This Year 7 History lesson introduces students to Leonidas as a defining figure in Spartan leadership and the Greco‑Persian Wars. The resource helps students examine how Leonidas’ command at Thermopylae became a powerful example of military discipline, civic duty, and resistance against overwhelming odds. Students analyse his role as a Spartan king, battlefield commander, and later cultural symbol in Greek and global history.

The lesson follows a clear case study structure: who he was, what he did, what evidence survives, and why he matters historically. Students explore Leonidas’ position within the Spartan system, the strategic context of the Persian invasion, and the surviving accounts of Thermopylae from ancient writers. A range of student activities support source analysis, discussion and debate, creative and divergent thinking, structured writing, and short consolidation checks. The transferable skill is evaluating leadership, sacrifice, and historical memory through evidence.

This resource is provided as non‑editable PDFs and is not designed as editable PowerPoints. Teachers can upload slides to their LMS, print selected pages for classroom use, display them to support discussion, analysis, and writing, or upload them to presentation or design platforms if they wish to adapt the material (formatting may vary depending on the program).