Services for Schools and Colleges

Shropshire Archives is the archives and local studies service for the county of Shropshire and the Borough of Telford & Wrekin, holding 5 ˝ miles of material relating to the historic county of Shropshire from the 12th century to the present day and beyond! We are always keen to support schools and colleges, teachers and students so see what we have on offer and let us bring Shropshire’s history to life!

Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History in Shropshire

A resource for teachers and students, Key Stages 3, 4 and beyond

This MLA West Midlands funded project brought together a teacher from the William Brookes School in Much Wenlock with Shropshire Archives. The resulting resource uses archive material from the collections of Shropshire Archives, along with newly gathered video interviews with local people, to look at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, both in Shropshire, and in its wider national context.

Its aim is to support the National Curriculum in encouraging discussion of, and respect for, difference and diversity and to provide an innovative approach to combating homophobic and transphobic bullying.

Combining historical sources with debate of very current issues, this is a cross-curricular resource, relevant to PSHE, Citizenship, History, RE and English. It includes case studies relating to Shropshire people, exercises and worksheets to use with students, plus helplines and contact details for many support organizations.

Their Past Your Future 2 Project

Shropshire Archives worked with the Shropshire Regimental Museum on this joint project to produce educational resources for Shropshire schools.

Within the museum and the archive collections there is a wide range of photographs, letters and contemporary documents which can illustrate the impact that wars have had on the people of Shropshire. The project enabled us to present these resources in an interesting and accessible way for teachers and pupils to use. Images and documents were selected and reproduced in a booklet and CD on each of the World Wars and a free pack was given to each Shropshire school.

Children from a local primary and secondary school had the opportunity to meet and interview war veterans and many were encouraged then to explore their own family’s experiences and memories of the World Wars. To highlight the cross-curricular potential of archive material, each school also took part in creative writing workshops with local poet, Barry Tench. Examples of First World War poetry, including the Shropshire born war poet Wilfred Owen, were explored and children were able to write their own poems.

Focus Packs

Ideal for primary schools doing a local study. Designed as a teachers’ resource and for classroom use with Key Stages 1 and 2 children, the packs contain copies of a wide range of primary and secondary source material for any Shropshire town or village and can be used across the National Curriculum. Primary sources include Ordnance Survey, county and field-name maps; census returns; parish registers; directories; school returns; photographs; sale particulars; newspapers.

Focus Packs can be adapted for use by secondary schools and colleges too.

Focus Packs cost £35.00 (plus postage and packing dependant upon size of pack).

You can download a Focus Pack order form from this page.

Information Packs

Smaller than the Focus Packs, these are copies of primary and secondary source material for particular topics or themes and can be tailored for KS 1 through to ‘A’ level. We can advise on the availability of source material for any topic to which you wish to give a Shropshire slant or to study in depth. Recent packs have included ‘Evacuees in Shropshire in WWII’, ‘Birmingham-Liverpool Canal at Market Drayton’, ‘The Creation and Development of Telford’.

Information Packs vary in price depending on the topic and sources available.

You can download an Information Pack order form from this page.

Class/Group Visits

These are usually 2 hour sessions on Mondays, or Thursday afternoons, giving students the chance to look at a wide range of original archive documents as well as microfiche sources, books, maps, CD ROMs etc. Visits can be arranged to suit classes from KS2 through to ‘A’ level students and beyond. Sessions cost £40 for Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin LEA schools; £50 for independent/out of county schools.

And for primary schools who would find it difficult to bring a class to Shropshire Archives, we can come to you! Please contact us for further details.

All primary school classes have a mid-session break with a drink provided. There is a coffee room with a drinks machine but we cannot provide a dining area.

Personal Development Days/Staff Visits

If your staff would like to find out what is in Shropshire Archives and how they can use our sources and services, we can arrange half or full day sessions to suit your needs.

Teachers’ Courses

We run training courses at Shropshire Archives during the school year, often in conjunction with the Shropshire Education Business Partnership. Please look out for our course publicity and take the opportunity to visit us.

Staff at Shropshire Archives who can help you

Kerry Dickins is the Librarian at Shropshire Archives with responsibility for education. If you would like to know more about the Archives and the services we can provide for you, please contact Kerry by phone on (01743) 255350 or e-mail archives@shropshire.gov.uk

Go on-line to discover Shropshire Routes to Roots

Shropshire County Library Service teamed up with its County Council partners to put together a website looking at aspects of Shropshire's history: ranging from Victorian Crime and Detection, to World Wars One and Two. Digitising aspects of the local history collections held at Shropshire Archives and Oswestry Library, the Shropshire Routes to Roots team has produced on-line history resources that can be used by teachers in their lesson preparation, in the classroom or as printable sources. Discover more by visiting their website - a link has been included on this page.

Telford Culture Zone

Telford Culture Zone was a three year project where staff from Shropshire Archives worked in a group of Telford schools alongside partners from five other cultural organisations: CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra), Birmingham Rep, DanceXchange, Telford Libraries and Ironbridge Gorge Museum. Find out more by visiting the Culture Zone website using the link on this page.

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