Online resources

Unique collection items & expert commentary related to History, English, Religious Studies & Citizenship.

Looking for one of our older resources? Try the UK Web Archive.

English

  • Photo of Axel Scheffler drawing a Gruffalo on paper at his studio desk. He holds a paint brush in his right hand and is surrounded by pots of ink.

    Discovering Children's Books

    Explore centuries of stories, poems and illustrations with Discovering Children's Books. For children, teachers and book-lovers of all ages.

  • Medieval manuscript with handwritten script and text in the margins

    Discovering Literature: Medieval

    Explore unique collection items & a variety of articles relating to some of the earliest works of & figures in of English literary history.

  • Contemporary illustration featuring character of Titania and various symbols including a skull, sword and mask

    Discovering Literature: Shakespeare & Renaissance writers

    Learn more about the world of Shakespeare & Renaissance writers. Explore a range of critical views on key plays & poems.

  • Crop of an edition of The Adventures of Captain Gulliver, open at the title page with a facing illustration of Gulliver

    Discovering Literature: Restoration & 18th century

    Explore the lives & works of key writers from a period that ushered in political unrest, social change & new literary forms.

  • Shot of the first edition of Dracula by Stam Stoker, the cover features red text on a yellow background

    Discovering Literature: Romantics & Victorians

    Discover some of our greatest literary treasures from the Romantic & Victorian periods, & learn about the historical, social & political contexts in which they were written & set.

  • Drawn back red theatre curtain

    Discovering Literature: 20th century

    Explore the ways in which key 20th-century authors & playwrights experimented with new forms & themes to capture the fast-changing world around them.

  • Photograph of a crowd from above

    British Accents and Dialects

    Do you call a ‘bread roll’ a cob, batch, barm cake or scuffler? How do you pronounce the words cup and plant? Discover the diversity of spoken English in the second half of the 20th century.

  • Photograph of Robert Browning

    Poetry & Performance

    Listen to well-known figures perform readings of poetry by some of Britain & America’s most distinguished poets. Access audio recordings & explore the connections between the poets’ lives & their work.

  • Crop of text from the Beowulf manuscript

    English Language & Literature Timeline

    From the 11th century to the present day, follow the evolution of the English language & our literature decade by decade to uncover the richness & diversity of our poetry & prose.

Religious Studies

  • Discovering Sacred Texts logo

    Discovering Sacred Texts

    Discover the richness & diversity of the texts from some of the world’s greatest faiths. Explore sacred texts from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism & the Baha’i Faith, Jainism & Zoroastrianism.

History

  • Cross section diagram of the Brookes ship, which depicts hundreds of enslaved people laid side-by-side inside a slave ship

    Campaign for Abolition

    Learn about the origins & history of the transatlantic slave trade & the subsequent campaign for its abolition. What can we learn from the abolitionists about equality & justice?

  • Georgian print depicting revellers dancing at a ball

    Georgian Britain

    The Georgian period was a time a great change, as cities grew, trade expanded & popular culture blossomed.

  • Animation still of King John outside a castle holding a 'Worst King in History' mug

    Magna Carta

    Explore the origins & 800-year legacy of Magna Carta, & discover its relevance to justice, liberty & the law today.

  • Illustration of lots of children, anthropomorphised animals and characters in costumes, all playing games and running around in a school playground

    Playtimes

    A collection of articles, film & audio recordings documenting 100 years of children’s songs, rhymes & games.

  • Photograph of Punjabi students at Veeraswamy’s restaurant

    South Asians in Britain

    Uncover the rich & diverse history of South Asians in Britain, from 1858 to 1950, through this collection of contemporary accounts, posters, pamphlets, diaries, newspapers & reports.

  • A marginal illustration of men ploughing of the fields with horses, from the Luttrell Psalter

    The Middle Ages

    Find out about social history in the Middle Ages by exploring illuminated manuscripts and articles revealing the everyday lives of people across the social spectrum.

  • Crop of an illustration from a medieval manuscript, depicting a king and other men on horseback

    Timelines: Sources from History

    From medieval times to the present day, explore collection items chronologically in this beautiful interactive timeline. Discover a wide range of historical sources that reflect everyday life & major political events.

  • 19th century photograph of a woman sat leaning against a street wall, holding a baby

    Victorian Britain

    Discover historical sources and articles written by experts that reveal the everyday reality of living in Victorian Britain.

  • Photograph of snow-covered train tracks and entrance to the Auschwitz-Birkeneau concentration camp. Personal belongings are scattered on the tracks.

    Voices of the Holocaust

    Listen to clips taken from the oral testimonies of Jewish men & women who survived the horrors of the Holocaust.

  • Banner reading 'Votes for Women'

    Votes for Women

    Explore short articles & examine scrapbooks, political pamphlets, photographs & posters to discover how suffragists & suffragettes campaigned for democratic rights.

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    West India Regiments

    Explore changes in racial thought & how British-armed people of African descent served within the wider British army in the 18th & 19th centuries.

  • Photograph showing people arriving at London's Victoria Station from the Carribean via Southampton, mid 20th century

    Windrush Stories

    Explorations of race, migration & culture. Windrush Stories invites us to consider the ongoing relationship between Britain & the Caribbean.

  • Banner illustrated by Erin Aniker. Illustration of a group of people gathering.

    Women's Rights

    Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights highlights the the narratives of feminist activism and women’s rights in the UK. Discover more about the stories, people and events that have shaped society, as well as the work that remains ...

  • Photograph of World War One soldiers lined up in rows, with snowy mountains in background

    World War One

    Discover how World War One affected people on different sides of the conflict via this collection of over 500 historical sources contributed by libraries from across Europe.

Citizenship

  • School students using laptops

    My Digital Rights

    Magna Carta: My Digital Rights provides free classroom resources to support students and teachers as they consider their rights, safety & responsibilities online.

  • Photograph of crowds marching with feminist banners at a Women's Liberation demonstration

    Sisterhood & After

    Listen to the women at the forefront of Britain’s Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1970s & 80s. Learn about what motivated the movement & how women and society reacted to the fight for equality.

  • Collage of front covers from Spare Rib magazines

    Spare Rib

    Explore digitised images from this ground-breaking 20th-century magazine – from sexuality & health to childcare, the arts & legal rights, Spare Rib offers a wealth of themes to investigate.

Featured teaching resources

A range of teaching resources to help you plan lessons, design schemes of work and set homework tasks

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Right to a fair trial

One of the clauses in Magna Carta that remains a part of English Law today, concerns the right to justice and a fair trial. In this activity, the first in a series on this theme, pupils explore two legal cases (one historical and one contemporary) that both contributed to the development of the right to justice and a fair trial.

Ages 11 to 14

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Daily life in the trenches

In this activity students will use primary source material to gain an insight into daily life in the trenches and an appreciation of the kinds of difficulties that the soldiers faced.

Ages 11 to 14

Ages 14 to 16

Ages 16 to 18

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Bronte’s Wuthering Heights: Who is Heathcliff?

Perspectives on the character of Heathcliff in Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

Ages 14 to 16

Ages 16 to 18

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