History at key stage 3    (Year 8)

• Give pupils examples of photographs of modern political leaders that are clearly the result of planned 'photo opportunities'. Discuss the impression that each picture is intended to convey. Introduce the concept of 'propaganda'. Show the pupils more extreme forms of propaganda, such as pictures and posters glorifying various twentieth-century dictators. Ask students to annotate pictures with comments on how the person depicted wants to be seen.

• As a whole-class activity brainstorm pupils' knowledge of Elizabeth I.
• Show pupils a portrait of Elizabeth, eg the 'Rainbow' or 'Armada' portrait. Help pupils make careful observations of the portrait, either by asking small groups to recreate the pose, or by asking each pupil in turn to make an observation about the portrait, eg She is wearing a lot of pearls; There are ships in the background.
• Provide groups of pupils with a copy of the portrait and a large sheet of paper on which they can note their observations and questions they would like to ask. Ask pupils to try to group their questions, eg those to do with clothes, those to do with why this portrait was painted.
• Lead class discussion of pupils' observations and questions, drawing out issues of propaganda, including the use of symbols.

• Remind pupils of the portrait of Elizabeth I and of how it portrayed her not as she was, but as she wanted people to believe she was.
• Tell pupils that portraits often carry that sort of message when they are commissioned by the sitter, but that some carry messages that are not so obvious.
• Show pupils a sixteenth-century family portrait, eg Lord Cobham and his family, Sir Richard Saltonstall and his family, and initiate a whole-class discussion on the 'messages' it conveys. Are there likely to be differences between what a sixteenth-century person understood by the 'message' and what a person nowadays would understand? If appropriate, more than one portrait could be discussed in this way.
• Give pupils, in pairs or small groups, an eighteenth-century family portrait, eg Mr and Mrs Andrews, Robert Gwillym of Atherton. Ask pupils to identify similarities/differences between the portraits, eg clothes, background, and then brainstorm the 'messages' in them. If appropriate, different groups could be given different portraits - pupils annotate 'their' portraits.
• Talk about differences and similarities in the 'messages' from portraits at the beginning of the period compared with portraits at the end.
• Tell pupils that there are portraits that carry coded messages that only a few people would be able to interpret. Show pupils a portrait that includes a deliberately coded message, eg the 'Sunflower' self-portrait attributed to Van Dyck, and explain the hidden codes.
• Pupils, individually or in pairs or small groups, design a portrait of a specific individual. The intention is not to draw a likeness, but to include coded messages that the individual or an artist would wish to be understood by people viewing the portrait.

• Give pupils a range of reproductions of portraits of kings, queens and leading individuals 1500-1750.
• Working in pairs or small groups, pupils sort the portraits into different categories. Ask pupils to work out their own categories to sort and re-sort. Pupils could be given, initially, a small number of portraits to sort and then these could gradually be added to and pupils would need to re-categorise.
• Lead a class discussion on differences between the categories and how the grouping of portraits altered as the categories changed.
• Ask pupils to rank the persons portrayed from the most powerful to the least powerful.
• Lead a class discussion on the reasons behind the ranking.
• Ask pupils to put the portraits in chronological order, and ask questions about the criteria they used, eg How did you do this? What clues did you get from the portraits? How would you check if you were right?
• Pupils undertake research to identify the individuals and to confirm their decisions about chronology, and use their findings to contribute to the creation of a class timeline.
• Placing portraits along a timeline could show how people's lives overlapped and interlinked, and could be accompanied by mini-biographies.

• Discuss the limitations of portraits as sources of information. Ask the pupils to list questions about life 1500-1750 that cannot be answered by using portraits. Discuss how we can learn more, eg about the lives of poor people at the time.

• Tell pupils that they have been commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, in London, to design a travelling exhibition for schools about important and powerful people in Britain 1500-1750. Exhibition space is very small. Out of, say, 20 portraits that are available, there is room for only 10. Pupils must decide which portraits to include and which to leave out.
• Discuss with pupils the criteria they must use to select the 10 portraits for the exhibition. Establish that the pictures must show the most important figures in the story of the development of Britain 1500-1750.
• In addition to 'importance', pupils must make decisions about how interesting the intended audience of pupils of their own age will find the stories associated with each portrait. Having made these selection decisions, pupils research captions to explain the part played by each individual in the overall story of Britain 1500-1750.
• When the pupils have created the exhibition, ask them to reflect on their interpretation. Ask them to justify their selection decisions and to show how they have used their knowledge to ensure the right choices. Ask them to explain why different members of the class have come to different decisions. Encourage them to see connections between the process they have undertaken and the work of professional museum curators.
• Pupils could be asked to make a further selection of just one figure (one which they believe is the most important in attracting people to the exhibition) to go on a poster advertising the exhibition. They could be asked to produce a précis of no more than 100 words justifying their choice.