You are at the top of the page

Skip to content or footer

Start of main content

Soldier to Healer

Sir Walter Raleigh's Medicinal Garden at the Tower

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

  • For the classroom

Palace

  • Tower of London
back to Learning resources

Children depict the imprisonment of Guy Fawkes in the Tower of London for his role in the Gunpowder Plot, 1605.

Key Stage

  • KS2 (age 7-11)

Subject

  • History

Topic

  • Stuarts
  • Crime & Punishment

Key facts about the Tudor King and each of his six wives.

Key Stage

  • KS2 (age 7-11)
  • KS3 (age 11-14)
  • Home Educators
  • International

Subject

  • History

Topic

  • Tudors

Will your students be able to piece together the story behind these intriguing historic artefacts?

Key Stage

  • KS1 (age 5-7)
  • KS2 (age 7-11)
  • KS3 (age 11-14)
  • KS4 (age 15-16)
  • KS5 (age 16+)
  • Home Educators
  • SEND

Subject

  • History
  • English
  • Science
  • Art & Design

Topic

  • Wars