Visit the Victorians with this cross-curricular pack designed to spark curiosity and creativity across your Year 5/6 classroom. This Victorians KS2 Topic Enrichment Pack offers seven engaging lessons spanning Art, DT, Geography and RE, all carefully crafted to complement your History teaching while developing key skills across the curriculum.

Your class will:

• Be introduced to William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, and explore Victorian samplers, making their own simple cross-stitch versions
• Learn about the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria
• Discover the famous engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and his impressive Clifton Suspension Bridge
• Find out all about Quakerism, and find out how the Victorian Quakers of Britain changed the country.

Whether you’re looking to enrich your existing Victorians topic or deliver a mini cross-curricular project, this pack provides everything you need—lesson plans, slides, activity sheets and resources—ready to download and teach.

You might also be interested in our ready-to-teach 5-lesson History scheme, Who were the Victorians?

Arts and Crafts

In this Victorian Art KS2 lesson for Year 5 and Year 6, your class will be introduced to William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement, which emerged in the late 19th century as a reaction to the damaging effects of industrialisation.

Children will explore some of Morris' famous wallpaper patterns and discuss the key features of the designs, before having the chance to design their own wallpaper in this style.

This VArts and Crafts KS2 Art lesson pack includes everything you need: a detailed plan, a set of informative slides for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources.

View Art Lesson 1

Samplers and Cross Stitch

In this Samplers and Cross-Stitch KS2 lesson, children first explore the importance of sewing skills in the 18th and 19th centuries, and look at some examples of samplers.

Children then practise how to create a cross-stitch, before applying their knowledge to following or making a simple design chart to create a cross-stitch picture, or a personalised bookmark.

A detailed lesson plan and a set of informative slides are included with this Cross Stitch KS2 Art lesson pack, as well as differentiated activity ideas and printable resources.

View Art Lesson 2

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

This Isambard Kingdom Brunel KS2 DT lesson explores the work of this famous Victorian engineer and his pioneering designs for bridges, tunnels, ships and trains, before looking in more detail at the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

In groups, your class are then challenged to build a model of the bridge, thinking carefully about the properties of the materials they choose, and the methods of attachment they will use.

This Isambard Kingdom Brunel KS2 DT lesson pack contains an easy-to-follow plan, an informative slideshow, printable resources and differentiated activity ideas.

View DT Lesson 1

The British Empire

This ready-to-teach Victorian British Empire KS2 lesson examines the vast expanse of the empire during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Children will learn about the definition of the words ‘empire’, 'colony' and 'colonialism' and how Britain’s empire in the Victorian period was very powerful. In their independent activities, they will locate and label the countries that were part of the British Empire in 1897.

Including a detailed plan, an informative slideshow, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources, this Victorian British Empire KS2 lesson pack includes everything you need!

View Geography Lesson 1

Who are Quakers?

Who are Quakers? The first lesson in this trio of Victorian RE lessons allows you to explore this question with your KS2 class.

To begin, your class will explore how Quakerism began in 1650, what Quakers believe and how they worship, before thinking about how Quaker beliefs and practices differ from those of other Christian groups.

This Victorian RE lesson pack includes everything you need: a detailed plan, a set of informative slides for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and printable resources.

View RE Lesson 1

Victorian Quakers

In this RE lesson, your class will find out about Quakers during the Victorian period, and explore how their beliefs in equality and justice caused positive changes in society.

After investigating the jobs and businesses that were open to Quaker people, your class will discuss how the Quakers’ religious beliefs transferred to how they ran their businesses and factories. Children are challenged to make links between the Quaker religion and how to run successful Victorian businesses.

A detailed lesson plan and a set of informative slides are included with this RE lesson pack, as well as differentiated activity ideas and printable resources.

View RE Lesson 2

Cadbury Quakers

In this RE lesson, children will discover the different ways the Cadbury family, who were Quakers, were pioneers for factory workers’ welfare.

Your class will learn about how the factory owners cared for their workers in different ways, such as building Bournville village for their workers to live in. Children are challenged to reflect on how these actions might have affected workers’ morale and improved their lives.

This KS2 RE pack contains everything you need to deliver the lesson, including a detailed plan, a slideshow presentation, and a choice of differentiated activities.

View RE Lesson 3