Two first class learning resources from The British Postal Museum & Archive

The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA) is an educational charity, home to five centuries of British social, communications and design history. In order to bring the remarkable stories contained within its archive to life for school children across the country it has created two FREE first class interactive learning resources supporting cross-curricular learning for Key Stages 1-3.

Last Post: The Postal Service in the First World War, explores the role of the General Post Office (GPO) on the home and fighting fronts and reveals the fascinating human stories of the postal service. War time characters guide children through different topics that tell the story of the essential role of the GPO in the First World War. Pupils will use real archival documents, photographs, maps and museum objects to discover how the postal service went to war.

In Pop It In The Post: How The Penny Black Stamp Changed Our World, Rowland Hill, the man who led the campaign for letters to cost just a penny, explains how the World’s first postage stamp changed life, not only in Britain, but across the globe. In 1840 the impact of the Penny Black was revolutionary. Pupils will discover how Hill’s campaign led ordinary people to be able to afford to send letters for the first time and caused a communication revolution.

Both learning resources support learning across the curriculum and include:

• A downloadable learning resource containing lesson plans, teacher’s notes, image galleries and PowerPoints for whiteboards
• Over 100 activity ideas, using real archival documents, photographs, maps and museum objects to support subjects including Literacy, Maths, Science and Art & Design
• Pop it in the Post also includes:
• A fun animated interactive game for pupils to play and explore the story of the Penny Black
• A short film introducing pupils to Rowland Hill, who explains how his big idea changed the world

Praise for BPMA learning resources:

“Well linked to new 2014 NC (National Curriculum) and appropriate and engaging for the children” KS1&2 Teacher, Croydon

“Great interactive resource” KS3 Teacher, Belfast

Of Last Post “The activities provide flexibility for schools to put their own mark on this important area of history” Year 3 Teacher, Torriano Junior School, London

Last Post and Pop it in the Post can both be downloaded from the learning page of the BPMA website www.postalheritage.org.uk/popitlearning and www.postalheritage.org.uk/fwwlearning