After this discussion, Dr. Riley posed further questions: "What was life really like in the Victorian countryside? How do we test this out?" Together, the group came up with a list of possible sources:

 

Census Data
Diaries and letters
Novels and other literature
Other paintings and illustrations
Photographs
Oral Tradition
Songs and music
Artefacts
Government statistics

 

 

 

Each lesson in the enquiry then focuses on a range of such sources in turn. Dr. Riley gave an example of this process by sharing the following extract from a parliamentary commission investigating the conditions of Victorian children labouring in the countryside: Download Riley_resource_1 (attached below)

The group was divided into pairs and set a two-minute period of silent reading. The next step would be to turn the resource into a question and answer session, with one person in each pair taking the role of the interviewer (the commissioner), the other a witness. Each pair rehearsed the interview based on the evidence in the extract. Each roleplay was then performed in front of the class.

 

 

Afterwards, Dr. Riley posed further questions, such as: "What were the commissioners interested in?" It was concluded that the commissioners were concerned with health and safety, hours, ages, payments and possible mistreatment. Dr. Riley also stressed that the interpretation of the Victorian countryside within Redgrave's painting is not an interpretation in the National Curriculum sense, because the interpretation pupils need to be focusing on should be subsequent to the time period being studied.