About the learning resources
Free, simple to download, and curriculum linked, our learning resources contain a huge variety of teaching activities and source material from the Imperial War Museum collections, for easy use inside and outside of the classroom.
The Learning Resources feature ready-made historical enquiries and teaching activities, themed source packs, suggested historical itineraries and practical advice on planning educational visits, and fascinating personal stories, all supported by comprehensive historical notes from the museum’s experts.
Events and themes covered:
- First World War
- Second World War
- The Holocaust
- Empire & Commonwealth
- Post-1945 Conflicts
- Cold War
Six types of learning resources are available:
Historical Notes
What are they?
Historical notes, prepared by the Imperial War Museum’s team of historians, provide a brief and accessible overview of a key historical event, period or theme, and include images from the museum’s collections as illustration.
Who are they aimed at?
The historical notes are for teachers wanting to know more detail about a particular event, period or theme, or those in need of quick and easy-to-follow briefing notes on new historical topics. They can also be used with students as background reading or trusted reference material on related events and themes, aiding chronological understanding and interpretation.
Personal Stories
What are they?
Each of these engaging resources tells the story of one person’s experience of conflict, and how it has helped shape their lives. They use original source material held by the Imperial War Museum to provide a link between broad historical overviews of conflicts and the impact of those events on individuals.
Who are they aimed at?
Personal stories can be used by teachers in lessons to illustrate the human impact of conflict, or as an accessible route into a broader topic. They can be adapted for use with existing teaching activities based around other personal stories. Students may also benefit from using the personal stories as background reading, and as ways to understand the diverse experiences, beliefs and attitudes of men, women and children in the past.
Teaching Activities
What are they?
Teaching activities are for use in formal lessons. Each teaching activity is designed so that it is easily adaptable by the teacher to suit their own needs in the classroom. Activities are not time bound or strict lesson plans, but can be condensed or expanded, depending on the time available and the ability levels of the group. All teaching activities are based on original sources from the Imperial War Museum collection and take investigation as their starting point. The activities come with ready made resources which can be used on an interactive whiteboard or printed out. They also include suggestions for extension activities.
Who are they aimed at?
Teaching activities are designed for use by primary and secondary teachers, and are all clearly linked to curriculum areas and Key Stages.
Source Enquiries
What are they?
Source enquiries are self-contained enquiries based on the format of a GCSE source enquiry paper. They contain original sources from the Imperial War Museum and aim to give students the chance to work with themed sources that they may not have seen before in order to practice the skills needed for source analysis.
Who are they aimed at?
The resources are aimed specifically at GCSE students and their teachers, but can also be adapted for use as source enquiries and gobbet activities for older or younger students, developing skills of historical enquiry and using evidence.
Source Packs
What are they?
Each source pack contains a fascinating range of original sources relating to one historical period, event or theme. They can be used as a whole document or individual sources can be used to support lesson activities or source enquiries.
Who are they aimed at?
Source packs are aimed at teachers looking for original sources for use in lessons or to support other teaching activities. In the source packs we have already searched the huge collections of the Imperial War Museum to bring teachers and students a fantastic collection of primary sources around key topics.
Itineraries
What are they?
These are tried and tested itineraries for historical visits, covering a variety of destinations and events, themes and historical periods. Each itinerary contains a rationale for that visit plus brief descriptions of relevant historic sites, museums and memorials as well as contact and location details for each site, allowing teachers to put together their own learning outside the classroom activities.
Who are they aimed at?
Teachers and educational group leaders who are planning study trips around the exploration of twentieth century conflict and related themes. They help teachers to appreciate and utilise the role of museums, archives and historic sites in preserving, presenting and influencing people’s investigation and understanding of the past.
