800 years of British political and constitutional history
Royal Holloway's Citizens team is producing resources exploring the history of liberty, protest, rebellion and reform from Magna Carta to the Suffragettes and beyond. In particular, we are aligning our resources to complement topics covered in new GCSE options such as AQA's Power and the People c1170 to the present day and OCR's Power: Monarchy and Democracy c1000 to 2007.
We are producing three main types of resources: presenter led resources (including animations and archive images), short animated explainer videos for particular events, movements or concepts, and dramatised speeches and other primary source material.
Example Resources
Presenter Videos
These videos mix presenters with text graphics, animations and archive images.
Animated Explainer Videos
Simple animations to explain key concepts or questions.
Dramatised Primary Sources
Professional actors and Royal Holloway students dramatising original sources.
"Myself and the chief examiner for GCSE were both thoroughly impressed by the range of resources that the Citizens team are planning and, indeed, have already started to develop. The resources go well beyond what I had initially imagined the project would aim to achieve. In addition to the video resources, Citizens will offer high quality primary source documents, digital interactive timelines, case study ‘google maps’, further research and essays by a growing body of volunteers, museums resources, HE modules and more! Citizens will be a history resource of significant importance, not only for AQA students, but for the British History community in general."
Eoin MacGabhann, Head of Curriculum, History, AQA
"I am very excited at the prospect of the Citizens project. This is a splendid opportunity to develop outstanding resources for a brand new unit of the AQA GCSE History course – a course which nationally is proving very popular with teachers and students. The diversity and number of pertinent, interested parties – archives, museums, experts and enthusiasts – as well has the commitment and diverse expertise of staff and students at Royal Holloway gives the project impressive academic capital. Under your direction the project offers immense potential for the creation of innovative and exciting resources which will help teachers deliver engaging lessons in History and citizenship."
Jon Cloake, Chief Examiner, AQA GCSE History
Topics under development
Magna Carta
Simon de Montfort
The Great Revolt
Pilgrimage of Grace
The Civil War
Revolution Overseas
Reforming Parliament
Reforming Society
Votes for Women
Workers' Rights
Equality
Minority Rights
Our process
The Citizens project videos are being produced by a campus based production team, bringing together academics, students and freelance videographers, illustrators and animators. By opening up every stage of the production process to our students we are ensuring that our resources are not only providing an educational experience for our intended audience but for those creating them as well.
We are currently releasing a new video each week on the project's YouTube channel. If you are a teacher planning to use these videos in the classroom please contact us at citizens@rhul.ac.uk to receive a free complementary presentation pack with discussion questions and additional source material - or to make a request for a video on a specific topic or question.
