History · Year 2

Active learning ideas

Votes for Women: The Suffragettes

Active learning helps pupils grasp the suffragettes’ struggle because it transforms abstract rights into lived experience. When children role-play protests or design persuasive posters, they feel the frustration of exclusion and the power of collective action.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• KS1: History - Significant individuals in the past
• KS1: History - Events beyond living memory

• 25–40 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Stations Rotation
• 35 min · Small Groups

Role-Play: Suffragette Protest

Divide class into groups representing Suffragettes. Provide props like sashes and placards with slogans such as 'Votes for Women'. Groups march around the classroom chanting and discuss how leaders responded. End with a circle share of feelings experienced.

Who were the Suffragettes and what were they fighting for?

Facilitation Tip

Before the role-play, give each group a card naming one strategy (petition, march, window-breaking, hunger strike) so they can research it first.

What to look for

Provide students with a picture of a Suffragette protest. Ask them to write two sentences describing what is happening and one sentence explaining why the women are protesting.

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Activity 02

• Timeline Challenge
• 40 min · Pairs

Timeline Challenge: Road to Votes

Prepare a large timeline strip. Pupils in pairs add illustrated events, like the 1903 formation of the WSPU or 1913 Derby Day protest, using sticky notes and drawings. Sequence them together as a class and retell the story.

What did the Suffragettes do to try to make people listen to them?

Facilitation Tip

Use a 1-meter strip of paper for the timeline so pupils physically stand and place events, making 20 years feel tangible.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Imagine you wanted to convince the government to change a rule. Would you use peaceful marches or more disruptive actions like the Suffragettes? Explain your choice, considering what might be most effective.'

• Remember
• Understand
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Activity 03

• Stations Rotation
• 30 min · Individual

Poster Campaign: Make Your Case

Pupils design posters arguing for women's votes, using colours, pictures, and simple slogans. Share in a gallery walk where peers vote on the most persuasive. Connect to real Suffragette methods.

Why do you think it is important that everyone has the right to vote?

Facilitation Tip

Have pupils vote with colored paper slips to make the simulation’s outcome visible and immediate.

What to look for

Show images of key Suffragettes, like Emmeline Pankhurst. Ask students to identify the person and state one action they took to fight for the right to vote.

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Activity 04

• Simulation Game
• 25 min · Whole Class

Simulation Game: Class Vote

Pose a class decision, like choosing playground games. First vote excludes half the class to mimic no votes for women, then include everyone. Discuss fairness and link to Suffragettes' goal.

Who were the Suffragettes and what were they fighting for?

What to look for

Provide students with a picture of a Suffragette protest. Ask them to write two sentences describing what is happening and one sentence explaining why the women are protesting.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers often begin with a short, vivid image or quote to anchor the topic in emotion, then move to structured inquiry. Avoid presenting the suffragettes as simply ‘heroes’ or ‘troublemakers’—instead, frame them as strategists responding to systemic exclusion. Research shows children grasp historical change best when they see cause-and-effect links between actions and reactions in society.

Successful learning looks like pupils explaining both peaceful and militant strategies with examples, sequencing key events in order, and justifying their own persuasive arguments using suffragette evidence. They should articulate why persistence and visibility mattered.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Role-Play: Suffragette Protest, watch for pupils assuming suffragettes only used violence.

  Hand each group their role card at the start, which includes both a peaceful and a militant action. After the role-play, ask groups to share why they chose the actions they did, highlighting that militancy followed years of peaceful efforts.

• During Timeline: Road to Votes, watch for pupils thinking women gained the vote right after the first protests.

  Place a large blank space on the timeline between 1903 and 1918 to represent years with no vote change. Ask pupils to explain why the gap exists, then fill it with key events like the 1913 Cat and Mouse Act.

• During Simulation: Class Vote, watch for pupils believing voting rights were instantly granted to all women.

  After the simulation, display two columns on the board: ‘Equal vote’ and ‘Unequal vote.’ Ask pupils to move their slips into the correct column and explain why some groups gained rights first while others did not.

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Methods used in this brief

• Stations Rotation
• Timeline Challenge
• Simulation Game