1. Wars of the Roses - The Tudors - KS3 History Lesson Plan

This lesson provides a rigorous yet accessible introduction to the dynastic conflict between the Houses of House of York and House of Lancaster, situating the crisis within the weak rule of Henry VI and the political instability of the fifteenth century.
Designed for KS3 but underpinned by secure subject knowledge, the resource:

• Clearly chunks content into causation (long/short term), key events, consequences
• Uses structured enquiry questions to build disciplinary thinking (change, causation, significance)
• Includes scaffolded genealogy diagrams and sentence stems for SEND/EAL
• Provides dual-coded timelines and retrieval grids
• Incorporates an engaging “claim–counterclaim” activity on whether the wars were about power, personality or legitimacy
  This lesson builds essential conceptual foundations for later Tudor study and GCSE thematic work on monarchy and power.