YHGfL - Making the most of your broadband

History and topical events can really be brought to life thanks to this new offer, through which the YHGfL Foundation has joined forces with the other nine RBCs around the country to secure a deal with British Pathe.

The result of this is that connected schools have free access to high resolution footage and stills of millions of ground-breaking events around the world.

Pathe, which is now 75 years old, was the world’s first digital news archive and is probably most widely remembered for its bi-weekly newsreel, featured in every cinema in the land in past decades.

It now boasts 12 million still images and 3,500 hours of video footage – all of which can be downloaded for free by schools connected to the grid through one of the Regional Grids for Learning.

At the touch of a button, illustrations can be found to add to projects from all areas of the curriculum. This will save hours of time which would otherwise have to be spent trawling through different sources.

The contents will not only relate to history topics but to many others too. For instance, anyone interested in the current Cricket Test, or the forthcoming European Football Championships, can find images of past great tournaments to put events into perspective.

However, for those studying historical events it is the place to look. For example, with the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings having just taken place, you may be interested in looking at the photos and video footage of soldiers landing on the beaches.

Or, with the death of former US President, Ronald Reagan, you could put his time in office into perspective by looking at other US presidents, of whom there is a wide variety of photos and footage on the site.

This page provides a step by step 'HowTo' guide about accessing the content on the Pathe site.