In this article, Michael Maddison provides an overview of what schools must do in relation to promoting British values, as well as preventing extremism and radicalisation, and why it is so important that opportunities are taken in history to  deal with these two pressing issues. It is an updated version...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. The last decade has witnessed a massive increase in the use of ICT as a teaching and learning tool within the Primary classroom. Schools are indeed perceived as outmoded without the tools of the trade: the Interactive White Boards, ICT suites,...

In this podcast Dr Hilary Cooper, Professor of History and Pedagogy at the University of Cumbria, looks at why teachers and students seem to enjoy primary history and discusses processes of enquiry, chronological understanding and planning a topic. 1. Ofsted Report History for All published in 2011 said that: "history taught in schools...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. "The focus for much of the planning and the teaching is on pockets of knowledge at basic levels. Thus, the notion that pupils can progress and do better over time in history is not well established...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum - the content on Victorian toys (changes beyond living memory) is no longer relevant. In the last few years, opportunities for play in Key Stage 1 classrooms have been considerably reduced. Play is now often regulated to Friday afternoons and filling in activities when...

Why is pupil voice important? Children are at the centre of everything we do and safeguarding their well-being and ensuring their progress across the curriculum is a key emphasis for schools. Recognising the importance of pupil voice in this is key. Robin Alexander’s Towards Dialogic Teaching: Rethinking Classroom Talk (2017)...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. The Spring 2008 issue of this magazine, Visual Literacy, highlighted the excellent practice in using visual historical sources that exists in many primary schoolsWe should strive to preserve and extend this critical use of visuals, whatever...

The role-play area is often the most popular feature of a foundation stage classroom. For children, it's a source of great fun; for Early Years teachers, it is a wonderful way to develop pupils' language, communication and social development skills. An effective role-play area can also be instrumental in helping...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. Simon Schama's plea to "reinvent the art and science of storytelling in the classroom" made the media headlines and echoed centuries of educational history (Bage 1999). "It is, after all, the glory of our historical tradition...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated. The class had composed its Anglo-Saxon funeral poem for Raedwald, an Anglo-Saxon king, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A6dwald_of_East_Anglia, the high king or Bretwalda of all seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the early seventh century as well as being King...

Here, in this series of films, the Year 2 teacher, Paula Granger, discusses the challenges they faced, what decisions they made, what worked well and what didn't quite work the way they intended, and how they coped. She also discusses the changes they decided to make for this year in...

Please note: this article was written before the the 2014 National Curriculum and some content is now outdated. All teachers working within the foundation stage will, at some time, be using nursery rhymes in their classrooms. Their importance to early language development has long been acknowledged, particularly the way in which they contribute to...

Please note: this article pre-dates the current National Curriculum and some content and links may be outdated. For more current and recent articles see Using stories to support history in the EYFS and Time for a story. In this article we argue that children in the Foundation Stage should be introduced to history as historical...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated. History is a subject whose meaning is properly appreciated only in our maturity. In their old age we find those we consider wisest turning to Gibbon, Burckhardt, and Thucydides. The richness and endlessly elaborated meaning of...

Recognising that most schools deliver history as separate units that are then divided into themes,  Nick Mackintosh argues that this means a lack of a narrative thread, which can result in children struggling to analyse it effectively. A thematic history curriculum is much better at developing children’s understanding of chronology,...

This resource pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum 2012 has been an incredibly rich time for young children to gain an understanding of their place in history and also that history is something they are part of and can influence. The use of technology to support this learning has been invaluable. ICT has...

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum. Developments in information technology continue at an extraordinary pace. Many young children will have little or no idea of what it was like to live in a world without mobile phones, computers and the Internet. Most children will regularly make use...

Teachers and schools should surely be forgiven for quickly turning to the pages containing the ‘subject content' - within the new 2014 history curriculum - and finding out ‘what' they should be teaching. This is especially true for Key Stage 2 where children must now learn British history from the...

Using ‘Development Matters' to plan learning for history in the Foundation stage You won't find the term history in the Early Years curriculum framework at all. That being so, it can be difficult to know how best to support our Nursery and Reception colleagues when developing historical understanding within the...

In the children’s picture book Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, Wilfrid is a small boy who meets Miss Nancy, an old lady who has lost her memory. Wilfrid wants to help, and so he carefully fills a basket with special objects and takes them to her. He places a medal in...