Lesson E2: Role playing jobs in the workhouse
By Sue Carter and Gail Brown, Redhills Primary
Discuss the information collected from the range of sources on this website.
In MAG children to role play various jobs. As a group children to develop scripts in order to perform to each other and, perhaps to other year groups.
Extension - changing attitudes to disability
By Sarah Scaife, RAMM Curator of West Exe
My brother Liam, who has Down's Syndrome, dressing up as a rich Victorian gentleman
From the private collection of Sarah Scaife
One of the sources on the previous page includes the outdated word 'imbecile'. You could use this as part of classroom work to explore changing attitudes to disability.
In Victorian times the workhouse was sometimes the only home available to people with special needs. It is not clear from the source if the work of pumping water and making clothes and shoes was actually done by some of the residents with learning disabilities.