History · Year 10

Active learning ideas

End of Public Execution: 1868 Act

Active learning works for this topic because holding Victorian executions to public scrutiny reveals how historical change happened through debate and evidence. When students examine sources, role-play reformers, and create media, they see that reform was contested and complex rather than simply a moral improvement.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• GCSE: History - Crime and Punishment Through Time
• GCSE: History - Industrial Britain

• 35–50 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Formal Debate
• 50 min · Small Groups

Source Stations: Carnival of Crime

Set up stations with eyewitness accounts, cartoons, and newspaper reports on public hangings. Students in small groups spend 10 minutes per station noting evidence of chaos and brutality, then share findings in a class carousel. Conclude with a vote on whether executions deterred crime.

Explain why public executions became seen as a 'carnival of crime'.

Facilitation Tip

During Source Stations, provide students with one eyewitness account and one official report at each station so they compare emotional and bureaucratic language directly.

What to look for

Pose this question to students: 'Imagine you are a Member of Parliament in 1868. Write a short speech (3-4 sentences) arguing for or against the Capital Punishment Amendment Act, referencing at least one reason why public executions were problematic.'

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

Activity 02

• Formal Debate
• 45 min · Pairs

Debate Pairs: Civilised Progress?

Pair students to prepare arguments for and against the Act marking a more civilised society, using provided reformers' quotes and crime stats. Pairs debate in a fishbowl format, with the class noting persuasive evidence. Rotate roles for second round.

Analyze how the abolition of public hangings changed the nature of punishment.

Facilitation Tip

For Debate Pairs, give each pair a role card and a short set of facts to ensure their arguments are grounded in evidence, not speculation.

What to look for

Ask students to complete a 'Then and Now' T-chart. On one side, they list three characteristics of public executions before 1868. On the other, they list three characteristics of executions after 1868, focusing on the change in location and audience.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

Activity 03

• Formal Debate
• 40 min · Small Groups

Timeline Role-Play: Reformers' Perspectives

Assign roles like Dickens, magistrates, or prisoners to individuals. Groups construct a human timeline of events leading to 1868, sharing one key viewpoint per 'year'. Discuss how privacy changed punishment's impact.

Evaluate if the end of public execution marked a more 'civilised' society.

Facilitation Tip

In Timeline Role-Play, assign each student a reformer or official with a distinct viewpoint so the debate reflects the range of Victorian opinion.

What to look for

Students write one sentence explaining why the term 'carnival of crime' was applied to public executions and one sentence explaining how the 1868 Act aimed to change this.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

Activity 04

• Formal Debate
• 35 min · Whole Class

Newspaper Front Page: Whole Class Challenge

As a class, brainstorm headlines and articles on the Act's passage. Divide into editor teams to draft and vote on content, incorporating key questions. Display pages for peer review.

Explain why public executions became seen as a 'carnival of crime'.

Facilitation Tip

For the Newspaper Front Page, require students to include one headline, three articles, and one illustration to practice synthesizing multiple perspectives in one artifact.

What to look for

Pose this question to students: 'Imagine you are a Member of Parliament in 1868. Write a short speech (3-4 sentences) arguing for or against the Capital Punishment Amendment Act, referencing at least one reason why public executions were problematic.'

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Decision-Making

A few notes on teaching this unit

Experienced teachers approach this topic by treating reform as a negotiation between morality and practicality. Avoid presenting the 1868 Act as an inevitable humanitarian victory. Instead, use primary sources to show crowd behavior, public health risks, and political pressure as real forces for change. Research suggests that students grasp continuity best when they plot events on a timeline and see the 1965 abolition as an endpoint of gradual reform rather than a sudden shift.

Successful learning looks like students explaining why public executions failed as deterrents and how the 1868 Act addressed practical problems. They should connect sources, debates, and timelines to describe continuity and change in punishment philosophy.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Source Stations: Carnival of Crime, students may assume public executions were orderly events.

  During Source Stations: Carnival of Crime, direct students to compare the official tone of a magistrate’s report with the chaotic details in a newspaper account, prompting them to question the idea of order.

• During Debate Pairs: Civilised Progress?, students may think the 1868 Act was only about humane treatment.

  During Debate Pairs: Civilised Progress?, have students use their role cards to argue for public safety, crowd control, or cost savings alongside moral concerns, showing multiple drivers of reform.

• During Timeline Role-Play: Reformers' Perspectives, students may believe executions ended completely in 1868.

  During Timeline Role-Play: Reformers' Perspectives, ask students to note the 1965 abolition on the timeline and explain why the 1868 Act did not end capital punishment entirely.

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Methods used in this brief

• Formal Debate