Elizabeth I in Cambridge

Arbury History Curriculum Project

Welcome to the Arbury History Curriculum Project in partnership with Arbury Primary School and the University of Cambridge. Our project is aimed at enriching pupil understanding of local history and prehistory in the Cambridgeshire area by providing resources that are usable and accessible for teachers in the classroom. We have liaised with teachers from Arbury Primary School and researchers from the University of Cambridge to provide teaching materials which can be included in a primary school history curriculum and are based on the latest academic research.

Elizabeth I in Cambridge

In 1564 Queen Elizabeth I visited Cambridge on her royal procession. As part of the teaching of the Tudors in primary school, we created several resources to help explain the role of the monarch in this period, Queen Elizabeth’s procession in Cambridge, and the ways in which these are researched.

In March 2025 we visited the Kings’ College archive to interview College Archivist Tom Davies about his work and to introduce the original Tudor era documents they have in their collection. We produced three interview style videos to talk about what he does in his job. To accompany this, we have scans of the important documents which attain to Queen Elizabeth I’s visit from the archives at Kings that can be printed at high resolution, a lesson plan, and PowerPoint presentation.

Lesson presentations

PDF Lesson plan – Elizabeth I

Graphic Resources for this project (Zip file)

Elizabeth_1

Other resources:

Video at King’s College archives

Video: What does an archivist do?

Video: King’s College archives part 3

Feedback

We would love to hear from teachers and educators who have used our materials in their lessons. Please use our feedback form to share how you have used the work from the Arbury History Curriculum Project. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for improvement, we’d be delighted to hear from you.