Teachers' Notes

Resource created by M&S Archive.

Aim of the resource

This resource is part of the M&S 'Making a Mark' suite, about individuals or initiatives that have made a significant impact within M&S in some way. The aim is to show how the actions of one person or group of people can cause changes that affect the lives of ordinary people.

It can also be used to generate ideas and inspire students to make changes in their own community, and to think about issues that matter to them, and how to communicate this.

Curriculum Links

KS1 History: The lives of significant individuals in the past
KS2 History: Changes in an aspect of social history
KS2 & 3 Citizenship: The different ways that a citizen can contribute to the improvement of his or her community
KS3 PSHE: Living in the wider world.

Learning Objectives

To learn about the history of M&S
To find out what life was like in the past
To think about what makes a situation fair or unfair
To think about how to make positive changes in your community
To be able to use archive documents (such as the marriage letter) to understand life in the 1930s

Activity Ideas

KS3 Citizenship

Research Amnesty International and discuss what it is about. Why is it important to have 'campaigning' organisations?

Read the transcription of the responses to Flora's questionnaire and try and work out what the questions were.

Imagine you are the boss of a big organisation. What 'benefits' would you offer your employees? These could include good holidays, a company car or good pay. Remember that your company must be making enough profit to be able to offer any benefits, so think what proportion of your profit you are willing to give up to have happy staff, before you decide what to offer.

Imagine you are the boss of a large company in the past and you are planning an event to celebrate employees who had worked for you for 25 and 40 years? What would the event be like, who would be invited, and what would you give as thank you presents?

Today there are rules about Health and Safety that organisations have to follow. Make a list of as many health and safety rules you can think of that will apply to a large shop.

Now think about staff welfare, what do you think this means? How is it different from health and safety?

KS2 History

Miss May Ness received a gift from M&S when she got married. Find out how much £4.4.0d would be worth in today's money by using the National Archives currency convertor (see Supporting Links in 'Resources')

Ask different people in your family how old they were when they started working, and what the conditions were like in their first job.

Try to find out how working conditions for teachers have changed since Victorian times to now.