the south, and free states in the north.
Slave resistance and the underground railway.
American movement for abolition.
Election of Abraham Lincoln.


America, the story of us is an
entertaining, if slightly
melodramatic, documentary from
which it would be good to show
clips. Available on youtube.
The History Channel website has
some excellent clips and resources.
The American Civil War (Dorling
Kindersley) and The Civil War in
Color by John C. Guntzelman.
American Civil War
Unionists versus Confederates.
Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant.
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Causes and consequences of Unionist victory in the War.
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Machines and factories
Changes in cotton spinning. The cotton frame and power looms.
Growth of the factory system.
Development of Manchester as ‘Cottonopolis’.
Autumn Two
The Industrial
Revolution
Steam Engine
Principles of how the steam engine was used to create rotary motion.
First applications of the steam engine.
Transport
Development of canals. Aqueducts, barges and locks.
Ability to mass transport heavy goods.
Stephenson’s Rocket and the invention of the train.
Spread of rail transport around Britain.
 The Young Oxford History of Britain
& Ireland, pages 286-320.
 Great Tales from English History by
Robert Lacey, pages 327-378.
 The BBC website has some articles
on the period, and clips from a
recent documentary about the
industrial revolution and a
documentary about trains.
 This topic lends itself well to local
history, eg. canals and Victorian
train stations.
Increasing pace of social change
Changes and disruption caused by industrialisation.
Loss of artisan jobs to machines and factories.
Luddite rebellions.
Urbanisation and its consequences.
Spring One
Social Reform
Child Labour
Child labour in mines, cotton factories and chimney sweeps.
The campaign to end child labour.
The Factory Acts.
Wealth and poverty
The poor law and the workhouse.
Growing material prosperity.
The 1851 Great Exhibition.
Political radicals
Growing calls for British politics to change.
Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt and the Peterloo tragedy.
Spring Two
Political Reform
The Great Reform Act
Changes to the electoral system.
Significance of the Act.
Further reforms towards full democracy in 1928.
 The Young Oxford History of Britain
& Ireland, pages 286-320.
 Great Tales from English History by
Robert Lacey, pages 327-378.
 The British Library have sources
showing social change during the
eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. The National Archives
have some good sources in their
‘Victorian lives’ section. BBC
Primary website has a good section
on Victorian Britain, in particular
‘children at work’ and ‘children in
factories’.
 The Young Oxford History of Britain
& Ireland, pages 308-317
 The Houses of Parliament have
resources on the working of
Parliament, votes for women, and
an illustrated timeline about the
history of Parliament.
 For events in Ireland, show clips
from The Story of Ireland (2011).
Ireland
Wolfe Tone’s rebellion and the Act of Union.
The Irish potato famine.
The campaign for Home Rule, and Irish Independence.
Summer One
The British
Empire
The Growth of the British Empire
‘‘The empire on which the sun never set’.
Different nations that were once part of the British Empire.
The ‘Pax Britannica’.
The British in India
The Indian Mutiny, causes and consequences.
 The Young Oxford History of Britain
& Ireland , pages 250-321.
 The National Archives has an
excellent set of resources on the
British Empire.
 Clips from films , e.g. Zulu (1964),
Ghandi (1982), and Mangal Pandey
(2005).
 Clips from BBC series Empire by
Jeremy Paxman are available on
their website, as well as some
articles about aspects of Empire.
The creation of the British Raj.
Queen Victoria as Empress of India.
The British in Africa
The Scramble for Africa amongst European countries.
Spread of British power in Africa.
The Boer War and the national outcry.

George III, George IV and William IV
Unpopularity as Kings.
George III madness, George IV’s notorious behaviour.
Summer Two
The Victorian
Age
Coronation and reign of Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria’s qualities as a monarch.
Loving marriage to Prince Albert.
Life in Britain by 1900
Technological revolution.
Inventions and social developments.
Similarities and differences with today.


The BBC has a collection of articles
about life in Victorian England, clips
from a series about Victorian
criminals, and many resources
about Queen Victoria.
Clips from films and documentaries
could be used to illustrate live in the
Victorian age, such as The
Victorians (2009) and The Victorian
Farm (2010).
Books such as The Victorians
(Dorling Kindersley) and The
Victorians (Usborne).