Learning activities
Starter
activities
Starter activity Sa (Links to any
main activity)
Ask the children what popular things there
are to do in a seaside resort. From this information, the teacher
could ask children to suggest connected jobs and write a list on
the board, for example eat ice creams = ice cream seller. Sort
into Victorian and non-Victorian jobs. Use Source 6a or 6b, guide
book extracts. Add to the list other jobs learnt from the
sources.
Starter activity Sb (Links to any
main activity)
Look at a collection of local modern
postcards (these would have to be sourced in advance). What
information can be gained from looking at these both in terms of
pictorial and written information? Compare to the Victorian picture
sources of West Sussex seaside towns (note: more are available in
the website's Source Gallery, search with keyword 'seaside'). What
are the differences? What jobs did people do?
You may wish to source images of more
industrial jobs such as mining or working in factories. Why were
these jobs not found in West Sussex?
Starter activity Sc (Links to any
main activity)
Discuss: Why do people visit the beaches in
England? What do they do there? What do they expect to see? Why do
people still come to the beaches in Sussex?
Explain that in Victorian times, Worthing
was an important holiday resort. Ask children how we could find out
about Victorian Worthing or other seaside towns - what sources
could we use?
Look at Source 6a and 6b and discuss why
Worthing became an important resort (beliefs that the sea was
healing and so on).
Main
activities
Main activity Ma (Links to any
starter activity and plenary activity)
Introduce the sources on bathing (Sources
2, 3, 4 and 5). Ask the children to study in groups and give
feedback. What is happening in these pictorial sources? Explain
that 'taking the sea air' by walking on the beach and bathing in
the sea or in baths became very popular in Victorian times.
From these sources, compile a list of jobs
that this may have generated, for example handyman to fix
machines, people to drag machines into and out of water, bath
attendants, bath-chair operators, and such like.
Children to write a diary entry about being
a character working in a Victorian seaside resort. Children to draw
on sources to think about who they meet, why they have come to the
resort/baths/bathing machines and so on. Less able children could
role play a scene pretending that they are in character.
Main activity Mb (Links to any
starter activity and plenary activity)
Working independently or in groups,
children to complete activity sheets, either on paper copies using
sources or on computers.
Main activity Mc (Links to any
starter activity and plenary activity)
Study the sources in groups. Give the
children a copy of a picture of Victorian Worthing, Bognor or
Littlehampton (note: more are available in the website's Source
Gallery, search with keyword 'seaside'). Explain that this is the
front of a postcard.
Children to think about what they may have
done if they had visited the resort as a Victorian. Fill in the
back of the postcard to describe what you did on your holiday at
the seaside. More able children could try and emulate the language
drawn from the sources. Less able could design their own postcard
picture to depict the Victorian scene. Share postcards at the
end.
Main activity Md (Links to any
starter activity and plenary activity)
Children to study the sources on bathing
(Sources 2, 3, 4, 5, and the Bread's Guide Book section of 6a).
Children to be detectives and try to discover the answer to the
question 'What is bathing and why was it popular in Victorian
times?' Feedback and discuss.
Children to then write an advertisement to
persuade people to come and visit their bathing machines. Children
to work in groups and draw on the sources for ideas and
vocabulary.
Plenary
activities
Plenary activity Pa (Links to any
starter and main activity)
Discuss why West Sussex seaside resorts are
not visited by as many people today as in the Victorian era? Why
have jobs and facilities changed?
Plenary activity Pb (Links to any
starter and main activity but particularly Md)
Discuss how seaside bathing has changed -
change in modesty, change in belief about health benefits, rise in
built swimming pools and so on.
Plenary activity Pc (Links to any
starter and main activity but particularly Ma)
Share the children's work and discuss what
they have discovered about jobs in Victorian seaside resorts.
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