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Soldier to Healer

Sir Walter Raleigh's Medicinal Garden at the Tower

About this learning resource

Format: PDF

Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned at the Tower of London for 13 years. This lesson pack explores how Raleigh struggled with poor mental and physical health before discovering he could help rebuild his own wellbeing by developing a medicinal garden outside his prison cell and preparing plant-based remedies. Through understanding Raleigh's struggles and how he turned growing medicinal plants into an effective coping mechanism, students are encouraged to reflect on how they can support their own mental and physical wellbeing in times of anxiety or change.

National Curriculum links

  • Give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings
  • Drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence
  • Distinguish between statements of fact and opinion

Learning objectives

  • Know who Sir Walter Raleigh was and some key facts about his life
  • Understand the impact Raleigh’s imprisonment had on his mental and physical health and how some of the activities he did while imprisoned may have improved them
  • Identify similar or different activities that they can do themselves to improve their own mental and physical health

Resource Information

Key Stage

  • KS2 (age 7-11)

Subjects

  • PSHE
  • English

Topic

  • Stuarts
  • Elizabethans
  • Crime & Punishment

Type

  • Lesson ideas

Palace

  • Tower of London
back to Learning resources

Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned at the Tower of London for 13 years. Under constant threat of execution, Raleigh struggled with poor mental health. Learn about Sir Walter Raleigh through the story of his imprisonment in the Tower of London and his medicinal garden.

Key Stage

  • KS2 (age 7-11)
  • KS3 (age 11-14)
  • KS4 (age 15-16)
  • KS5 (age 16+)
  • SEND
  • Home Educators

Subject

  • History
  • PSHE

Topic

  • Stuarts
  • Elizabethans
  • Crime & Punishment

Self-guided historical enquiry designed to support GCSE students studying the Normans, in particular the AQA historic environment of Norman England.

Key Stage

  • KS4 (age 15-16)
  • KS5 (age 16+)

Subject

  • History

Topic

  • Normans

A selection of primary and secondary image and written sources

Key Stage

  • KS4 (age 15-16)

Subject

  • History

Topic

  • Historic Environment