Aberfan Teaching Resources: A Reliable Guide for Families and Schools
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Good Aberfan teaching resources begin with a short, factual source from an official archive, then add photographs, testimony or longer reading only after an adult has previewed it. A resource can be historically valuable and still be too upsetting, too detailed or too difficult for a particular learner on a particular day.
This guide does not assign one fixed age to the subject. Instead, it separates materials for adult-supported first learning, teacher-led secondary work and older learners who are ready to examine original evidence. It also explains why a book called The Children of Aberfan should not automatically be treated as a children's book.
Which Aberfan teaching resources suit each learner?
No official webpage can tell you that every child in a year group is ready for the same material. A learner's prior knowledge, recent experience of bereavement, additional needs and the way the material will be introduced all matter. The labels below are a cautious starting point, not a clinical or curriculum judgement.
| Learning situation | Useful first material | Adult check |
|---|---|---|
| Younger learner with an adult | A map, a small wordbank and a brief factual explanation | Select the exact pages in advance and avoid graphic aftermath images |
| Teacher-led secondary lesson | National Library material and the Hwb teacher notes | Give a content warning, a clear enquiry question and a way to step out |
| Older secondary or post-16 enquiry | Letters, transcripts, audio and tribunal material | Separate what a source says from what it can prove |
| Older teen or adult reading | Oral histories and detailed historical studies | Check descriptions and sample pages rather than relying on the title |
For the historical account itself, use our separate guide to the causes, responsibility and legacy of the Aberfan disaster. This page has a different job: helping you choose and use learning material responsibly.
The best first stop: National Library of Wales
The National Library of Wales Aberfan learning resource brings several kinds of evidence together. It includes an interactive presentation, a landslide map, a wordbank, extracts from the tribunal report, photographs and ITV film stills. Its suggested questions cover cause, community impact and different viewpoints.
That range is useful, but it should not all be opened at once. For a first introduction, an adult can choose the map, a few words and one short factual passage. Images and film stills from the day need separate previewing. The Library's wider Aberfan digital exhibition is better for a learner who is ready to follow evidence across letters, plans, reports, photographs and later community redevelopment.
In Welsh, adnoddau dysgu means learning resources. The term is a helpful reminder that a resource is material to learn with, not a complete lesson on its own. The adult still chooses the question, pace and stopping point.
For teachers: plan a calm, teacher-led lesson
The Hwb-hosted Ideas for teachers PDF offers a lesson aim, maps, possible questions and activities. It is planning material for an educator, not a page to hand to a child without context. Some suggestions use disaster photographs, film stills or imagined viewpoints, so the teacher should decide what is necessary and what can be left out.
A conservative lesson plan can be both serious and humane:
- Preview every item. Do not assume that an archive or education label makes every linked image suitable for every group.
- Explain the content before showing it. Tell learners what kind of source they will meet and why it is being used.
- Offer a genuine alternative. A learner should be able to pause or work with a map or written summary instead of an upsetting image or audio clip.
- Avoid dramatic role-play. Learners do not need to imagine a victim's final moments or perform a bereaved family's grief to understand the history.
- End with responsibility and community. Bring the enquiry back to evidence, decisions, remembrance and how the community is represented.
Schools should fit the lesson to their own safeguarding and pastoral procedures, particularly where pupils have recent experience of loss or trauma. The purpose is not to remove emotion from the subject. It is to prevent distress from becoming the teaching method.
Use archives to ask what a source can prove
The National Archives Aberfan education page includes original letters, transcripts and audio. These are valuable for older learners because they preserve reactions written close to the disaster. They also show why a primary source is not automatically a neutral one.
Four short questions keep the enquiry grounded:
- Who made this source, and when?
- Who was meant to receive or see it?
- What does it tell us directly?
- What would we need another source to check?
A letter can reveal what its writer believed, feared or wanted the government to do. It cannot by itself establish every cause or settle responsibility. For those questions, compare it with the tribunal evidence and the carefully sourced account in our Aberfan history guide.
Books and programmes: check the audience before the title
The Children of Aberfan by Sue Elliott, Steve Humphries and Bevan Jones was published by Monoray in July 2026. The publisher describes a social and oral history built from the voices of people who were there. Despite its title, it is not presented as a children's picture book or classroom primer. Treat it as detailed reading for older teens or adults unless a parent or teacher has previewed the exact edition and decided otherwise.
For adult or advanced study, the National Library's further-reading list includes Iain McLean and Martin Johnes's Aberfan: Government and Disaster, Gaynor Madgwick and Greg Lewis's community account, and other memoirs and studies. The useful question is not which title sounds gentlest. Check the publisher's description, contents, sample pages and the learner's purpose.
S4C has commissioned Aberfan - Arwyr ein Cwm, a 30-minute factual programme for children presented by Alex Jones to mark the 60th anniversary. A commission listing confirms the programme and intended audience, but not its broadcast date or how long it will remain available. Check S4C immediately before planning a lesson around it.
For the anniversary calendar, broadcasts, exhibitions and participation details, see the separate guide to Aberfan at 60 events and remembrance. Keeping that material separate stops a learning guide from becoming stale when schedules change.
A calm 30-minute learning route
A first session does not need to cover the whole history. A simple route gives learners enough knowledge to ask a responsible question without exposing them to a wall of detail.
Find Aberfan and Merthyr Vale on a map and explain what a colliery spoil tip was.
Read one short factual account chosen and previewed by the adult.
Use one map, letter or report extract and ask what it can and cannot prove.
Write one fact learned, one source question and one point that needs checking.
This route deliberately does not require graphic photographs or personal disclosure. A learner can engage through geography, evidence and public decision-making, then choose whether to go further.
Where to go deeper without losing the human story
Glamorgan Archives welcomes school groups, students and teachers, and says visits can be tailored to a group's locality. Its partnership with the National Library helped bring Aberfan material together online. Contact the archive in advance if you want guidance on records or a visit rather than assuming an item will be available on the day.
October brings a predictable rise in public attention. English Wikipedia page-view data for 2016 to 2025 shows that October was above the median of the other eleven months in every one of those ten years. This is a public-interest proxy, not Google search volume, classroom demand or a measure of remembrance. It explains why reliable resources are especially useful before the anniversary, not why anyone should rush a learner.
The Welsh word cofio means to remember. Good remembrance learning is not created by showing the most shocking material. It comes from accurate evidence, clear context, respect for the people and community, and enough space for the learner to think.
Sources, further reading and image credits
- National Library of Wales: Aberfan learning resource
- The National Archives: Aberfan education resource
- Hwb: Aberfan ideas for teachers
- S4C: 2025/2026 commissions
- Octopus Publishing Group: 2026 catalogue entry for The Children of Aberfan
- Feature image: Aberfan Memorial Garden by DS Pugh via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
- Credits and Creative Commons licence labels for all three body photographs appear directly below the relevant image.
