Victorian child labour in textile factories

What was life like for workhouse children in the early nineteenth century?

The aims of the lesson were for children to:
• gain an understanding of conditions in early nineteenth century mills
• be able to read and interpret difficult and challenging texts
• understand and use language appropriate to a committee of inquiry
• pursue an historical enquiry, raising questions and using original sources.

Wanting to incorporate ICT and to extend a relatively able group within the year 6 class, I chose the SPARTACUS website, which provides a very good child labour simulation. Scroll down the home page to Child Labour 1750-1900.

The children explored the resource material on the site, and followed hyperlinks to find information about children in the Victorian textile factory.

by Christine Williams, Sefton